And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden (and celebrating my fourth blogoversary)

It's that time of year again when the Frederick Meijer Garden has its "Butterflies are Blooming" program. The butterflies aren't easy to photograph so I usually see it as a chance to take pictures of flowers. This year was a nice surprise for me in that I got the best butterfly pictures I ever have. Here is the entire set.

This was over by the coat room.


So was this.


We have one that's similar to this. It's really dangerous. Those spikes can puncture skin very easily.


This is one of the pitcher plants. It thought it was cool.


This is just the beginning of the many orchids.




They also have some springtime plants.






I liked this fountain.


This devil's tongue plant was really interesting.


They're huge.




If you look at this on Flickr in the large size you can see the detail.


More orchids.


This one has a face.






The birds are constantly on the move, so the picture's slightly blurred.


If you look at this one in the large size you can see the brightly colored birds at the feeding dish. One of these days I'm going to get a camera that does better with zoom.


Another butterfly that has good detail.


This one worked fairly well, too.


Golden shrimp plant to the left in this one.


This is the very best butterfly picture I've ever taken. I'm proud of this one.


I just realized, as I looked at the date on this post, that this is my fourth blogoversary. How appropriate that I'd be posting pictures of flowers.

Birthday trip

I finally uploaded all of my pictures so I have no excuse to put off posting any more.

Last week Monday was my birthday. I love the flowers at the Frederick Meijer Garden, though I only usually go in March when the butterfly show is going. But there are still lots of orchids and now there are outside flowers, too.

So, here are some pictures from the day. If you want to see the whole set you may go here

It always starts in the desert house.


Then there was this cool flower.


I love the pitcher plants.


Of course, here are the orchids. Remember, you can click on any of these pictures, choose All Sizes, and see them in the larger version.










Then I went outside.





Then, on the way out I decided I needed to photograph this one. There's a guy named Dale Chihuly who makes beautiful glass art. There was a full exhibition there a few years ago. I'm assuming this is a permanent piece now. This one's really worth a peak at the large size.