Butterflies and moths …..Cheyenne Botanic Gardens… photos by Karen Cotton, copyright

We had hundreds of painted lady butterflies and other butterflies in Cheyenne, Wyoming recently. Today, however it was thirty degrees Farenheit and snowing outside, so I’m not sure if they made it 😦 Here are some pictures that I took last week at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens.

If you know the names of the brown and white butterfly/moth let me know in the comments below.

Thanks Karen 🙂

The orange and black butterflies are identified as painted ladies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Painted_Lady

The yellow moth/butterfly is a Clouded Sulphur:  http://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Clouded-Sulphur

This is a great website to identify butterflies: http://www.gardenswithwings.com/identify-butterflies.html

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A bit of snow

 April 15th, 2012

by Karen Cotton

When I woke up this morning there wasn’t any snow on the ground. I was bummed and relieved at the same time. We really needed the moisture, but my tulips are still alive and well.

Around 1 p.m. today I was excited because the clouds  started spitting large snowflakes, my dog loved it, but nothing stuck to the ground.

The clouds were beautiful, though. I’m glad to have our spacious Wyoming skies. I don’t think I’d like it very much if I lived in a big city.

welcome to spring in Wyoming

By Karen Cotton

Around 11 a.m. yesterday I was pleasantly surprised by my annual visit from the cedar waxwings.

They were having a berry feast in the tree outside of my living room window. Yet, a visit from the migrating waxwings only means one thing. There’s a storm headed our way because they’re filling up their bellies to get ahead of it.

Spring in Wyoming is as unpredictable as the groundhog’s shadow on Groundhog’s Day. All of the weather stations said it was going to snow yesterday in Cheyenne, but it just rained a skiff here and there.

The moisture from rain is great, especially for the tulips in my flowerbed, the grass that’s greening up and the trees that are budding out. A hard freeze could have a much different outcome, I’m afraid, which is why I picked my prize tulip yesterday morning.

In the wee morning hours I’ve been contemplating about cutting all of my tulips and making them into a large arrangement for my table because you can’t trust the weather in Wyoming. Nah, it’s 40 degrees outside, hopefully they’re tough.

It’s 12:25 a.m. right now, my daughter is asleep in her crib and my husband is snoring in our bedroom as I write and lounge in our nursery recliner. I found all of these reliable weather media outlets on the Internet that are saying the same thing: A winter storm advisory is in effect

Weather Central: http://www.weathercentral.com/weather/us/cities/wy_cheyenne.html

The Weather Channel: http://www.weather.com/weather/today/82001:4:US

Accuweather: http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/cheyenne-wy/82001/weather-forecast/331604

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/wyoming/weather-radar?play=true

So, we’ll see what happens when I wake up around 9 a.m., or earlier depending on the baby girl.

I’ll be posting pictures on Life is as Sweet as Cotton Candy 🙂

Thanks for reading my first post …have a blessed Sunday.

Karen

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