My Birches and native Black Cherry provide this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail's caterpillars food to morph and chew. Ash, Willow and Tulip Trees work too. The first instar (caterpillar) look a bit like bird droppings . . . what a clever disguise.
Dwarf Korean Lilac 'Fairytale' shown above and here . . . is fading fast, as the peonies are swelling.
Miss Canada (late blooming) Lilac delights many visitors.
Looking over towards another late blooming Lilac and Beauty Bush. Here 'Miss Canada' looks like cotton candy.
Simply delicious to Tiger Swallowtail . . . minus part of it's tail!! Those Catbirds!!
Hummingbird Hawk-moth enjoys the nectar too. . . what a lovely little creature. If you want them . . . let some Galium or (Ladies' straw) grow in your garden, for it is the caterpillar's host plant.
Yummy says the Ruby-throated Hummingbird!
Oh Joy!
Rosa Rugosa
This shrub's rosehips will later feed the Cardinals. For now it's luscious fragrance fills the garden air and feeds my soul.
Another Rosa Rugosa stands just around the corner from the first one shown above. What a lovely place to Bee. What a fabulous time of year to be right here! Such magic and beauty cannot exist in war torn lands. I grieve for so many lost, while in the prime of their lives, men and women and young children blown to bits or who have lost limbs or hope to relics of war. To lives of soldiers and civilians torn apart, whose minds and hearts are aching, I so wish they had never been taken from their families. I so long for an evolution of mind and heart in our world and do truly believe that war is not the only way . . . in many cases not the right way . . . to make our world safer. Not to be naive or to think it would always work . . . I support Greg Mortensons's 'Three Cups of Tea' approach. In memory and honor of all victims of war, I stand with those who wish to stop senseless wars. I wish for honesty and integrity in our leaders the world over. I wish for Peace and Beauty for all.