Along the roadside

Country roads are better walked than driven.  When I drive, I see the road - when I walk, I see everything but the road.

Normality is a paved road:  It's comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it. 

                         Vincent Van Gogh

Summer's last flowers

The bright flowers of the summer have mostly gone, but a few late bloomers still greet me each day.  Each day brings fewer blossoms, so every one is special.

"Departing summer has assumed
An aspect tenderly illumed,
The gentlest look of spring;
That calls from yonder leafy shade
Unfaded, yet prepared to fade,
A timely carolling."

William Wordsworth September

It's a small, little, beautiful world

I think there is a reason for all creatures on this earth.  (Except ticks and mosquitos - although perhaps their purpose is to annoy humans and remind us we are not really in charge here.)  Here are just a couple of shots of some beautiful, small creatures.

"Ask a toad what beauty is...;  he will answer that it is a female with two great round eyes coming out of her little head, a large flat mouth, a yellow belly, and a brown back."

Voltaire

Life in the milkweed patch

Over the summer, I have been checking out the milkweed patches close by.  The abundance of small, interesting creatures that dwell there has provided me with hours of quiet entertainment.

I had never seen this red bug before.

 

 

 

 

 

From far away, this looked like a mosquito; but up close, it looks like something else.

Monarch butterfly catterpillar.  I had to look up which end is the head.

"Nature does not hurry, yet everything gets accomplished."

Lao Tzu

"How I spent my summer vacation"

Remember those "How I spent my summer vacation" essays we had to write when we were kids.  Me, and a lot of my friends who lived on farms, spent a lot of the summer working.  Of course there were days of fun as well, but I really disliked those essays.
This summer I came across a photo challenge: create a photographic essay with the theme "How I spent my summer vacation".  I thought it might be fun to do a photographic essay about a day at the farm - updated considerably from my days as a youngster.

Ready for servicing.

"It is only the farmer who faithfully plants seeds in the Spring, who reaps a harvest in the Autumn."

B. C. Forbes

The colours of rust

The colours that are found in rust are incredible once you see them.

"Color is a power which directly influences the soul."

                    Wassily Kandinsky

Morning walk

I don't have to walk far with my camera.  I just walk and the images materialize before my eyes.

"Walking is man's best medicine." Hippocrates

A robin's nest I never knew was there.

 

 

Morning sun through the birch leaves

Green foxtail in the breeze.

Clover on the camera's "soft focus" setting.

Lilies and daylilies

These are certainly some of the most beautifully coloured flowers in my garden.

 

If you have two loaves of bread, sell one and buy a lily.

Chinese Proverb

Summer morning

When I'm on holidays, I find it easy to get up with the sun and head out with my camera (and a cup of coffee).  On a recent holiday, I did just that.  This occurred during a week of hazy skies due to the smoke from forest fires many hundreds of miles away.  The normally clear sunrise of a summer morning became something completely unexpected.  Alone on a deserted beach for an hour or two is the perfect way to begin the day.

 

The wildlife strolled by, completely unaware of me.

"It was a splendid summer morning and it seemed as if nothing could go wrong."

John Cheever

A walk in the woods

There's a little spot that I love to visit.  It's filled with beautiful little wild flowers and all sorts of things to photograph.  I look forward to my visits because each time I'm there, I'm rewarded with completely different images.

 

In every walk with nature, one receives more than he seeks.

John Muir