Contrast

This old Mother Nature always gets it right. While we spend our energies and our focus on pointing out how we are so different, she shows us how beautiful we are when we come together, when we help each other, and when we share.


I truly wish we could all be this way and be willing to compromise just a little in life.  Try to understand why your enemy is so adamant in his ignorance.  Try to understand how Pretty Patty is so much an airhead, but she does smell nice.  This stinky garlic blossom is so lovely next to this swallowtail butterfly.  They have worked it out.  Why can't we?

Here are two nectar suckers sharing the same Echinacea blossom.  There is enough for all.  Really, there is, we just have to be a bit more frugal.

Share something with someone today.

Don't Touch! That is Not a Sea Anemone

This sparkley, prickly, delicate looking "wet fur" was something I photographed recently while walking through a natural tourist attraction.  According to the guide there are only three known places on this immense globe where these can be seen.  The story of their discovery is even more interesting.  It involves a researcher, a shovel, and lots of mud.  The researcher/explorer was digging out mud to follow a cavern opening.  When the researcher put his shovel into the mud it became irremovable!  It was just like the sword in the stone.  He pulled and pulled and the shovel would not become free.  He actually had to get a number of friends to help him pull out the shovel and when it finally broke free his watch and hat were sucked off of his body and into the vacuum that had been released by the hole in the mud left behind.  When he widened the hole, the delicate hairy spikes are what he found on the ceiling of the cave that was revealed behind the wall of mud and shown in the photo above.


These are cave formations called Anthodites which is taken from a Greek word meaning flower-like.  They are calcium carbonate forming aragonite crystals.  Exotic sounding and precious.  Because of their delicate nature and rareness they are protected by Federal law.  It takes 7,000 years for an inch on these to form, but because these are no longer in a vacuum, they are no longer growing.  These have been around for a long, long, long, long time.  Hard to get my mind around that.  One of them was 18 inches long.  I guess we all missed that time in history even though it was much much later than the big bang.

There is a new book out called Blind Descent by author James Tabor (no relation).  The author discusses caving and one of the deepest caves which is 7000 vertical feet!  I have not read it, but it sounds very intriguing.  


Caves have such a garden-like thing going on and cave researchers are such poets in naming cave formations.  According to E-notes. com "One-hundred and two cave minerals are known to form coatings and crusts, 57 form stalactites and stalagmites, 23 form moonmilk, 15 form anthodites, 14 form helictites, 12 form Angel hair, 7 form coralloides and pearls, and 6 form cave balloons."

It is so magical this earth of ours.

In the Heat of the Summer I get Visitors

As the summer dials up the oven temperature all the little creepy crawlies (entomological treasures for some and 'unable to ignore' pests for others) have begun arriving along with their families.  While hiking in a nearby woods I came across this little 'nest' of orange baby spiders.  I could find momma no where in sight.  I blew gently on the group and they spiraled down like miniature parachute jumpers in a delicate dance closer to the ground, but soon returned to their home when the carbon dioxide 'breeze' stopped.  (Click on photo for closer views, of course, and remember they are just photos!)

This little congregation of aphids in the photo below was holding their late spring war convention in the green lobby of my back yard the other day. They were discussing strategies and priorities I am sure.  Which area to invade first might also cross their tiny red brains.  I didn't kill them because they were meeting far from my flower beds...perhaps planning their attack on the newly planted roses?  I leaned closer but could hear no battle plans.

As I my face filled their blue sky, oddly enough, they look like they were circling the wagons preparing for a bird or wasp attack perhaps.


And of course, I cannot leave this post without posting at least one photo of the hundreds (thousands?) of pollinators that are humming around my sage and my lavender and everything else that has blooms.  They are drinking all the summer honey wine and usually hanging on in a gluttonous stupor the next morning covered in the mist of cool dew.  These guys hit the bar all day everyday.

Japanese Orgies

Japanese Beatles

barely exotic

Cling in opalescent disregard.

They dine with

refined tastes 

on only rose petals

and crepe myrtle leaves.

They don't speak the

language

ignoring my pleas.

