As the sun and the earth dance through the Equinox, summer exhales and shares her final gifts.
The last perfect rose of summer blooms, defying the empty, withering stalks of Hosta and drying grass.
The tall grasses in the backyard bloom in bursts of sunlit wheat.
The praying mantis I’ve been getting to know, mated, and the next day climbed high up on my office window. That evening she captured and devoured a large moth in the same spot, her last meal. Thereafter, she remained low, near the water spout. I watched, as each day, she became a paler brown and atrophied before my eyes. I thought to take one last picture of her, but could not be so disrespectful as to photograph her as her tiny life faded. In 3 days she was gone, her work on earth completed.
Despite the temperatures already dipping into the 40’s and 50’s at night, my potted petunias and torenia continue to glow in the afternoon sun, holding their beauty `til the end.
By the time I’d come back out, Pumpkin, the orange cat next door, was coming over to say hello and see what was happening, and was now right next to the praying mantis. I figured the mantis was a goner, but Pumpkin was totally oblivious to her presence. What was more amazing was that the mantis, while watching Pumpkin’s every move, (she’s actually looking right at him in this photo), only made one tiny move herself. It was quite easy to catch a couple photos after which I quickly lured Pumpkin to my back door and away from the mantis.
This movie, released in 2003, is one of the most spectacular I have seen. There is almost no narration, there are occasional notes on the bottom of the screen indicating the type of bird and the location and distance it flies during migration, and the most incredible music created just for the film. Not to mention breathtaking landscapes from one end of the world to the other. What is even more extraordinary, is how the birds were filmed – the view is most often from the bird’s perspective. For bird/wild bird lovers or just nature lovers, this is one to see. Available on Netflix.
candy!
They heard him singing. 70 miles off the coast of Long Island and New York City, he sang …. a blue whale. This magnificent creature, nearly hunted to extinction in the mid-20th century, when nations created an accord to protect them, once swam these waters and sang.
Still A Dreamer 