How I was engulfed in happiness while I fritillaried away my time
This handsome butterfly is a gulf fritillary, Agraulis vanillae, that I found frequenting some Maximilian sunflowers, Helianthus maximiliani, on October 1 at the intersection of Greenlawn Blvd. and Interstate 35 in Round Rock just north of the border with Austin.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Hmmm….there’s a word for this…ah, perfection. 🙂 A flower, a bud and a pristine butterfly. Couldn’t ask for much more.
Steve Gingold
October 9, 2015 at 4:52 AM
I was glad to be able to include a bud, something that’s often easy to do with Maximilian sunflowers. As for pristine, the rays of the sunflower weren’t, thanks to the depredation of some insect (perhaps a cucumber beetle).
Your last sentence reminded me of the refrain of the Gershwins’ song “I Got Rhythm,” with its questioning refrain “Who could ask for anything more?”
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 6:06 AM
Made for each other.
Gallivanta
October 9, 2015 at 5:48 AM
From what I’ve read, biologists like to talk about co-evolution of species.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 6:08 AM
Thank you for increasing my vocabulary, Steve. I googled fritillaried to see if it was an actual word and I came across a few poems which used it. One by W. R. Rodgers was quite lovely. Here is a little part of it:
“But only inkling streams and running fronds,
Fritillaried with dreams, weedy with wishes;
Nor arrogant talk is heard, haggling phrase,
But undertones, and hesitance, and haze.”
Anyway, a clever play on words for a beautiful image, indeed. 🙂
Jane
October 9, 2015 at 6:32 AM
You did my homework for me, Jane. I was just engaging in my usual sort of wordplay (fritter away ~ fritillary away). English is quite loose in letting one part of speech function as another, but I never imagined someone else would have used fritillary as a verb. I checked a bunch of dictionaries just now and found that none of them give a use of the word as a verb. I agree with you that the stanza you found is lovely. And what a great alliterative phrase: “weedy with wishes.” Thanks for the find.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 6:44 AM
I see that W.R. Rodgers was an Irish poet who lived from 1909–1969. For readers who would like the full poem, it’s available at:
http://lincbyline.blogspot.com/2009/09/w-r-rodgers-poem-for-month-of-september.html
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 7:05 AM
Thank you, Steve. I was going to share a link with you but often people who add links to their comments on my blog end up in the spam folder accidentally so I thought it may happen to mine. 🙂
Jane
October 9, 2015 at 7:08 AM
And here’s a brief account of his life, which I see ended in Los Angeles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._R._Rodgers
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 8:05 AM
Nice color combination. And I like how some wing ribs end in a dark spot, those toward the outer parts.
Jim in IA
October 9, 2015 at 7:07 AM
When it comes to the color combination, we can say that orange and yellow delight a fellow—and you’re that fellow.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 7:19 AM
Lovely juxtaposition of nature’s bounty…
lensandpensbysally
October 9, 2015 at 9:03 AM
This juxtaposition was better than just a position.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 1:57 PM
Engulfed in gorgeousness
Julie@frogpondfarm
October 9, 2015 at 2:09 PM
That sounds like a good thing to be engulfed in.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 2:25 PM
Knockout combinations, title and photo both!
Susan Scheid
October 9, 2015 at 2:18 PM
Thanks for appreciating both, Susan.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 2:26 PM
How I love these!
Maria F.
October 9, 2015 at 3:17 PM
It’s a great combination, isn’t it?
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 4:14 PM
While I was looking for information about the Gulf fritillary’s range, I learned that one of the things adults like to feed on are composites, and the Maximilian sunflower certainly qualifies in that regard. I really like the way the bracts encircling the bud and the lines on the butterfly’s wings echo one another.
Speaking of being engulfed in happiness, I certainly was today, when I heard and then saw some early autumn geese. They were flying high, in a big, asymmetrical V, headed southwest, and they were just as clear as your photo. It seems my distance vision is doing just fine.
shoreacres
October 9, 2015 at 8:42 PM
How perceptive of you to note the harmony between the curves of the bud bracts and the lines on the butterfly’s wings.
Happy far-vision happiness exemplified in the clear V for victory you saw in the high-flying geese.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 9:00 PM
A stunning capture, colourful and happy😀
Inger
October 9, 2015 at 10:02 PM
I’m happy to send this colorful and happy (and warm) picture to you up north in the land of cold.
Steve Schwartzman
October 9, 2015 at 10:15 PM
Oh Steve it’s stunning!
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
October 10, 2015 at 9:22 AM
The gulf fritillary is one of our prettiest butterflies, and at this time of year the Maximilian sunflowers are among our most prominent wildflowers.
Steve Schwartzman
October 10, 2015 at 9:26 AM
Many UK native fritillaries are endangered now. Mostly habit loss! I did manage to see a silver washed fritillary this year but not the rare heathland species. The gulf has such a rich tone and beautiful shaping 🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
October 10, 2015 at 9:37 AM
I’m sorry to hear about your endangered fritillaries. I wasn’t familiar with the two species you mentioned, so I looked them up. They remind me more of the variegated fritillary that we have here than of the gulf fritillary:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2014/09/18/doing-our-respective-things/
Steve Schwartzman
October 10, 2015 at 9:43 AM
Oh yes, much more like our species here! I don’t think we have any in the same genus as the gulf. I would never have guessed at fritillary if you’d not named it. Actually reminds me of some of the South American longwings!
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
October 10, 2015 at 9:57 AM
It’s not clear to me what makes a fritillary a fritillary, given that various genera bear that common name.
Steve Schwartzman
October 10, 2015 at 10:00 AM
Especially when some Lepidoptera get reclassified without much explanation!
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
October 10, 2015 at 11:19 AM
Yep, reclassification is a fact of life in biology.
Steve Schwartzman
October 10, 2015 at 11:52 AM
Change is constant 😉
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
October 10, 2015 at 5:49 PM
That’s a pithy, true, and yet self-contradictory statement.
Steve Schwartzman
October 10, 2015 at 6:22 PM
I find it quite liberating 🙂
Sarah Longes - Mirador Design
October 11, 2015 at 5:12 AM
Then here’s to freedom.
Steve Schwartzman
October 11, 2015 at 7:08 AM
Ha! Are we on the same wavelength? As if I hadn’t shared enough of my photos with you already, here’s mine, directly underneath the hummingbird feeder, for which I was camped with the camera a couple of weeks back. https://dirtnkids.smugmug.com/House-Nature/i-n9579h3/A
The ventral side of the GF is more striking, I think, but they rarely pose for me that way. Do you have any in your catalog? Perhaps I should try a site search…
Shannon
October 10, 2015 at 2:40 PM
That is a coincidence. It looks like your fritillary is near some blackfoot daisies (and perhaps some mealy blue sage farther back).
I see you’ve already found the ventral view of a GF, and I can appreciate why you prefer it to the dorsal view. I like both (as you probably do too).
Steve Schwartzman
October 10, 2015 at 6:20 PM
Daisies are right, but salvia is the blue in the background. I used that same photograph with a favorite quote in a post today.
I saw the most stunning photo recently of a question mark with the lavender glistening around the wings. Wish I could find it now…
Shannon
October 10, 2015 at 9:00 PM
Mealy blue sage is Salvia farinacea, so I was in the ballpark.
Yes, I saw the picture in the current post (and just left a comment).
Steve Schwartzman
October 10, 2015 at 9:10 PM
Brilliant coloring, gorgeously bold: no wonder you were bedazzled.
kathryningrid
October 18, 2015 at 9:33 PM
I like the way you put it: gorgeously bold.
Steve Schwartzman
October 18, 2015 at 10:50 PM