Macro Monday - {Tampa Photographer}

It's amazing how much there is to photograph just outside my front door.  We've got penta plants which bees and Monarch butterflies love to feed from the flowers and milkweed on which the butterflies lay their eggs.  The caterpillars eat the leaves until they are full grown and turn into butterflies.  It's great to see the whole cycle right outside the door!  While we've had a number of Monarchs cocoon around our house, we've never had two right next to each other.  Last week, about 2 hours before dawn you could see that the one to the left was very dark at least that's how it looked from the ground.  As history would indicate, it would likely emerge before or around sunrise.  I pulled out the ladder as my trusty step stool wasn't going to get my 5'2" self up high enough for this job.  In between the kids getting ready for school and me getting ready for the day I kept popping my head outside.  I was so excited about the possibility of seeing the Monarch actually emerging as this is an event that has escaped me, but knew it would only take a minute and I could miss in between my morning tasks.  I grabbed some shots of the cocoon up close and was stunned to see that it wasn't just dark, the cocoon was actually see through at this point and the dark is actually the butterfly! You could see the orange on its wings all curled up into this incredibly small space! That paired with the site of a newer, still green cocoon within inches was just so amazing!  I am a nature geek, I know.   I had hoped till this little guy waited till the sun came up before coming out so the light would be more beautiful and well, it complied!  After all the demands of my morning were met, I parked myself on the ladder and waited, and waited and then I noticed what seemed to be a slight break at the bottom of the cocoon.  Within seconds, the crack opened more and the butterfly pushed it's way out, head first, then slowly opening its wings!  It moved around till it found the right spot to wait while its wings dried and it was able to take flight.   There are a lot of shots, but I just couldn't narrow them down any further and still show the process.  I hope you enjoy!

 This little guy was making his way up the same wall!

Macro Monday - {Tampa Photography}

For this week's Macro Monday, I went into our garden.  We started planting a little early this year because it was such a relatively mild winter.  Granted, we live in Florida, so some would argue winter is always mild!  One of the veggies we are growing is zucchini.  Love zucchini steamed or on the grill.  But I was remembering seeing that you can fry the flowers and that they make delicious eating.  Intrigued by this idea, I researched on-line recipes and what to look for.  I got quite the education.  Turns out there are "male" and "female" flowers. You can eat either, but if you want to get any zucchinis, pick only the males!   For this post, I was interested in the flower details and locating the males and females.  We've not cooked them up yet, but I will definitely share the process and results when we do!  That, and likely more vegetables from the garden in future posts.

Zucchini Flower Bud

New blossoms are the best to pick for cooking/eating.

This is a female zucchini flower.  Although the females are equally as fine for eating, leave them on the plant if you want to have zucchinis as well!

And here is the male zucchini flower.  It's best to pick these for cooking, but you may want to leave one or two to help he females do their part of the process!  Or even go and sprinkle a little pollen from the male onto the female flower before you take them into the kitchen!