Orange & Purple

Clustered Thistle & visitor ~ Cirsium brevistylum

Pretty little visitor ~ August

This pretty little creature found a sanctuary during the night from the wildfire smoke that now fills the skies of western Montana.

Bedstraw hawkmoth ~ Hyles gallii

…and the livin’ is easy…

Sometimes they’re easy, sometimes they’re hard…

The easy photo is of a Cabbage White Butterfly who was visiting a Delphinium in our flower garden at home.

The hard photo is this one of some unusual pink Penstemons, the only satisfactory result of an exhausting hike into the high country in search of an old trail leading to Marmot Peak from the Fishtrap area.

Butterfly and moth

Variable Checkerspot, Euphydryas chalcedona anicia

Ceanothus silkmoth, Hyalophora euryalus

Spots

Variable Checkerspot, Euphydryas chalcedona

Common in western North America from Alaska to Baja California and from the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.