by Kathy Garvey
On my third day at my month long retreat at Furnace Mountain
Zen Center, after a heavy thunderstorm (that also zapped my car), I found a
beautiful little butterfly drowned in a mud puddle. I pulled it out, dried it
off and then photographed and sketched it.
I had never seen a butterfly like
this one and went on-line to discover its actual name is "red spotted purple."
(Someone must have run out of imaginative names.)
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| Red Spotted Purple - Under wing has all the red! |
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| Red Spotted Purple - Upper wing is a shimmery blue! |
He was the first I found on my walks, but not the last. The abundant plants including milkweed and mountain laurel attracted
many butterflies…among them tiger, zebra and spice bush swallowtails,
fritillaries and monarchs.
I like to experiment with Photoshop. So, even though I have plenty of unmodified photos of butterflies that I am happy to share, here are a few of my "photoshopped" butterfly images from the trip. (Click on any image to enlarge it.)
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| Spice Bush Swallowtail on Milkweed |
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| Fritillary (I don't know which kind) on Wild Hydrangea |
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| Tiger Swallowtail and Spice Bush Swallowtail on Milkweed |
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| Zebra Swallowtail on Clover |
Kathy Garvey
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