NOTES FROM A DELINQUENT BLOGGER

Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Female)

I'm rather shocked to see that my last posting on this blog was May 26th, almost three months ago.  My absence during this period was not planned.  I've simply been spending almost every summer hour in the great outdoors, far away from my digital devices.  There is one exception, however.  I have taken my camera with me every day, whether out for long walks or exploratory drives through the countryside. For whatever reason, my orientation this summer has been more visual than verbal, and the natural world has drawn me deeper and deeper into both its beauty and its mysteries.

That said, I will simply let some of my summer photographs speak to where I've been and what I've been doing for the past few months.  

Silhouette of Blue Dasher Dragonfly

Fixated on Distant Light

Spicebush Swallowtail

on Lantana Bush

Barred Owl, Heard Nightly 

and Finally Sighted in my Front Yard

Lily Pads After Rain in a Pond

at Bellingrath Gardens, Near Mobile, Alabama

Other Lily Pads in Same Pond,

Tweaked to Portray My Sense of How

Van Gogh Might Have Painted the Scene

Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Female)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Blue Dasher Dragonfly

Wary Male Cardinal

From the Lily Pond at Bellingrath Gardens

Spicebush Swallowtail

Ruby Throated Hummingbird (Female)

It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest.  It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.

David Attenborough 

BLUE DASHERS

Blue Dasher Dragonfly

Beauty is a strange phenomenon.  Chase beauty and it is likely to remain just beyond one's grasp.  Be still and patient, however, and it will often quietly appear and announce its presence.  Sometimes it's the dog that has laid down and rested her head on your foot; sometimes it's a shaft of late evening light breaking through the trees; and sometimes -- as late yesterday in my backyard -- it's a dragonfly flitting around a dry hosta stem, calling one to examine its glorious architecture and to discover its name.

According to some brief research, the dragonfly that graced my world yesterday afternoon was a Blue Dasher, a member of the skimmer family.  "Dasher" is appropriate, of course, because this little guy can flit from sight in a nanosecond and return just as quickly. "Dashing," however, would also be an accurate description.  Looking at the photo above, I ask myself how I would respond upon finding one of my own species in a turquoise goalkeeper's mask, a tiger-skin vest, a gossamer tutu, and light blue stockings.  The Blue Dasher, however, brings it off with both style and élan, as if to say, "if you like Matisse, you're going to love me."

The two photos above were taken yesterday.  The three below were taken of another Blue Dasher this morning. Needless to say, it's time to add the Blue Dasher to the list of things for which I am grateful.

  

"Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragon-fly

Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky."

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

P.S.  Below are three shots taken this afternoon.