Holding open orgies

between the petals of

the pink Savoy Hotel 

and

too drugged to see

 my dismay

at the confetti-ed

evidence 

they always leave behind

when the party

at long last ends.

The Nursery

Each new season I spend in my woods, I am charmed by the local residents. Last spring a turtle laid her nest of eggs just below a basil plant in my herb bed. I placed a protective fence around the nest, but the little ones never hatched. Too much rain?...too hot?...life with Mother Nature is sometimes  unforgiving.  We are now entering the season of the box turtles.

Yesterday after a long and violent rain I opened the front door in the early morning with coffee in hand and saw this gal making her way toward my hosta bed across my new paver sidewalk.

She was a stunner in colorful beauty. One of the most striking box turtles I have ever seen, a newcomer. 

She has all her parts, which is sometimes not the case for these gentle creatures.

I went back inside and finished some housecleaning and then decided to walk around the house to see if the storm had created any damage. There had been some pretty high winds along with the downpour.   I rounded the corner to my newly created liriope grass bed that lines the side of the garage.  This new bed was part of the work from the changes to the driveway and retaining wall made this spring and gives some grace to what was a grass-less pathway to the water along the garage wall.

I was a little shocked as was this gal when we happened upon each other.  She was a different turtle, more faded in color and a little larger.

I soon realized that she was working on a nest (click on photo below for better view.)  Once again my home has been blessed by its selection as a box turtle nursery. I hope these little ones do better than those from last year.

When I returned an hour later you could not tell that anyone had disturbed the earth. It was perfect!

Deceptive Beauty

One man's weed is another man's nightmare.   By early June, the woods at either side of my house are thick with all kinds of invasive green, glowing, and growing plants.  This one above is one of them.


This lovely plant is the very sturdy Smilax rotundifolia.  There are some lovely inns and restaurants through out the United States named after this vine as its common name is Greenbriar Vine.  Before you fall in love with its spring beauty, I must let you know that it is invasive and can form impassable thickets.  It has nasty argumentative thorns and with bursts of energy climbs trees without pause.  The vine is strong enough to pull down young saplings.  The leaves become a pale waxy green with age and their heart shape grows quite large.   I even read on the internet a story by one person in Texas who said that a small dog had become entangled in a Greenbriar thicket and he had to go in and  rescue it!  If you declare battle with it, you will not come out unharmed.


I must admit that I have pulled or dug up a number of these plants at the edge of my lawn as they creep toward my yard.  I never got down to the root which is supposed to look like a potato.  This photo above, taken at the edge of a swamp in a nearby park, is most deceiving but perhaps worth framing?


Below is another beauty that grew just a few yards away at the edge of the same water feature.

Slow Food

By early June the strawberries are done. We have picked our 'bushel' or so and made our jams and syrups and frozen bags for later recipes.  We are satiated on strawberry smoothies and sliced berries on top of vanilla ice cream.  We are more than willing to let the last strawberries remain on the vines.  It is nice to know that the slow food set helps with the clean-up of the those we missed.  He/she need not look so guilty as we are now working on the raspberries and blueberries.

Resiliency

Resiliency. I try to remember that animals have resilience.  Two weeks ago I left the sad news about the oil spill and its toxic claim on beaches, estuaries, coastlines and ocean life and headed outside to ease my heavy heart.  I needed the good news of a warm spring day to assure me that Mother Earth was continuing her natural way.  As I was on my knees, as if in supplication to Mother Earth and asking her forgiveness for mankind's greed, I focused my camera on the many new white mushrooms that were dotting the edge of my lawn.  Just above my head I heard lighthearted birdsong and looked up to see this juvenile titmouse singing with such energetic youthful joy while perched on the cage that protects the hardy kiwi plant.

I think he was singing, "I can fly!  I can fly!  Mom, look!  I can fly!"

He looked at me with what could only have been the silly self-confident smirk of a young one and then with such ease flew up into the nearby tree knowing full well I could not join him.  Mom must be very proud at this spring graduation ceremony.  (Of course, now he really begins to get into trouble!)  As always, you can click on the photos for a closer view.

