A butterfly, a dragonfly and a Pieter B.

The past week has brought us a few lovely visitors to our garden. With the yard in full summer bloom, apparently we've been placed on the insect garden tour. Care to join us? 

Let me start out by telling you that we stopped using obnoxious chemicals five or six years ago, after we discovered that one of our dogs was slowly being poisoned. Once we stopped, he grew healthy again. Unfortunately for our neighbors, our "grass" consists of many kinds of grasses, some desirable and some not, as well as a variety of "weeds". Our outlook is if it's green, it can stay. 

That seems to have been an open invitation to many kinds of butterflies and birds. 

The butterfly bush (buddleia) is aptly named. Hang around it for a while and you'll see why. 

Here is the swallowtail butterfly.

 We caught the dragonfly busy at work.

The Pieter B. rose is a rose named after my special guy. When it was in the test phase, the rose grower asked him to use it and eventually to name it. He couldn't decide on a name, so we just called it the Pieter B. rose and the name stuck. It starts out as a unique color that I would have to say is caramel with rosy pink on the underside edges. It opens with a slight wave to the petals, which gradually lighten and grow until you have a pale cream rose that you would swear it could never have been any darker. These are in front of Pieter's studio; the bush's third round of flowers this summer.

This Oriental lily is an old-fashioned variety with its petals that "recurve" naturally- that is to say, they curve back instead of remaining fairly straight. 

The lilies received a special visitor who is challenging to photograph. Look closely. Do you see it?

Here is the hummingbird.
 

 Does anyone know what eats mosquitoes? I'd like to reduce that population!

Thank you, Cindy, at My Romantic Home, for Show & Tell Friday.

Thank you, Jessica, at A Few of My Favorite Things, for Favorite Things Friday.