His Name is Earl

Tags

dragonfly, humour, nature, nature photography, photography, summer, Wilderness Wednesday

His name is Earl.

He decided to hang around poolside when Big Guy and I went for his final swim. After posing for pics, we left him alone for a nap.

About 20 minutes later, I noticed Earl fighting for his life in the water. I grabbed the skimmer, fished him out and put him in the sun to dry off.

I’m not sure, but as we dried off and wished him farewell, I think Earl winked.

“You don’t have to be my friend. I’ll train you.”

-Unknown

Echinacea

Tags

cmmc, flowers, garden, nature, nature photography, Photo Challenge, photography, pink, Wilderness Wednesday

Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized. 

Allan Armitage

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Midweek Madness Challenge: Macro.

Wilderness Wednesday: Evening Song

Tags

evening, nature, nature photography, photography, River scenes, water, Wilderness Wednesday

Evening at the river. As the sun slowly sinks toward the horizon, it’s warm glows barely kisses the tops of the trees. The birds begin to settle, only a few singing nursery rhymes to their little ones tucked safely in their nests.

Below the bridge, hidden in the foliage, a bullfrog trumpets twice, and then falls silent.

Overhead, a few wispy clouds continue their journey east. The river continues it’s journey too, winding first south, then west, and winding again. It will thunder over the waterfall downstream, before winding its way toward a larger body of water far past the town. Like time, the river never ceases to slip away.

But here, though I know it is moving, it appears still. The surface is like glass, capturing a perfect moment with cloud and tree. As the surface darkens with the setting sun, the smaller plants floating on the surface begin to look more like stars, and the clouds, distant galaxies. I feel very small in a great big world.

I turn and head for home. It will soon be time to sing my own evening song, before I slip away.

Sometimes the night was beautiful
Sometimes the sky was so far away
Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close
You could touch it but your heart would break

Rich Mullins/Beaker, Sometimes By Step

Please Ma’am

Tags

chipmunks, food, humour, nature, nature photography, photography, summer, tea, tea addict, tea cups, tea lover, tea photography, tea time

Please Ma’am

Pretty please?

Wait…there’s something on the bottom

Streee-eeetch

Yum!

Into the Fairy Woods

Tags

CFFC, fairies, nature, nature photography, path, Photo Challenge, photography, walk, Wilderness Wednesday

Come away, O human child! To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world’s more full of weeping than you can understand.

William Butler Yeats, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Every great story seems to begin with a snake

Nicholas Cage

Stay on the right path, even if you have to walk alone.

Unknown

And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.

John Muir

Few humans see fairies or hear their music, but many find fairy rings of dark grass, scattered with toadstools, left by their dancing feet.

July Allen, Fantasy Encyclopedia

You’ve changed. You’re daring. You’re different in the woods.

The Baker’s Wife, Into the Woods

This is my post for Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge: Ground.

Wilderness Wednesday: Wonder

Tags

dandelions, flowers, nature, nature photography, photography, wild flowers, Wilderness Wednesday, wonder

A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.

Rachel Carson

Happy Wednesday!

Wilderness Wednesday: Apple Blossoms

Tags

apple blossoms, flowers, garden, nature, nature photography, photography, pink, trees

I love better to count time from spring to spring; it seems to me far more cheerful to reckon the year by blossoms than by blight.

Donald G. Mitchell

The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him.

Auguste Rodin

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

Happy Wednesday!

Wilderness Wednesday: Mr & Mrs C.

Tags

birds, cardinals, humour, nature, nature photography

Mr. & Mrs. C live in my neighbourhood. I see them on a regular basis and I love it!

The other day, I caught an interesting exchange between this couple.

While Mr. C was walking in the garden, Mrs. C was glaring at him. She looked pretty cranky and I wondered if maybe he had said or done something stupid. Or maybe it was just too much togetherness, being in lockdown in such close quarters.

Too much togetherness sometimes makes me cranky too…

Mr. C joined her in the tree, and I thought “wow”, what a great opportunity to see them together. Cardinals generally mate for life, and they watch out for each other when they’re away from home, taking turns to eat and never staying in one place too long.

Male Cardinals will often bring the female things to help build their nest but she will do the actual building. Males also provide her with food when she is sitting on the nest.

It wasn’t until I looked at my photos up close that I noticed that Mr. C had indeed brought Mrs. C a gift.

Hopefully this token of his love helped restore harmony in their home. I’m looking forward to seeing if any little ones will soon follow!

It’s not how big the house is, it’s how happy the home is!

Unknown

Happy Wednesday!

Wilderness Wednesday: Easter Brunch

Tags

birds, nature, nature photography, photography, Wilderness Wednesday

• 

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Sunday brunch is an easy, pleasant way to entertain a largish group, especially in the country.

Joan Crawford, My Way of Life

Happy Wednesday!

CFFC: Birds

Tags

beach, birds, CFFC, nature, nature photography, Photo Challenge, photography

Birds, the topic of Cee Neuner’s Fun Foto Challenge this week, are something I have photographed a lot over the years. And all kinds of birds too – Early Birds, Really Early Birds, Cardinals, Ducklings, even recently, a Hawk and an Osprey. But when I saw this was the challenge, 2 cheeky moochers immediately popped into my mind.

Could you resist those faces?

Happy Wednesday!