Orphans

These are the babies that were abandoned during the time we put in the pavers and the asphalt driveway. The nest was about 30 feet away and the noise and dust for 5 days were just too much for Mrs. Bluebird. I must admit that it was almost too much for me.  Another (?) Mrs. Bluebird was seen bathing in the bird bath near the birdhouse a day ago; so we are hoping she found somewhere near to start a second nest. :-(

M. Erythrocephalus

A few weeks ago I spotted this eyecatching woodpecker on a snag overlooking the marshland in a local county park while walking the marsh's edge and watching a resident beaver eat the leaves of the water lily plant in the marsh.  Spring was well on its way and the marsh land was a stunning lime green in the angles of the golden sun.  I looked up at the brilliant blue sky and this fellow was very easy to spot even without a bird call.


These redheaded woodpeckers eat both meat and plants but they do like their meat fresh.  According to the Cornell bird site this fellow will store live grasshoppers by wedging them in the wood so that they cannot escape before he decides to eat them.  Sounds like some horror movie!  He also is a robber of nests and killer of the eggs inside.  A real horror movie lead.


A little fact you may not know is that these woodpeckers have an exceptionally long tongue, up to 2/3 longer than their bill.  This tongue is used as the padding around their brain to prevent concussive damage when they are hammering away at that hard old tree.  I wonder if Darwin knew this?  I must search to see if I can find an anatomical diagram of this.

Mange Tout

Was it the Latin Pisum which then became the Old English Pise and finally Pease?  This one is a French Mange tout which means you eat the whole pea, pod and all, as sweet and juicy as can be, and need I say super healthy?  It is actually not a true snow pea   This one is a flat snow pea type, and therefore, the peas inside do not get large.

The season is so preciously short for these nutritional and delicious vegetables that by the time days linger in the 80's C, the plant stops producing and the remaining peas become starchy and tough.  Therefore, it gets planted as one of the very first plants in spring, before the last frost and as soon as the ground can be worked.  According to my Internet research more than 1,000 species of this treasure exist today.

The collection in the strainer above of both edible podded peas and snow peas was stir fried every so lightly in butter and olive oil, salt and lemon zest, and an herb or two and then tossed with freshly picked crab.  OMG!

Tough Choice

So now begins the season of heavy decisions! 
Butterflies or homemade Green Goddess Parsley Dressing? 
Tough choice and probably, most likely,... maybe (?)  I cannot have both.


(Post Script:  I was wrong.  The caterpillars are gone.  ?)

The Perfect Moment

I look at you

and I remember 16.

I remember a raspberry kiss

and the sun on my shoulders

and the smell of cinnamon gum.

I remember long walks

down uneven small-town sidewalks

with stops on Main Street
for root beer floats.

I remember bare dusty feet
and shiny toe nail polish 

and everything being perfect.

I remember when everything new

was exciting.

Everything was pregnant with potential.

Every beginning was freshest spring air.

Bring It Baby!

Everything new is always old again.  While visiting a small farm of a friend I became a groupie stalking this crested hen with my camera casually stepping past the piles of chicken and goat poo in my dedication.  I was a paparazzi.  Everybody, I say now, everybody, wants at some time in their life to be a rock star.  Admit it.  You have daydreamed about it a time or two.  All those groupies screaming at how cool you are and wanting just to touch you. The way this gal strutted and tossed her mop top (almost as if hiding the fact that she was on that springtime drug) with determined style, she reminded me of an overdressed very cool, gay, rock star.  I had fun editing the photo below for the cover of a virtual Rolling Stone.

Lets get this party goin'.

Eyeball to eyeball.

Flamingos are such stunning, elegant, and unusual birds.  I have seen them at zoos and in the wild and am fascinated by their exotic beauty and stunning colors, orange feathers and clashing pink feet, as if they had been dressed by Queer Eye for the Gay Guy.
 
It wasn't until recently during our last trip to Florida that I realized that full grown flamingos are actually quite large. They are as tall as me and I stand 5'5"!  If they come up close to you, as this one did, they can look you right in the eye.  I was standing on the sidewalk and this fellow below came up behind me and as I turned instinctively, I saw a determined prance as he continued to walk right up to me, face to face, expecting a handout of food.  He clearly had been panhandling a long time and was not shy.  This was somewhat intimidating to me even though they are gentle old souls when they caress your palm with their bill and they seem to have that exotic Avatar eye thing going on.  Click on the photo if you are brave enough and pass me that bag of bird food.

