so blue

very pretty here

Those are some beautiful images!

Again, Mary, superb images, accompanied by apt commentary.

Beautiful pictures Mary. Simply gorgeous.

...in the beginning they all look the same, as people...but each has their own unique purpose in life. You, Mary, like the insects you so aptly photograph, are an amazing human being...bringing to our eyes, things which we might miss in this hectic, crazy life. Guyana.

I love that I know when the butterflies are out where you are, and that you let me walk the fields with you. :)

A great post! Fantastic pictures!! C):-)

these are magnificient! I have never seen a blue butterfly before. We did buy butterfly nectar this year to attract more to the garden as we have a magnificient bund behind the pool. Do you have any special tricks for attracting? These photos are glorious!

Wow! Ditto my dear friend Anne's comments and question!

Mary, simple beauty. You really reflect it well.

thank-you Lora, Sara McSib, Magi, Laurun K, elizabeth e, lydia o, dan tomkins, Dan V, Anne B Grote and Jared G

the motherboard is acting like a certain recalicitrant presicent and so I have named the computer GW as it took over 8hours yesterday to boot and a goodly three today. I never know when the system will freeze and I will have to hit the power button. so forgive me because doing anything right not is nigh impossible with a bad motherboard.

Dan V -- love the hat

and hallo Madame Donna C-- how's the cooking lately. yum-yum

Always cookin' Mary. I catered a dinner last night, taking the day off today.

I think I can appreciate why-- it's time for someone else to lay out the feast for you and let you sit about with your feet up and enjoy yourself.

Thanks, Mary.

Nicely done Mary. I love the images you post as there are some that capture fine points that one would not see without your eye. The last shot in this essay is a fine example.

no poblem, sorry no blueberry pie over here to send you. just the regular topfen strudel from whey.

thank-you chris who has space to rent-- and if I did that to my name the gather gods would give me 24hour notice to leave.

amazing how political this place is

I heard kicking GW in the ass helps sometimes....then of course you could always pound on him a bit...GW doesn't mind getting kicked around, he says it's all in the job description...and besides, according to him, "he's winning the war on Terrorism..." no wonder your having trouble booting him up...images of butterflies are just what those pansy bluenecks like...and why would he ever play court to them.

I read your comment on the Monica thread about the unfairness of Gather's points. I think you deserve a few more points (and the pictures are really lovely), so I just stop by to post: "Thanks for sharing"!

That way you receive a few additional points ...

Cheers
Hajo

Hajo--

thanks for sharing

Monica's post is an insult to me. For putting a memoir up, I was flagged. For putting up a goal and writing about my personal hardship I got flagged and given the 24hour ultimatum, but trolls abound on Gather and they are never threatened and Gather Inc makes little or no effort to control them.

But my points have been frozen for months on end and any link that I might insert whether internal or external gets blocked. Gather is very political and it promotes those who are brainless and ooze mush, but it harasses those who have the courage and ethics to criticize plagiarism and its arbitrary enforcement and constant revisions of TOS.

Monica can send about emails and messages openly soliciting, but all I did was write aobut the hardship tht I faced and got flagged.

It's Gather. Go to the front page and much of the "content' is nothing but cutnpaste, 80perrcent is just empty and Gather only promotes what lies in its own advertising interests.

Overall, the points are a joke and Moniica Kennedy is the first who should know that, but she is too busy gushing over Gather to see that Gather itself is listed on Preditors and Editors. She omitted that nice little factoid.

As for me, my images and articles have consistently been hit with db's so that my pictures have never landed or made it to the top 50, but I many of the pictures listed here have photo awards.

and the "editorship" of Gather Inc is a joke.

I looked at the Preditors&Editors site. They list the "First Chapters" contest in their Writing Contests page, but usually they add a "not recommended" when they see something fishy, and they don't do that for Gather.
So unless I miss something, I don't think it is fair to say "Gather is listed", in the sense of: P&E raises objections against Gather.
Or was I looking at the wrong place?

???

???

if it is listed in P&E that should be warning enough-- and it was listed in serveral writer's forums as a scam as it actually is-- it's a joke, but the contest exploiting D Pearl is even worse. I didn't note when you entered gather, but there's a lot of fish about the place.

You need to look for a group called GNN and start digging through some of their articles-- I know there are games, but there is also vey honest criticism and many of these people were early members of gather when it was publicized as a new writer's site for quality writing with payment for quality content--


and that's why I came here, but I learned very quickly what goes.


some folks


Sandy Knauer, webwriter

I don't keep up with them, but many of them posted very well-written regarding Gather and it's bs, politics, harassment, etc

those are some wonderful captures!
I loved the blue one especially!
thanks for sharing.

actually, they're all blues-- evey single one of them-- thanks for the comment

Your shots are exquisite, Mary. If you answered Anne's question regarding any tips on attracting the butterflies to your garden, I missed it. I would love to attract some beauties into my garden.

I'm sorry-- I missed the question and also any tips-- The National Arboreteum in Washington DC has information for creating good butterfly gardens. I have no garden and so I go where butterflies congregate. But I think first would be to find out the listing on your state because they eat different things

and then find the plants associated with them

US National Arboretum
http://www.usna.usda.gov/

butterfly gardening
http://www.thebutterflysite.com/gardening.shtml


U Kentucky Butterfly gardening
http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef006.asp

Clemson U Butterfly Gardening
http://hgic.clemson.edu/factsheets/HGIC1701.htm

butterfly website
http://butterflywebsite.com/butterflygardening.cfm
gives quick list of flies and their plants


U of Minnesota Butterfly Gardening
http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/horticulture/DG6711.html

...when I saw in the news that George W. was in Prague, I had to laugh and say to myself "I wonder what Mary is thinking right now?"

This is awesome, Mary. Sorry about the earlier purple flower mix up.

me-- I don't pay attention to GW except to name the bad motherboard after him. Klaus would be his type of man. Klaus is telling the world that Global warming is fictional-- and that environmental protection is killing his capitalistic dreams.

Unbelievable--but Klaus and GW speak the same language: greed and with about the same amount of ethics, too.

Laura H-- never mind a purple flower could have a bug on it, but I am so much happier with purple flowers than some of the other things Small World has been sent.

I needed a place to put the insects.