Weekly Photo Challenge: Silhouette
They’ve flown south now for the winter. The last bottle of red colored sucrose hangs fermenting. The Petunia and Morning Glory have bid them farewell as the Four O’clock and Salvia prepare to sleep.
Seed and root resting in the shadow of nature’s understanding.
Oh that I might fly with you..
Until the next Equinox, buenas noches little bird.
A Brief Moment of Rest
Can’t live with `em- Can’t live without `em.
Bee’s are beneficial. We wouldn’t have our delicious honey without them and plants would become extinct without their pollinating expertise. But when we are not willing to share our home with them… what to do?
To bee or not to bee?
The local beekeepers won’t take them for fear of their “being Africanized” meaning they may have crossed with the dreaded, aggressive African honeybee. They don’t appear aggressive to me but what do I know? Nada!
The last professional removed a comb from the flooring of the house (that sits on stilts in South Texas) and sprayed some sort of “poison” to deter them. I soaked the area in vinegar and I was the only creature bothered by it.
We have plugged any holes we found to keep them out of the house but they continually swarm beneath the house. They want in! I want them alive and happy, I just don’t want them as roommates. It’s my vacation home maybe they think they have seniority being full time residents?
[Sigh] I just want them to go away. Any advice?
Last week my husband phoned form work at 7:30 A.M and said “start packing.” I didn’t question him I just threw a few suits of clothing into a suitcase along with the laptop and camera, gathered up the dog’s bare essentials and waited. He had been talking about heading south when October’s first cold front came through to do a little fishing but his work schedule did not look agreeable. Apparently something changed and he seized the moment.
“Carpe diem!” I said. “I don’t care for Carp – I’m after a Redfish.” He replied with a wink.
I think know he dreams of catching a trophy Red.
Within thirty minutes he has his 16 foot 1957 aluminum boat hooked up and ready to roll. We have a skiff but he likes that old dinghy. Anyway seven hours later we are standing in the salty breeze assessing the conditions. The tide, the wind, the weeds and the water temperature. Fishing is very serious business, that’s why I usually leave it to him. Thank goodness a cousin showed up to keep him company on the water while I undertook the tasks of reading and snapping pictures. All in the name of research of course.
Taking off on a whim is something we haven’t done in a very long time and you know what? I loved it!
These are the rewards of spontaneity
Nestled in the woods there is tiny space of refuge. A place of respite and reflection and it is mine. At least that’s what the sign says.
[For the weekly photo challenge titled Mine]
I met a frog today.
I pressed my lips to the window (my side was clean, his was not) and …
Nothing happened. So much for fairy tales.
So much for Fairy Tales
This week’s photo challenge is titled Solitary. Though solitary is defined as: solitude, alone, secluded, singular or without companions the word itself conjures a multitude of images.
I immediately imagine a one man game of cards, confinement, loneliness, punishment and isolation. Well those things along with an old song ‘Countin’ Flowers on the Wall’ overlapping the imageries
Yet what I chose to submit is an empty chair. Now I sit alone pondering what that means (if anything) while I scroll through the other intriguing submissions and wonder what solitary means to so many others.
Alone in the Woods
Here is an excerpt from the lyrics of Countin’ Flowers on the wall.
Counting flowers on the wall,
That don’t bother me at all.
Playing Solitaire till dawn,
With a deck of fifty-one.
Smoking cigarettes and watching Captain Kangaroo.
Now, don’t tell me I’ve nothing to do
P.S. A personal tidbit. Dour Number IIII was inspired by these very woods. Just beyond the barn in the background another world exists.
In this part of Texas we are enjoying some milder temperatures. The mornings are in the mid 60’s range and a dewy haze fills the forest that is my front yard. I spotted a few green acorns this evening and understood Autumn is approaching. Panic was my first reaction for there are many goals unmet. But if just for today I shall sigh and think on the beauty of the first green acorn I’ve found, remembering they are the start of a mighty oak.
The Beginning of a Mighty Oak
Mardi Gras Sky
For this weeks photo challenge I perched a vase filled with colorful Mardi Gras beads on a fence post and merged it with a cloudy blue sky.
For this weeks weekly photo challenge (Growth) I chose a plant. I’ve watched this Asian Jasmine make its way up the oak tree beside my porch for some time now. This type of plant is usually considered to be an invasive species but that’s not the case for mine. Nope, my little darling has been inching its way outward and struggling upward for over twenty years now. I love the slow growing, non-blooming persistent little pest because it reminds me of myself somehow.
Old plant – New growth
This has got to be this worst photograph I have ever taken (at least sober anyway) yet when I saw it Fleeting Moment is exactly what I conjured. I was attempting to snap a shot of a pair of hawks that hang out at the edge of the woods. I hurried and spun the camera and well… you get the picture. I looked through fifty other photos in trying to prepare this post and kept coming back to this cull. I think it is because it says more to me than any crystal clear image could. I titled it Time.
Time
The Real Janna Hill in 