Halloween "faces"

When I snapped this photo of a dead tree in the springtime, it made me think of a face, and Halloween - so I kept it just for today.

The seed head of a Datura plant as it pops open to spill its seeds.

Raven

Halloween is coming up shortly, and there are some images we immediately associate with this time of year. 

The Raven is one such image.  I took this photo in Budapest Hungary.  It brought to mind Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven.  -- "nevermore"!  However this is the raven of Matyas Corvinus.  In the 15th century his mother sent for him with a raven with a gold ring in its mouth.  Matyas went on to become one of Hungary's greatest kings.

A day at the zoo

Photography Challenge Week 42: Animals
I used this week's theme as a nudge to take a twice-postponed trip to the zoo.  It was a beautiful morning and a sparse crowd.

Visitors are met by some very co-operative snowy owls.  There is one of these majestic birds that makes a winter home in my neighbourhood.  I see it often, but by the time I stop my car, or walk closer to it, it's gone.  I wish, just once, it was as obliging as this bird.  On the other hand, I'm glad it's not.

Fortunately, some animals are in enclosures that one can reach over to photograph them.

This mom and her baby looked so content together!

 

How the muskox has adapted to its arctic environment is fascinating.

 

Some of the most entertaining creatures were those that wander about the zoo freely.  One has to remember that they are wild animals, and respect them. 

This peahen, one of many in the zoo, seems to be looking for something - a peacock perhaps (which I did not see).  

This little squirrel sat perfectly still on his branch as I came closer.  Perhaps he was glad for some attention in this place where most people only see much bigger animals.

 

Canada Geese are everywhere!

The bison are huge animals.  When I see them I wish I could be transported back in time for just a little to see what the prairies looked like when millions of these noble creatures roamed freely. 

"Zoo animals are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild."  Jack Hanna

Beauty

Today has been a day marred with tragedy.  It is easy to become despondent and fearful, but this evening's sunset reminded me that we all share a beautiful world.

"God's dream is that you and I and all of us will realize that we are family, that we are made for togetherness, for goodness, and for compassion."

Desmond Tutu

Zinnia

This zinnia blossom was bright red a few weeks ago.  Now it is brown and crisp.  To me, it's still lovely and fragile - like old paper.












"Then summer fades and passes and October comes.  We'll smell smoke then, and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure."

Thomas Wolfe

Peony

I have had such fun this summer learning how to use my macro lens.  One of my favourite subjects has been the seed heads of plants in my garden.  I have never paid any attention to what plants look like after the petals turn brown and fall off.  The seed heads that form are just as interesting, if not more so, as the colourful flowers.  They look like alien creatures to me.  Next summer I hope to plant many more varieties of flowers so I can photograph them after they bloom.  Some of my family will be wondering about me.

     A peony

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together.  For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.

Edwin Way Teale

Late autumn trees

Most trees by now have lost their leaves.  There are some varieties that keep their leaves long into the fall.  Coming across these when out walking on a beautiful, unseasonably warm day is good for the spirit.

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.  So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air."

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Cultivate

Photography Challenge Week 41: Cultivate
This seemed like a no-brainer at first, considering all the photographic opportunities that living in the country offers.  I tried to come up with some other interpretations of the word, and tried some different images, but when the light is perfect and one finds equipment parked in the the perfect spot - might as well go with it.

A row crop cultivator parked for the season.

Tractor and cultivator parked for the day.









"Let us not forget that the cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man.  When tillage begins, other arts will follow.  The farmers, therefore, are the founders of civilization."

Daniel Webster

Autumn leaves

"Each golden day was cherished to the full, for one had the feeling that each must be the last.  Tomorrow it would be winter."

Elizabeth Enright

"Indian summer"

"Each day the sun shone, the birds lingered, though the trees were turning, purely out of habit, and their rose and yellow and rust looked strange and beautiful above the brilliant green grass." 

Elizabeth Enright.