I didn't go over there to photograph butterflies ... but, I had camera in hand, and the butterfly was right there ... I had to do it.
My neighbor had told me that one of his plants was infested with yellow aphids. Since I had never seen or heard of yellow aphids, I HAD to see this for myself. Sure enough ... yellow aphids. A quick Google search found that these are called Oleander Aphids, and they are a pest of milkweed ... which was what they were infesting in the winery garden. This truly proves that we CAN learn something new every day, if we are just open to it.
Icky aphid photo.
In my own garden, I found a perfect flower on Blossomtime rising above the weeds that still choke that area of the Rose Field.
I was back in that portion of the garden to FINALLY install blue wine bottles on my bottle trees that flank the entry to the Austin Garden. I have never shown these to you, because they didn't have any bottles on them, because I hadn't removed the labels from the bottles I have been collecting for the past two years. A couple of hours of work over the past few days, and I cleaned up my 40 bottles and I arranged them onto the welded rebar structures. I still need more bottles, but at least I have enough now to look pretty respectable.
The sky over toward the vineyard looked for a while like we were going to have a storm, but we didn't. Though it never came, it sure made for a pretty picture.
With my outside work taken care of, it was time to go grocery shopping ... but I made a trip to the thrift store first. This fantastic little solid wood two-drawer chest was too good to pass up.
While I was grocery shopping, I saw this display of t-shirts in the Halloween department.
Back at home, I was putting away groceries while Dorothy slept on the church pew in our dining room. At least it LOOKED like she was asleep, curled up there on the baby quilt. Looking closer, I realized that she was playing 'possum and one of her eyes was wide open.
We have an hour and a half to get the final preparations in place for today's art event. Let's hope that lots of artists, and art lovers, come today to support canine cancer research. Speaking of canine cancer, I heard from my friend Kim that her dog TJ went for his quarterly chest x-ray on Thursday. (TJ is 16 months post amputation for osteosarcoma.) One of the most common places for osteosarcoma to metastisize is to the lungs. His lungs are clear, his attitude is great, and he will be here today to greet our guests.
I'd better hush and go get things ready.
