The Missouri Botanical Gardens - Water Lillies

One of my favorite places to visit in St. Louis is the Missouri Botanical Gardens. This year they are celebrating their 150th anniversary. It is the oldest botanical garden in continuous operation in the nation. It was established by Henry Shaw as a public botanical garden from the very beginning.

The reflecting pools hold a collection of signature water lilies. The tropical water lilies and giant Victoria water lilies have been a major garden attraction since the first head gardener, James Gurney, introduced them to St. Louis in 1890. If you interested in learning more you can go to www.mobot.org.

    

Dragonflies love them....

These next two pictures are of the same flower, however, taken at different ISO settings.  The differences in color are really interesting.

ISO 200

                      ISO 80

Can't you just picture a big, fat frog sitting on that lillypad?

Bees are always flying in and out of them....
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And here is my family waiting "patiently" for me, so we can move on.

Meet Me in St. Louis

Hoosier Hoops

We were finally able to get away for a week to visit our daughter's family in St. Louis. One of the highlights of our visits there always is to shoot hoops with our grandson.

His Grandpa wants him to remember that even though he was born in Missouri, he has Hoosier roots and tries to keep him supplied in the proper uniform.

Let's Score One for the HOOSIERS!

Our Blue-Eyed Girl

With her Mommy.....

...Her Grandma ...

....and Her Grandpa

She just turned seven months old and is so fun to watch.

Toes are just as good to suck on as thumbs!

It won't be long till she has that crawling thing figured out.

The Butterfly Bush

About three and one-half years ago on the day of our grandson's baptism, they planted a Butterfly Bush in their yard. While I was outside playing hoops, frisbee and hide-and-go-seek, I was also able to see some of the beautiful visitors that were attacted to that bush.

A Monarch

A Tiger Swallowtail

...and some very, busy Bees.

It was a beautiful week!

Don't Forget Me

This morning it was raining pretty hard. I finally dashed out on my kitchen deck and hung out a couple of feeders. It wasn't long until it looked like an airport with all the take offs and landings.

Most of the time they waited patiently for their turn.

It wasn't too long until a couple of little hummingbirds

were buzzing around the deck. I had neglected to put out

their feeder. So I dashed out once more.

Sometime later, this beautiful Mourning Dove landed on the deck railing. I see these doves frequently feeding on the ground or occasionally on a platform feeder closer to the ground.

Today I think it decided to risk flying up to the deck to check out what was happening; for you see, because of the rain, I hadn't put any food out down below. I had forgotten all about him.

The dove apparently decided it did not want to risk hanging from the feeder

....... and would just wait below for one of the "little guys" to drop some seeds down.

Our Two Japanese Bird Watchers

These are the other two members of our cat family....Ezra and Nehemiah. In the 1990's our youngest daughter spent almost 10 years living in Japan. While she was there she purchased a beautiful Chinchilla Persian cat who she called Genki to keep her company. This is a picture that was taken of the two of them by a friend who was a photographer.

During the last three years of her stay in Japan, she lived in an apartment in Yokohama at an intersection where five major highways came together. One night, above all the noise from the highways, she started hearing some kittens crying.....One in particular was crying very loudly. Sometime later she discovered these two little kittens that had either been lost by their mother or abandoned by someone outside her apartment; and, you guessed it, she took them in.

Ezra & Nehemiah

When she returned to the USA early in the 2000's, of course, her cats came with her, and they all moved to Missouri. Late in 2003 she met the young man of her dreams, the only problem was, he was allergic to cats. By that time Genki had died, but Ezra and Nehemiah needed a new home. So, of course, I said, "You get the guy, and I'll take the cats." And that is how these two Japanese litter mates came to live in Indiana with us when they got married.



They still like to cuddle together when they sleep just like in the picture she originally set to us from Japan. Although they don't look alike, so many of their mannerisms are alike. Ezra, the black and white one, definitely can cry the loudest; while, Nehemiah will talk to you,--particularly if he thinks it is time to eat and you haven't gotten out of bed yet.

They both enjoy birdwatching from our screened-in

porch in the summer. All our cats stay inside,

so they are no threat to the birds.

So here they are.....Ezra with a headache

,,,,,,,,,,,...and Nehemiah just worn out

from watching all those birds,

and trying to keep all those squirrels

out of the feeders. (I wish!)

Fraidy Cat Sees Red

Let me introduce you to Fraidy Cat. She came to live with us this May after my son got married. She had always been a very "one person cat," and until recently hissed at me if I even walked in the same room with her. Needless to say, she did not get along with my son's new family and their cat, so she now has taken up residence in my sewing/computer room.

We have made a lot of progress in the last three months. I can touch her, pet her, play with her and most of the time she is purring. She is happy to see me and my husband, because she thinks we will give her a treat. Initially I felt like I had to "pay the troll" a treat in order to get into the room where I work quite a bit of the time. Now she even jumps up on my lap while I am talking on the telephone.....I must say though, I am still hesitant to try to pick her up.....but I know she loves me and misses my company.

One night I saw a TV show about the different breeds of cats, and they mentioned that cats only see in three colors...RED being one of them, and that is when I realized that Fraidy did indeed see RED. She has become quite a bird watcher, but every so often she gets rather vocal. I usually get up to see what is out there, and most of the time it is a Cardinal. So this post is to share with you Fraidy's special RED friends.

Here is Fraidy curled up on her perch by the window.

And this is how the birds see her from outside.

Early on, the Cardinals seemed to prefer to eat on the ground,
and usually in the early morning or towards dark......not the
best time of day to get a good picture.

After a while they got brave enough to come throughout the day to the platform feeder.



And also to a smaller feeder.

Here they look like they look like they both had been
to the hairdresser and had new "hairdos."

When they are really hungry, they can come to the kitchen deck, but that doesn't happen too often. I guess I must have been late putting out the feeders that morning. He has kind of a worried look in his eye.

Here are a couple of other favorites from this past Spring