Food for the Soul

The passage of time has revealed that the fruit on this ornamental strawberry is  nothing to write home about.  Like the roses they now breed for beauty instead of fragrance and for size instead of hardiness, this plant is mostly show.  The flowers which continue to bloom are stunning in color, though.  They glow like red jewels in the corner of my flower bed.  If you click on the photo you will see little disks like tambourines just waiting to be struck to ring out the jazz pizazz.  The runners for new plants are also prolific.  So, I guess, if you are not hungry, it doesn't make any difference, does it?

Above are some REAL strawberries from my garden.

I Kid You Not.

Babies.

You can't have spring

without babies,

fragile and awkward,

tiny and soft,

trusting and fearful.

This one
only two days old

seems surprised to be 

in this bright new world.

Maaaa!

Maaaa!

Where are you?

Among the new ones,

there is always

an adventurer,

a troublemaker,

an explorer

wanting to be

out of the stable

beyond the fence

King of the Mountain.

(On a friends farm)

Happy M.D.!

These roses in my garden today as I write this are for all the mothers who tried hard to get it right and somehow feel they failed.  These roses are for all the children of mothers who never understood the old gal, but tried to love her anyway.  This is for all those who know how complicated being a mother can be and gave up on perfection a long time ago and now concentrate on forgiveness and patience.  And for all the rest of you who have perfect relationships with your children and mother...Happy Mother's Day!  Please pass it on to those who need this message.  I love roses and I rarely ever got them for Mother's Day, so now I grow my own and cannot blame anyone but me if I don't get any!

Days of Potential Blue

The breeze across my yard the day I am writing this post is a cool blue giving me goosebumps on my bare arms.  I wander peaking at each and every plant trying to decode its message long before the blue blossoms open wide blowing me away with their shades of azure, teal, cobalt, grape, gentian...  Blue is peace and sighs.  Blue is new beginnings and freshness.  Blue is the color where the ocean meets the blue of the horizon and where the sky kisses the ocean's surface and promises the potential of new vistas and new days and new growth.

Even the pretty bluebirds have potential new blue color to add to the garden this summer.  They picked the most practical birdhouse this year.  (Last year there was some discussion about where they would take up residence, if you recall.)  No blue roof or twining flowers to draw curious predators this time.  Just the bigger house facing away from the prevailing winds.  I am excited to greet them and welcome their blueness.

Blue usually means sadness or coldness, but in my yard it means potential for wowness!

Peanut Butter and Jelly

On a past canoe ride off Long Boat Key in Florida my husband and I re-established a long ago pattern of behavior that we established in our early married years when we reached a remote beach (after we did the other things that newlyweds do on remote beaches ;-)).  


I am the poker and prodder and explorer and he is the fisherman.  Therefore, we found a small mangrove island with a tiny beach and he promptly off-loaded me with my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and camera and he headed out to the open water to catch fish.  Which he did.  He caught a nice sized sea-trout for our dinner that night.

Above against the far shoreline in the middle of the photo, that tiny white dot is the husband in canoe. (You can click on the photo if you do not believe me ;-).)

In the meantime I perused the graveyard of whelks that covered the nearby ocean floor.  These are so skeleton-like you need to click on the photo for a fuller experience.  I even found a few nice whelks and horseshoe crabs (dead) to bring home for a memory.

Then I saw this little bronze flower drifting along with the current and I can tell you that trying to capture the photo of a jellyfish from the top of the water looking down is most challenging.  The jellyfish pumps, the waves push and distort and the photographer tries not to step on anything sharp or fall and drop the little camera.  Although I could not identify this species, it was not one with tendrils to sting.  I certainly did not pick him up to test.

So exotic and so primitive, this life form that drifts and goes with the flow of the earth on its constant journey.  Volcanoes in Iceland and hurricanes in Florida all leave him unimpressed as he goes with the slow evolutionary flow and not against the demanding current.