Leafy greens are good for you.

Six-Word Saturday 2.2.23

Nature’s biplane

Dragonflies claim my attention any time I see one. If aliens insects invade the world, ala the old sci-fi movies, I hope they’re dragonflies. At least they’ll look beautiful doing it, although I suppose it depends how big they are! The phrase “Gossamer wings” could have been written to describe these wings.

It was just one of those nights
Just one of those fabulous flights
A trip to the moon on gossamer wings
Just one of those things*

*From “Just One of Those Things”, written by Cole Porter for the 1935 musical Jubilee.

Janet has left the park.

Elvis left the house and I had my last day in the park. I’m always sad to leave, especially when it will be months until my next visit. But I took along the joy of the beauty I constantly find there, perhaps the more cherished because of not being able to visit often anymore.

(Early November 2022)

Monday walk…fall into color

One of the things I always do when visiting in Illinois is to walk in the park I enjoyed regularly when living there. As ti was early November, most plants weren’t at their best yet I managed to find color in a variety of place:

in the dawn sky,

in the sun hitting the trees and the leaves that remained,

in some vivid leaves still hanging on…literally,

in the still-leafy bushes,

and in the fallen leaves along a back trail.

Jo’s Monday Walk…sometime

Look closely!

My theory is that when you’re out and about taking photos, you have three areas you can look: up, out, and down. I guess some people add a fourth: at their phones. What a waste that is! You can also look at the big picture or zoom in (literally or figuratively.) I love a grand view as much as the next person but one of what I think of as “my things” is finding beauty in things that other people might miss and that often means looking closely. Often we’re too busy seeing everything that we miss a number of interesting somethings. Here are some somethings I enjoyed while back in “my” park in Illinois in early November.

My husband saw me cropping this photo and said how much he liked it. There weren’t lots of edible things left, and maybe these weren’t, but they looked as if they were waiting for a bird to come and enjoy the feast.

Anything looked at closely becomes wonderful. ~A. R. Ammons

Pokeweed

These always remind me of some sort of coins.

“Almost nothing need be said when you have eyes.”
― Tarjei Vesaas, The Boat in the Evening

Beauty can be found in even in things that are getting wrinkly. Isn’t that comforting as we age? 🙂

“There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

I absolutely love milkweed, especially when the seeds are trying to escape. There’s something about the contrast between the hard shell and the ethereal, feathery seeds that is unfailingly beautiful.

“In a world myriad as ours, the gaze is a singular act: to look at something is to fill your whole life with it, if only briefly.” Ocean Vuong, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous

Color me dumbfounded! I never knew that this is the winter look of wild bergamot which when flowering, is what I call a Dr. Seuss flower, one with sort of a wild and crazy shape with things sticking out in all directions. I just love all the little sections that are seen when the flowering part dies.

“…we must never lose sight of that gaze with which we look at things.” ~László Krasznahorkai, Baron Wenckheim’s Homecoming

Ebony and ivory in perfect harmony

Six-Word Saturday 12.10.22

Wordless Wednesday…all by myself

Walking Squares 11.30.22

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

Never go out without a cap.

Six-Word Saturday 10.15.22

LAPC #213: Here Comes the Sun

“Here Comes the Sun” conjures up dawn and sunrise, my favorite time to be out walking and taking photos, so thanks to Amy for the theme, although it did make it hard to choose. 🙂 So I have to interrupt the retrospective of my Wyoming vacation to go for the sunshine.

This shot was taken on my way down the mountain in Wyoming as I headed home in 2017, the day of the eclipse. As you can see, it began in a stunning way, really more beautiful than the eclipse itself.

At the Preserve here in Arizona…

Sunshine inside the house…

In the morning in Illinois…

As backlighting…