While tidying the garden today I picked this up, and for a split second I wondered how a dead leaf could be so soft and powdery…and fluttering! If my camera would cooperate I could have taken a great macro because the moth let me get as close as I wanted. So pretty!
My old Canon AE1 would snap pictures no matter how close I got to something, but even on ‘manual’ the Canon EOS 20D will only allow me to get about 4 inches away before the shutter refuses to close. I miss my old fashioned (1980) Canon sometimes, and even the new Canon AE1s cannot compare to it. I don’t miss developing though, and the other restrictions.
We were away for two weeks and forgot to turn the sprinkler system on before leaving, so I thought the Green Anoles might have moved to greener pastures. Fortunately they are still thriving; here one is staying cool and safe inside a large Canna Lily leaf, a leaf that I nearly cut off while clearing out dead and dying plants.
Courtland, Tennessee, just west of Memphis
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Hot Plate Lunches, Memphis, TN
Beetles and wasps on Yukka seed pods
___________________________________________________________________________
Praying Mantis, Kitty Hawk, Outer Banks, NC
Twisting vines climbing the trees, Elizabethan Gardens, Manteo, NC
Nags Head beach, Outer Banks, NC
Pelican, Charleston, South Carolina during impending Hurricane Gustav
____________________________________________________________________________
Awesome Sunflower seed-head, 12 inch diameter, and healthy Cantaloupe, Lewisville TX
___________________________________________________________________________
Scarlet Runner bean vines overtake this abandoned barn in Denton Texas
It’s amazing that doves have survived to evolve as far as they have. For one thing, their nests are flimsy. They are also more comfortable nesting openly near humans than any other wild bird, at least here in Dallas.
Today this chick and it’s parent were sitting on the curb beside a very busy street. When I came too close the mother tried to fly across the road, and tried to appear injured as if to fool me. Uhh, better to create a less exposed, less vulnerable nest in the first place, Mama!!! Judging from the experience of doves nesting in the wreath at our back door last year, this chick is not ready to fly yet either. Perhaps they both fell from a nest in the tree. I wonder what their chances are for survival with all the cats, dogs, people and vehicles in the vicinity?
A little Wren chirps, perched on our fence every afternoon. Soft pink Myrtle trees bloom in the background.
