Crossing the line....

So.....when does one cross the line between being a "nature lover" to being ......

"that strange neighbor that lets plants grow in the middle of her front walkway"?

OK.....I'm that strange lady.  But this sunflower was growing so nicely and I see no reason to uproot it until it is done blooming :-)  I made this bee happy.  I'll pull it out when the flower is done.  My neighbors know that I am weird by now anyway.

I'm not much of a gardener any more, but I do have plenty of these Black-eyed-Susan's growing.  Anything that comes up on its own and flourishes without my help is very welcome for color!  The Goldfinches love these flowers, so I just let them grow in profusion.

 I also have some Phlox that comes up every year and this year there is a lot of it in different shades of lavender/pink.

Thursday I went to Hartman Arboretum, where I usually go to chase butterflies at this time of year and their garden looks much better than mine :-)  There weren't too many butterflies, but I did find a few skippers.

I saw a half dozen or more of the Silver Spotted Skippers.

They were posing very nicely for me

We always call it the "white elephant skipper" due to the mark on the wing that looks like an elephant.

The Silver Spotted Skipper again on a prettier flower

Cabbage White female that actually opened up for me!

The Cabbage White female again

The Clear-wing Hummingbird Moth was out and I actually got a few decent photos of it.  It moves so much I have trouble chasing it down and getting a focus.

 Another side shot of the hummingbird moth.

 No butterflies here, but I love these tall hydrangeas!

Another hydrangea.

A couple of nights earlier at the Arboretum they set up a white sheet with lights trained on it to attract moths!  It was an interesting experience.  Will have to try this at home.  This was the neatest one that I got a photo of.  I don't know its name.  I meant to look it up before posting but forgot.  Sorry about the finger in the photo, but there were young kids there and they were very excited about all the moths and bugs :-)