Butterflies in the Garden

The Garden Variety Librarian has retired! Having left my library job, I won't be posting about storytime and crafts and children's programs anymore. (Not that I was much lately anyway.) I might still post about the occasional book. We'll see. (As I used to always say to my own kids when I wasn't quite ready to say "no.")

Less library time means more garden time for lucky me. Here are a couple of  pictures I took today of butterflies in the garden.

 This is a pipevine swallowtail butterfly.  Both these butterflies find red valerian (centranthus rubra) very enticing.

And this is a western tiger swallowtail butterfly.  This one has been hanging around the valerian all day, coming and going. I can tell that it is the same butterfly I saw this morning because it is missing one of its swallowtails.