Still bedewed with water droplets from his frigid early morning drink, Blaze’s fuzzy little muzzle is silhouetted against the sunrise.
Refreshing! - Winter 2011
Today is bright and sunny, triggering today’s afternoon flashback. It is quite a cheerful looking day. But step outside and your mood may change; it is brisk, to put a nice spin on it. Cold, frigid compared to recent days in the 60s.
Does this summer sight help you smell and hear echoes of summer? 2011
Looking out the window, feeling the heat through the windows, called to mind this summer afternoon in Harlan, Iowa, 2011. Warm in the sun, slightly less warm in the shade. Humming insects, gentle lapping of waves, soft susurating breeze…
This is another flashback to warmer, sunnier days. Last spring I set out to photograph the wild plum blossoms – and revel in their heady scent.
Happily for me, it is more interested in nectar than in my blood - Spring 2011
As I moved around to find blossoms highlighted by sunlight, I was not the only one interested in the sunny, sweet smelling blooms. In fact, there were numerous visitors of many sizes and shapes, but the most astounding to me was this odd creature. I realize it sort of resembles a bumblebee, but I do not think it is a bee at all. What it most looks like to me is those cartoon mosquitoes with pointy proboscii (is that a plural for proboscis?). Only this one is dressed for cold weather, rather like an Eskimo, and his/her face is all whiskery like a Schnauzer. Of course, now I have exited the realms of science and, rather, entered cartoon-landia, but none-the-less, I wanted to share this marvelous little creature. 🙂 And I loved the light sparkling off the fur on his back!
I started out focusing on a patch of lavender-pink Bee Balm (I think that’s what the flowers are), seeking to capture the glow of sunlight through their translucent petals. Then I noticed perfectly camouflaged little insects, their green the color of the leaves, their pink matching the petals, and their graceful black-and-white striped antennae seeming extensions of the flowers’ own reaching stamens.
This secret world is why I like to leave large swathes of our 40 acres UN-mown.
I caught a focused shot of one, but I didn’t want to lose the whole image of the flower with the insect hidden in its petals, so I enlarged just the insect and super-imposed it over the image of itself on the flower. So you can see both the enlargement and the original image combined into one photoshopped image.
I hope you enjoy your glimpse into this tiny, hidden world as much as I enjoyed discovering and recording it!
This afternoon’s flashback was triggered by memories of taking photos of flowers like this morning’s frost-covered blossom nearly one year ago. This is a clearer view of the details, unobscured by the sugary-looking frost crystals of this morning’s shot.
Sweet Little Candy Striped Flowers - March 19, 2011
Are these flowers blooming earlier this year? Or did I simply not see them last year under the 16 inches of snow we had the first week of February?!
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