An explore.. in your own back yard

Yes, it's clothesline day - and I have a clothesline story in my head, but contemplating that later.

In the meantime, I distracted myself with the critters in my own back yard. I've proven so far that we have things like racoons and my nose says there's a skunk somewhere close by. But do you ever consider the other critters that are around? Just because they are small, doesn't mean they're lesser.

I contemplated this idea, at the clothesline, while the bees buzzed around my feet. (we have a lot of clover). In fact, last week, while hanging out my laundry, I sat my laundry basket on top of a bee and he buzzed like crazy until I lifted my basket. Along he went like there was nothing more important than pollen and nectar.

Why do we try to define "beautiful" in such a small parameter? "Visually appealing" I don't know the answer to that. One thing is beautiful, and something other is not.

Evenly trimmed green grass is beautiful. "Grass" filled with clover is not. ?
I disagree. I love that our yard is kinda raggedy. It is the country, it's not meant to be perfect, and if it was nothign but pretty green grass, I'd have to mow it constantly, and there'd never be any butterflies and bees. Speaking of butterflies and bees, butterflies are beautiful? and bees are scary? I never get this. Bees could care less about you, they go on their merry way, pollenating their flowers and collecting nectar.... yet butteflies have this scary long tongue and bulging eyes. No really (see later).

I guess my point is, don't discount something that you think is ugly, only because you're told it's ugly. I like to find beauty in the little things that aren't "beautiful".

That's me... antidisestablishmentarianism - which is not the correct usage of that word, but I really wanted to say it. :p



That's the shot I went for. Well, I actually went for that shot tack sharp, but they don't call them busy bees for no reason. He was in no mood to sit still for a close up.

Then, I got distracted by these little flying flowers. I can't believe how many butterflies we have. Thousands. We have 1.25 acres that we just let grow, and there's clover and queen ann's lace and some purple thistle or something in there. Which they *love*. You can just sit and watch the grass move with purple, yellow, orange there's so many.

This shot is specifically for Cheyenne.

Cheyenne: This is why I told you we don't touch butterflies. See their teeny tiny little feathers/fur? That breaks when you hold them. :(

Here's the full image

Here's the crop. You can see the highlight of the sun off of his tongue. I find that utterly amazing and could look at that picture for hours. *that* is why I love macros.

I love the bokeh (that's the blurry bits).

What are you lookin' at???

{someone has an attitude}
{Must be hard to look tough when you're a butterfly}

The original image

The crop. See his curly tongue? He was patient with me, and let me get really close.

But, there's more than butterflies. There's these guys. Lots of them. Kind of a scary monster. But pull up the full sized image (click on photo). You can see the tiny "hairs" on his legs. I want a lens strong enough that I can see what one of those tiny hairs looks like.

The home of *something*. Terribly fresh. This was shot shortly after I discovered the hole, the dirt was fresh.

Remember the robin? Here's their home. I don't know if anyone is there anymore. Tanner said he heard flapping noises from the tree over the weekend, and I suspect that someone learned to fly. Robins grow up fast. *heavy fake sigh*

The grass felt so good today. I went to the line in bare feet and you could almost feel the energy of the grass saying "ahhhhhhhh". We had some rain, and you could feel the cool spots. Feels so much nicer than the hot crunchy grass from before.

It's starting - the corn is dying. :(

Every year this makes me sad, because I know it's the end of another summer. This summer is the saddest it makes me because this has been our privacy fence for several months now. It will be foreign to look out and be able to see the neighbors again.

We've been under the protection of our own little "acreage" for months now. 2 acres surrounded and protected by 200 acres of corn. Towering over us and taking care of us - shielding us from the wind and the eyes of everyone around us. Nothing but an army of bees humming and working all their day long while the world rotates one more time.

Good bye summer :(