Leafy greens are good for you.

Six-Word Saturday 2.2.23

Wordless Wednesday…suspended

Rebellious leaves and some daffodils

The sun shone brightly, highlighting the gold of the leaves. We had to stop, get out, and just wonder at the quintessential beauty of autumn before moving on to the next sculpture. After several years in Arizona, the sight brought back memories of raking leaves, the girls jumping in piles of leaves, the crisp sound of leaves crunching underfoot.

“Rebellious leaves
going out
in a blaze of glory,
setting trees aflame
in riotous color.
Reluctant surrender
to rumors
of coming winter.”
― John Mark Green, Taste the Wild Wonder: Poems

“The leaves are changing; I feel poetry in the air.”
― Laura Jaworski

I do know the name of this sculpture: Ephemera. Beyond that, you’re on your own once again. 🙂 There are several chairs if you want to sit and contemplate for a bit.

Random nature walking squares

Just some photos I took while out walking. Anything with drops always gets my attention, even though drops aren’t as rare in Illinois as in Arizona.

I like the shape of these berries and the contrast between the dried leaf on the left and the berries.

Milkweed. What’s not to like? They contrast prickly and soft as well as attracting monarch butterflies. But they do reproduce rather quickly so if you have some, you’ll have to keep pulling up the new ones.

Walking Squares 11.29.22

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge #200 — Every Little Thing

Amy, I love you for choosing this theme, one that’s near and dear to my heart and camera. While I, like Tina, often do close-ups and macros from six feet or so away with my telephoto, the phone is also great for that type of shot. I deliberately didn’t include a flower with a bee, although I love those. Let’s see what I did chose and whether or not you like them.

My Christmas cactus in full bloom lured me into a great number of photos with its sensuous curves and beautiful color.

This unidentified but brave insect ventured much closer to these cactus spines than I ever would!

Our daughter had some beautiful gladiolus flowers, so I just had to get (a lot) closer.

One of these is not like the others.

Although I know many think me crazy for it, I long for some winter, real winter with cold and snow and ice, something we don’t get in the Phoenix area. But go south an hour and a half or so, then head up Mt. Lemmon and if conditions are right, you might spot frost in places where the sun hasn’t hit yet. Seeing some made my day. Really!

No little thing challenge can sneak by without another view, unpublished until today, of the alien-looking interior of one of our torch cactus flowers. I’m endlessly fascinated by them.

A plethora of orange

I’ll be on the road again today, covering the miles between Phoenix and southern California, although with gas prices the way they are, it will be a much more expensive trip than the last one! I have to steel myself for the cost of that one tank of gas necessary to get before coming back home next Monday. Sigh.

At any rate, I have some unused orange squares so I thought I’d squander them today to get you through the week without me, even though yesterday ended the square challenge. 🙂 Wasn’t that thoughtful? Becky, I did sneak in one non-square, so just ignore that one and go with the rest.

Keep well, all of you, while I’m gone.

Nature’s gold

I think nature’s gold is the very best and I offer you two examples of why I think so. This will be my last post for September as I’m on the way to southern California for another visit with our older daughter, husband, and grandchild-in-the-making. I’ll even be attending my first gender-reveal party but no, there will be no fireworks to start forest fires or anything happening that might kill someone or destroy property! Just family and friends and a cake that when cut, will have frosting colored to reveal boy or girl. Whatever happened to the element of surprise that we looked for? 🙂

r

for Life in Colour: gold

Tree canopy and close-up blue

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come. ~Lois Lowry

A certain blue enters your soul. ~Henri Matisse

for Squares: trees and Life in Colour: blue

Wordless Wednesday…leaf dancing

Light on leaves

for Life in Colour: green