floralfriday

Painted Lady

Posted by Ellie

This lovely lady comes to you from a warmer time, in Maine, when I was visiting the home of a friend.  At first I thought it was a butterfly that had got faded in the wash (or the sun) but read an article on it recently and discovered that this is who she is! She is an astonishing creature, as you can read:

 "Professor Jane Hill of the University of York, in England, explains: “The Painted Lady just keeps going, breeding and moving.” Annually, those steps take the whole population from northern Europe to Africa and back again.

“This tiny creature weighing less than a gram [0.04 oz] with a brain the size of a pin head and no opportunity to learn from older, experienced individuals, undertakes an epic intercontinental migration,” states Richard Fox, surveys manager at Butterfly Conservation. This insect was “once thought to be blindly led, at the mercy of the wind, into an evolutionary dead end in the lethal British winter,” Fox adds. Yet this study “has shown Painted Ladies to be sophisticated travellers.”"

For #WingsofButterflies +On the Wings of Butterflies! curated by +Cicely Robin Laing and +Sharon Jeannette (I don't have this theme in the calendar, which is really too bad! – ladies, please can you fill in the information on the +Public Calendar of Daily Photography Themes so I can add it??)
Also for #inpraiseofpollinators ++In Praise of Polllinators by +Dusty Gedge
and for #floralfriday +FloralFriday by the perenially bloomng +Tamara Pruessner 

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Waterside Plants, After Monet

Posted by Ellie
Water Plants after Monet - Botanical Gardens
Water Plants after Monet – Botanical Gardens

I visited wonderful botanical gardens in Maine a couple of years ago, but for some reason never had the time to edit the photographs. This is one that I particularly liked as the tones and colours and softness reminded me of a painting. It brings back memories of balmy, sunny, long summer days, with bees and butterflies flitting among the beautiful flowers.

The year of weekly projects is drawing to a close and I have to say it was not one that worked well for me. I have missed several themes – perhaps because I do not want to be given themes, but prefer to come up with them myself.

Roses in the Vineyard – or Farm Friday Tomorrow! Be There or Be Square!

Posted by Ellie

In album Farming

If you see roses in the vineyards (in Europe at least) don't think that they are just to add a splash of colour. They serve a very useful purpose as they will alert the vineyard owner to the presence of mildew. This attacks the roses first as they are more sensitive to this disease than the vines. This early warning allows the cultivator to prepare a solution of copper sulphate (bouillie bourdelaise in France) to spray the vines to protect them. In Nova Scotia, where I found these at the Habitant Vineyard near us, I doubt that they serve the same useful purpose, but are decorative, I suspect. I stand to be corrected if someone else knows better. 

Get your farming photographs ready for tomorrow everyone! We on the Farm Friday team – myself (+Ellie Kennard), +Steven Kennard  and our own Danish 'Farm Girl' +Sofie Løve Forsberg are already getting our overalls on and getting geared up to share your wonderful images with our great #farmfriday  theme! Don't forget to mention the page ( +Farm Friday) as well as each of the curators and to tag your post with #farmfriday so you will be a part of the farm party we have planned for tomorrow!
#vineyard   #vines   #grapevines   #viticulture  

also serves for #floralfriday +FloralFriday  by +Tamara Pruessner 


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