Wednesday, December 19, 2018

BLOG SHOTS #118

Each month Gardens at Waters East (GAWE)will post a few never before seenphotos of “garden life” called - - BLOG SHOTS.  Here are the photos for this posting.

moments in the garden - - enjoy

 Lake Michigan - seen from The Gardens at Waters East
October

 Storm Clouds
at Middle Walk
August

 Margarette Daisy
July

 Missouri Primrose
June

 Obedient Plant
July

 Peony
June

 Red Poppy
June

 Russian Sage
July

 Clouds - South View
June


 Sedum
July




Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Designplus the special “Golden Principle of Design”used throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010 and May 2, 2011.


NOTE:   All photos use in this posting were taken on the property of Gardens at Waters East
unless otherwise marked.
NOTE:   Since this Blog is meant to be an accurate journal of the gardens;
no photos are “staged”, “arranged”, or ”photo-shopped” in anyway.
What is posted – is what it here.  It is what it is.

Thursday, November 15, 2018

Butterflies 2018 - continue!

The most recent past posting on this Blog showed some photos of butterflies in the gardens here this summer, plus an interesting research article.  If you have not read that article you may want to go back to that posting.  I think you will find the article interesting.
Enjoy more butterfly photos from this summer.





 Butterflies & Bees


 About to land!

 Middle Walk
Gardens at Waters East 


 the shadow





Trust me on this one!  There are four butterflies in this photo.
Can you find them???

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Butterflies 2018 & Research

Many many visiting butterflies this summer at the Gardens at Waters East.  There were days I walked the paths and the butterflies would be all about me. Lots and lots!


At the end of this posting, I included a very interesting article I found on the topic – which came first– butterflies or flowers. Hint – I was surprised!!!









Interesting Article


Rethinking evolution: Butterflies came first, flowers came second
Researchers have unearthed the earliest known fossil evidence of an insect of the butterfly order. It reveals that these animals fluttered about 200 million years ago – even before flowering plants came along.
200 million years ago, butterflies didn't look like this. And flowering plants didn't exist at all.
Imagine a brightly yellow-colored butterfly landing on the back of a Tyrannosaurus rex. Well it may have happened. But, okay, this picture is only partly true.
Indeed, it is true that animals of the order Lepidoptera – including butterflies and moths – co-existed with the dinosaurs.
The latest evidence shows that these flying insects evolved more than 200 to 250 million years ago in the Triassic period. That's also when the first dinosaurs appeared.
That means that moths and butterflies are much older than previously thought.


So, what's wrong with the picture we painted at the start?
Well, back then butterflies were unlikely to have been a brightly yellow. It's thought they were not brightly colored at all. They were a browny-grey, more like a moth than a butterfly of today.
"The colorful butterflies that we think are so beautiful came much later," Bas van de Schootbrugge of Utrecht University, Netherlands, tells DW. "They evolved only after dinosaurs became extinct."
A living representative of a primitive moth. A new study suggests they existed 200 million years ago
But no matter which color the fluttering insects had – the discovery that they are older than previously thought has a major implication.
It challenges the modern scientific theory that flowering plants and the insects that feed on them evolved together.
Butterfly scales reveal the truth
Until recently, scientists believed that moths and butterflies, whose descendants still exist today, came into being 130 million years ago – that's the age of the oldest fossil evidence ever found.
But when Bas van de Schootbrugge and his team had a closer look at a drilled core from northern Germany dating back about 200 million years, they were stunned.
The core contained multiple fossilized wing scales showing characteristics of living moths, with a tubular mouthpart used for sucking and feeding.
"It took us quite a while to realize what these particles actually were," says van de Schootbrugge. It took some dedicated work by his student, Timo van Eldijk, and the support of insect-fossil experts, to solve the puzzle, but it took several years.
Butterfly and moth fossils often remain unrecognized, because they are so rare, says Sonja Wedmann, paleontologist and research associate at the Messel pit near Frankfurt am Main, Germany. 
Wedmann was not involved in the van de Schootbrugge / van Eldijk study. But she explains that because butterfly wings are good at repelling water "they tend to float on a lake instead of sinking to the ground." 
And that's why such particles tend to quickly decompose rather than fossilizing and remaining intact for millennia to come.
"Butterfly fossils are always something extraordinary," Wedmann tells DW.
Moths and butterflies belong to the same animal order. Moths are simply not as colorful
The concept of co-evolution on trial


Until now scientists believed that flowering plants evolved first, and were only then followed by butterflies and moths.
It seems logical. 
But the Dutch group's new interpretation of the research suggests the theory is wrong: they say the feeders came first and the plants came second. It's a revolutionary thought that leads Sonja Wedmann to call the study "really special."
"How flowering plants evolved from seed-producing plants is one of the big mysteries in evolution," says van de Schootbrugge, "and our discovery opens new doors to this mystery."
While flowering plants didn't exist, butterflies and moths probably fed on some non-flowering, seed-producing plants, such as conifers.
Maybe – and van de Schootbrugge stresses that it's just a maybe– these plants tried to lock in their nectar, which they need for reproduction, to stop the butterflies and moths feeding on it, and that's possibly how, or why, they evolved into something completely new: flowering plants.
That certainly would be a revolution in evolution theory. It would  show that – at least in evolution – not everything that appears logical is necessarily true.

Hope you enjoyed the photos taken at Gardens at Waters East & the "extra" research information!



                        

Sunday, November 4, 2018

Beach Stones

Sunrise at the Gardens of Waters East.

Here are. some photos from a recent walk on StoneWater Beach, - - - the shore along the Gardens at Waters East.  Always something to discover.  Beauty in the smallest of things.  Nice place to meditate, to relax, to absorb what is!
Enjoy!!!











Like I said - great place to meditate!


Sunday, October 28, 2018

BLOG SHOTS # 117

Each month Gardens at Waters East (GAWE)will post a few never before seenphotos of “garden life” called - - BLOG SHOTS.  Here are the photos for this posting.

moments in the garden - - enjoy



 October - lake view from the gardens

 September - storm clouds

 September - Garlic Chives

 Lilac - Moscow - - June

 Love Over the Fence - July

 Lupine - June

 Pink Mallow with bee - July

 along the wall - July

 Can you find the Monarch??? - July


 Monarda - native - - July

Reference Note:  For a complete list of the ten (10) Principles of Designplus the special “Golden Principle of Design”used throughout Gardens at Waters East, check out the archive postings for November 14 – 24, 2010 and May 2, 2011.


NOTE:   All photos use in this posting were taken on the property of Gardens at Waters East
unless otherwise marked.
NOTE:   Since this Blog is meant to be an accurate journal of the gardens;
no photos are “staged”, “arranged”, or ”photo-shopped” in anyway.
What is posted – is what it here.  It is what it is.