This painted lady butterfly (Vanessa Cardui) born too late to migrate south, so she decide to live in my house! She is been here more than a week. I’m feeding here water and organic honey, she love it!
~(Toxic, 2WEI version yes the version matters this one has a very different vibe than the original)
Experimenting with different coloring and lighting techniques. It’s not perfect, but I had fun with it. (I didn’t add my “after dark” label because they’re both fully clothed, but if anyone wants me to tag that just let me know!)
Eastern hemlock (Tsuga Canadensis) is sometimes referred to as the “redwood of the east”, and once-upon-a-time, this was absolutely the case; great expanses of virgin hemlock forest cooled headwater streams and created their own unique ecology. But these old growth forests are largely gone now, with only a few remnant stands scattered along the Appalachian spine. A spring hike through a pristine stand of these gentle giants is an experience to be treasured, providing a rare connection to a primeval world nearly lost to us.
From top: Painted trillium (Trillium undulatum), a lover of old hemlock and spruce forests and the most beautiful and delicate of all the trilliums to bloom in this area; marsh blue violet (Viola cucullata), a moisture-loving violet with club-like hairs at the throat of its flower; heartleaf foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia), which clumps gorgeously at the edges of seeps and brooks; halberd-leaved yellow violet (Viola hastata), an Appalachian endemic with sword-like leaves; and a red eft (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens) on a perilous journey in search of a pond environment, where it will eventually transform into an adult newt.
