Glowing in the Shade

This wildflower seemed to have a inner glow of its own---nodding its head so beautifully in the shade.

Katydid or Grasshopper?

Taxonomy is both exact and fuzzy at once. Common names are the fuzzy. Latin names generally bring exactness into the occasion, but exactness that sometimes necessitates the destruction of a specimen to properly catalog it and know for sure where it belongs.

Grasshopper and Katydid are, of course, common names. And even experts often disagree on common names.

I would consider this guy (who may be a girl?) both a Grasshopper and a Katydid. This guy certainly does hop and leap as a grasshopper should. It also sports those long antenna and long hind legs as a Katydid should.  

The Bug with the Polka Dotted Pants

This guy and I did quite a dance---he being a bit camera shy and me needing to get in quite close for a picture.

He flew away after this shot, quite disgusted with me, I'm sure. But not before I got the close up of his dotted legs.

Beauty and the Beast

The Beast fell in love with the Beauty, latched on, and would never let go.

Blueberries in September

Hard to believe, but there are still wild blueberries on the bush in the middle of September. The blueberries bloomed a month or two early this year and are still producing a month and a half after they are usually through.

An Ant Convention---More than Meets the Eye?

After years of observing nature, I've learned that there is sometimes more than meets the eye. Take this photo of ants on a leaf for example.

I observed the ants for quite some time. They moved around the leaf but acted as if there was some major importance attached here. The white specks of the leaf appeared to be just a natural result of fall descending. Yet the ants seem to be after something. Perhaps there's something here that I didn't see?

Looking for Jumblies at the Shore

When awful darkness and silence reign 

Over the great Gromboolian plain,

Through the long, long wintry nights;

When the angry breakers roar

As they beat on the rocky shore;

When Storm-clouds brood on the towering heights

Of the Hills of the Chankly Bore:

Then, through the vast and gloomy dark,

There moves what seems a fiery spark,

A lonely spark with silvery rays

Piercing the coal-black night,

A Meteor strange and bright:

Hither and thither the vision strays,

A single lurid light.

Slowly it wander,pauses,creeps,

Anon it sparkles,flashes and leaps;

And ever as onward it gleaming goes

A light on the Bong-tree stems it throws.

And those who watch at that midnight hour

From Hall or Terrace, or lofty Tower,

Cry, as the wild light passes along,

"The Dong!the Dong!

"The wandering Dong through the forest goes!

"The Dong! the Dong!"The Dong with a luminous Nose!"

Long years ago

The Dong was happy and gay,

Till he fell in love with a Jumbly Girl

Who came to those shores one day.

For the Jumblies came in a sieve, they did,

Landing at eve near the Zemmery Fidd

Where the Oblong Oysters grow,

And the rocks are smooth and gray.

And all the woods and the valleys rang

With the Chorus they daily and nightly sang,

"Far and few, far and few,

Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

Their heads are green, and the hands are blue

And they went to sea in a sieve.

Happily, happily passed those days!

While the cheerful Jumblies staid;

They danced in circlets all night long,

To the plaintive pipe of the lively Dong,

In moonlight, shine, or shade.

For day and night he was always there

By the side of the Jumbly Girl so fair,

With her sky-blue hands, and her sea-green hair.

Till the morning came of that hateful day

When the Jumblies sailed in their sieve away,

And the Dong was left on the cruel shore

Gazing gazing for evermore,

Ever keeping his weary eyes on

That pea-green sail on the far horizon,

Singing the Jumbly Chorus still

As he sate all day on the grassy hill,

"Far and few, far and few,

Are the lands where the Jumblies live;

Their heads are green, and the hands are blue

And they went to sea in a sieve.

But when the sun was low in the West,

The Dong arose and said;

"What little sense I once possessed

Has quite gone out of my head!"

And since that day he wanders still

By lake and dorest, marsh and hills,

Singing -- "O somewhere, in valley or plain

"Might I find my Jumbly Girl again!

"For ever I'll seek by lake and shore

"Till I find my Jumbly Girl once more!"

Playing a pipe with silvery squeaks,

Since then his Jumbly Girl he seeks,

And because by night he could not see,

He gathered the bark of the Twangum Tree

On the flowery plain that grows.

And he wove him a wondrous Nose,

A Nose as strange as a Nose could be!

Of vast proportions and painted red,

And tied with cords to the back of his head.

In a hollow rounded space it ended

With a luminous Lamp within suspended,

All fenced about with a bandage stout

To prevent the wind from blowing it out; --

And with holes all round to send the light,

In gleaming rays on the dismal night.

And now each night, and all night long,

Over those plains still roams the Dong;

And above the wail of the Chimp and Snipe

You may hear the squeak of his plaintive pipe

While ever he seeks, but seeks in vain

To meet with his Jumbly Girl again;

Lonely and wild -- all night he goes,

The Dong with a luminous Nose!

And all who watch at the midnight hour,

From Hall or Terrace, or lofty Tower,

Cry, as they trace the Meteor bright,

Moving along through the dreary night,

"This is the hour when forth he goes,

"The Dong with a luminous Nose!

"Yonder -- over the plain he goes;

"He goes!

"He goes;

"The Dong with a luminous Nose!"

Edward Lear---The Dong with the Luminous Nose