Purple Columbine Umbrella!

It's been raining for days. When it finally stopped, I went out into the yard with my camera.

These purple columbine are growing at the edge of the butterfly garden that abuts the southern side of our house. The green monarda behind them are growing tall, but are not in bloom yet. I've hung a hummingbird feeder nearby, but have only caught a few glimpses of the tiny birds so far this season.

I've seen some fallen petals that whisper to me a sad truth: the end of the columbine season may be near. Oh no! I've been loving them fiercely, photographing them every chance I get. The shapes, the colors. *happy sigh*

I only noticed after taking this picture that a tiny insect is sitting just above the yellow stamens on the middle flower (look just below that big water droplet), using the open columbine bloom as an umbrella! That's one smart bug!


P.S. If you took photos on May 15, you might consider submitting them to the "A Day" project. You can view this photo as well as several other flowers from my yard in the photo set I submitted for the project.