Today, while training, we had a visit from a butterfly.  What a magical beauty she is!

I visited a local nursery last weekend.  They have bi-annual sales where during those weekends, they have bar-be-ques and drinks, and all their plants are out for easy access and purchase.  I had been eyeing a bat flower for several years, and so this year, I finally bought the only one they had.  It was a $15 plant, but I like Halloween, and think this will fit in nicely with that holiday.  If you look closely, you can see the plant has a bat flower on it.  I found that there are seed pods in that flower, so I have to keep an eye out for them to drop as it dries out.  The smell is not supposed to be pleasant, so I will pass on sniffing it.  I think it counts on flies to pollinate it.

As far as holidays go, I also like Christmas, and I saw this Jungle Fire plant in red, green, and white and had to have it.  These plants were beyond the perimeter of the sale, and I went under the “caution tape” to fish it out.  Ten dollars.  Three other women saw it in my basket, and followed suit and bought some, too.

Then there is this.  I planted these two podicarpus plants together a year ago.  The one on the right is a bunch of dead sticks now, while the one on the left is thriving.  What gives?  How can two similar plants, side-by-side, end up in such different states?

This sort of thing happens often at my house because I live near the highway, I guess.  But here’s another helicopter scoping something out.  It gets a little annoying because I wonder if they are ever peeping into my backyard with their high-powered lenses.  It isn’t a warm and fuzzy feeling having them hover around.

This is a Turkey Vulture, and they circle my neighborhood everyday.  I feel more content with them up there in the skies of blue than the helicopters.

While I was entering the highway, I saw my crows.  They fly over my house back and forth everyday.  I don’t know where they hang out during the day or night, but they are just the coolest characters.

Here they are overhead at my house on another day.

They are brilliant feathered friends.