July 2017 Recap

Birthdays, Rainy Summer Days, Bill's Tomatoes, Butterflies, Flowers and a  Cloud Painted Ceiling 


Celebrating Our Granddaughter's Birthday...
In early July, we celebrated Grace's tenth birthday in Crystal River at Charlie's Fish House.  She is now in the double digits, and it just doesn't seem possible!  We had a wonderful meal and the waitresses even sang "Happy Birthday" to Grace as they were bringing her some Key Lime pie! She was thrilled! Grace and Brian, Jr. were so excited to see tarpon swimming in the river from the restaurant's deck. It's amazing how huge the tarpon get! Grace is a very smart young lady! She is looking forward to 5th grade! Grace plays soccer and received a trophy for being "the most improved" on her team this year!  We are very proud of her! She also loves the Florida Gators! What a fun time we had!

Rainy summer days...

June and July  brought a lot of rain to Gainesville.  Our pond had completely dried up prior to June, and we were officially in a drought.  In fact, June 2017 was the rainiest month on record in Gainesville! Our pond now has water, and the frogs and crickets are making their way back! Haven't seen any gators...yet!

Bill's Tomatoes...

My husband, Bill, has been raising tomatoes this summer. It has been really nice to step outside and pick vine-ripened tomatoes!  They are so delicious and are much better than the ones at the grocery store! One of my favorites ways to eat tomatoes is to have a tomato sandwich.  So good!!

July's Butterflies and Blossoms...

Cassius Blue on Tropical Salvia - These tiny butterflies usually keep their wings closed, so it's always a treat to see the beautiful blue color on their open wings!  They are one of my favorites! Plumbago is one of the host plants for this beautiful butterfly. 

The exotic Passion Flower Vine is the host plant for the beautiful orange Gulf Fritillary as well as the Zebra Longwing. The Zebra Longwing is the state butterfly for Florida! 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - Last week, I discovered this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail puddling for several minutes, and it didn't seem to mind my camera or me being so close by! Puddling is when a butterfly drinks water and/or extracts salt and minerals from mud puddles with taste receptors on their feet. It is usually the male butterflies that take part in puddling. 

Lady Bugs - I'm always happy to see Lady Bugs in the garden!  They eat the aphids on the milkweed and there have been a lot of aphids this summer!

Flowers in the garden - Red and White Mandevilla, Tropical Salvia and Coral Nymph Salvia, Shrimp Plant and White Perwinkle

Lunch with my sister...

My sister and I had lunch recently at Pomodoro Cafe. One of my favorite things about this restaurant (along with their delicious salads and Italian food) is the painted clouds on the ceiling in their main dining room. Isn't it beautiful! 

Thanks for reading! Hope you have a great August!

Take care,

Bobbie 

June 2017 Recap

Family time with our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren and our daughter and son-in-law and their puppy...

The month of June 2017 started off celebrating our grandson's birthday! Can't believe Brian is already seven! Time needs to slow down! Not only is Brian a super sweet and thoughtful grandson, he is a Cub Scout, loves swimming, playing with Legos as well as many other interests! We had a delicious meal, family time and lots of fun with Brian, Bertha, Grace and Brian Jr.!  We enjoyed our afternoon so much! 

Beth and Cory planned a trip to Key West the week of Father's Day, and we were so excited that they would be spending a few days with us along with their schnoodle, Louie! We celebrated Father's Day and Beth's birthday during their stay. It was so wonderful having them with us! 

Louie stayed with us while Cory and Beth were in the Keys. He is such a good grandpup and is so sweet! We enjoyed spoiling him and getting lots of sweet cuddles! 

Fun times at Northwest Grille!

A few pictures celebrating Beth's birthday...

Cory and Beth also celebrated three years of marriage on June 28th! Captured these sweet pictures of them when they were visiting.

And on a sad note...we had to say good-bye to our sweet and precious Bentley on June 5th. Bentley, a standard Schnauzer, was our grandpup. Beth rescued him from an animal shelter in West Palm Beach. Bentley came to stay at our house for a few weeks one summer, and we decided we didn't want him to leave! Bentley was the most wonderful pet! He brought us so much joy and added sunshine to each day! So thankful that Beth shared him with us and for all the wonderful memories of our beloved Bentley! 

Remember to stop and enjoy the moment! Hope you're having a great week!

Bobbie

Sistertime!

My sister, Ella, is my only sibling.  We are 19 months apart in age...she being the oldest. She lives just a few minutes from me, and we enjoy spending time together whenever we can. Last week, we went to Melrose, FL and had lunch.  Afterwards, we rode about Melrose.  It was a beautiful Florida day!

Growing up, Melrose was one of those communities we quickly passed through on the way to the beach. We rarely stopped unless it was to pick up something we had forgotten to bring. 

Melrose feels like "old" Florida! There are beautiful historic homes and buildings, sparkling lakes, palm trees, citrus trees still covered in fruit and moss covered oak trees. What a fun and relaxing afternoon my sister and I had visiting this charming community!

The historical Melrose Woman's Club is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Such a beautiful and inviting entrance!

This looks like the perfect place to relax and unwind after a long day!

We saw several horses, but this one was our favorite! 

So pretty and sweet and even posed for a picture!

Buddies!

Beautiful and serene

There was someone swimming in the middle of this lake when I took this picture!!

Hopefully, he saw this sign!

So thankful for my sweet sister!  It was a great afternoon!

In butterfly news...I found this Monarch chrysalis on Tropical Salvia in my backyard!

Will hopefully see a Monarch butterfly in ten to fourteen days!

Hope your week is going well!  Can you believe this is the last full week of April!

xoxo,

Bobbie

Welcome to my blog!

I enjoy following other people's blogs so much, I decided to have my own blog to share a few pictures of all the things I love!

Spring has certainly arrived, and there have been a lot of butterflies fluttering around my yard. Did you know that butterflies were originally called flutterbys?

Butterflies are so much fun to photo! They can also be quite challenging! Just when you are ready to snap the perfect picture they take off! Sometimes, if you don't move, they will come back to the same spot. Patience is key!

Showcasing some of the butterflies that have been visiting my yard recently...

Palamedes Swallowtail on plumbago enjoying the warm sunshine.

Giant Swallowtail on pentas. These butterflies are the largest of all the butterflies in Florida!

Another beautiful butterfly that has made its appearance is the Spicebush Swallowtail. Love the blue color on this butterfly!

What a thrill is was to see my first monarch of the 2017 season on March 26th! So happy to have them back! If you want monarchs in your garden, plant milkweed. It is very important that the milkweed not be sprayed with any insecticide. It's so interesting to observe the four stages (the egg, the caterpillar, the chrysalis and finally the adult butterfly) that monarch butterflies go through, and I highly recommend it!

Recently, I purchased a blue passion flower vine and it has had its first flower! The flowers are only open for a day, but what an unusual and beautiful flower it is! This is a host plant for several butterflies including zebra longwings and gulf fritillaries.

I am going to end my first blog post with a Northern Parula that stopped by our bird bath recently. This tiny warbler is a migratory bird that winters in Florida. They will soon be leaving our area and heading north. So glad it came by for a visit!

Hope the rest of your week is wonderful! Remember to stop and smell the roses!

xoxo,

Bobbie