They lurk among us

We're approaching a cumulative couple of years of living in the sub-tropics. During that time we've become acquainted with some of its wildlife, and I've been fortunate to be able to capture some of it. As a northerner I find the variety of living things here fascinating and I try not to miss an opportunity to capture and find out more about them.

Another such opportunity presented itself this week as I was preparing to do battle against a relatively new strain (to Florida) of whitefly that fancies ficus plants (I'll let you know the outcome in a few weeks). I spotted this beastie on the driveway as it looked primed to invade our home. After deciding it might wait a few more moments, I ran and grabbed the camera, got prone on the driveway, faced the alien and made a few photos of it. Turns out that this nasty and destructive bug is a mole cricket. It's normally nocturnal, and those 'paddles' you can clearly see are for digging (hence 'mole'). Sometimes it's better not to know what's crawling around out there in the dark !

Since my bug philosophy is to dispatch first and get information later, he was quickly consigned to bug purgatory. Somehow the song 'All things bright and beautiful' didn't come to mind as I later saw the photos on the screen. Judge for yourself.

For the beauty of the earth ...

     "To look out at this kind of creation and
       not believe in God is to me impossible."
       (Astronaut John Glenn)
   
       "Beauty... is the shadow of God on the universe."
        (Gabriela Mistral, Desolacíon)

       “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
        to receive glory and honour and power,
        for you created all things,
        and by your will they were created
        and have their being.”
        (Revelation 4:11)

        "For since the creation of the world,
         God's invisible qualities - his eternal
         power and divine nature - have been
         clearly seen, being understood from
         what has been made, so that men are
         without excuse."
         (Romans 1:20)

(60mm  f5.6  1/60 sec  ISO200)


(60mm  f2.8  1/1400 sec  ISO200)

 (60mm  f5.6  1/160 sec  ISO200)

Lady Luck

We are fortunate to live on a 77 acre parcel of land. It's not suitable for farming given the shallow, rocky soil and most of it is covered with cedars. Over the years we've carved out a 'domesticated' area which includes the lawns around the house, the flower beds, a couple of small ponds and a veggie garden. Outside this area lies 'the wilderness'. There's a fairly well-defined line between the domesticated and wilderness areas, and we are in constant battle to prevent the encroachment of the latter upon the former. I suspect that if we left nature to decide the outcome, within 2 years the wilderness would prevail everywhere.

One of the benefits of living in the country and having a wilderness area, is that I have an easy place to dispose of the numerous undesirable plants (aka weeds) that want to take up residence in the flower beds. I simply walk to the edge of the domesticated area and pitch a handful of weeds as far as I can - tough to do in the city, unless you consider your neighbour's property a wilderness area (and I'm sure you've seen a few of those).

About a week ago, I was doing just that - I weeded and pitched the weeds into the wilderness. As I turned to weed some more, I happened to notice a few yellow flowers some ways into the wilderness. At first I thought they were dandelions - then it dawned on me that there were no other dandelions around - their moment to shine had come and gone. Curious, I decided to walk over for a closer look - I recognized a flower I had never seen in the wild before - a small yellow Lady's Slipper ! Now I've pitched countless weeds into that general area over the years but I had never seen these before. At a later time, I trudged through several acres looking for more of them but I found none.

(all shots made with a 60mm lens at either f11 or f14, ISO200, and shutter speeds of 1/80 or 1/125 sec)

click on photos for a larger image

This is what I saw in the wilderness when I first spotted this seemingly nondescript plant.

Show time

It's that time of year we, and all nature, have been waiting for - those few moments, relatively speaking, when nature puts on a splendid show. We are most fortunate that we have a number of different (non-domesticated) trees and shrubs scattered around our property. This evening I walked in the glow of the late-day sun and made some shots. Here are (what I believe to be) wild cherry blossoms. Too bad cameras can't capture their fragrance also.

(10-22mm  f5.0  1/500 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f5.6  1/125 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f5.6  1/200 sec  ISO200)

The trillium

It's that time of year when Ontario's designated provincial flower (trillium grandiflorum) covers the forest floor with a carpet of white 3-petaled flowers. It seems to have an affinity for maple and beech forests. I crawled around in last fall's leaves this evening to make some photos of this magnificent species. I also found another species known as Trillium erectum which seems to be far less common, at least in these parts. Its burgundy flowers contrast nicely with the white variety.

Natural propagation of trilliums is accomplished by ants which take the seeds back to their nests - they feed the fleshy part attached to the seed to their larvae. White-tailed deer also have a fondness for trilliums and thereby help disperse their seeds.

(10-22mm  f4.5  1/50 sec  ISO400)

click on photos to enlarge

(60mm  f8.0  1/30 sec  ISO400)

(10-22mm  f9.0  1/6 sec  ISO400)

 (10-22mm  f9.0  1/20 sec  ISO400)

The payoff

The promises attached to April showers are starting to materialize around the house. I went out this afternoon to capture some of its ethereal beauty, however, more drizzle, along with a breeze that makes macro shots impossible, cut that short. A window of opportunity opened up right after dinner and I only had to travel 10 feet out the front door. Now don't get the impression that we have beds full of these hyacinths - I wish. In fact, we only have a few, and these hardy souls have struggled to get established. I think I'll get some more in the fall though.

(60mm  f4.5  1/8 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f10  1/3 sec  ISO200)

Mellow Yellow

It's difficult to avoid mentioning the weather since it plays a large role in our lives. Just 2 days ago, we painted the living room during a humid 30C/86F day, livened up a little with a couple of thunderstorms. Yesterday dawned warm again, but by late morning the wind had picked up, and our grandson, Graydon, wasn't too happy going out for a stroll in it. By early afternoon we were experiencing sustained winds over 80 km/50 mi per hour, with gusts up to 120 km/75 mi per hour. Then the power failed.

The high winds continued into the late afternoon, and they gradually decreased by evening. We were spared any wind damage and the power was restored after about 8 hours. I can't imagine what those poor folks in the southern US endured when tornado winds of 320 km/200 mi per hour came roaring through - they surely need our prayers.

The wacky weather blew the heat away - temperatures dipped to 6C/43F overnight and only rose to 12C/54F today - but I was pleasantly surprised to see that our forsythias barely lost a blossom, despite the howling winds. Many utility poles and large trees were snapped like toothpicks and yet these fragile little flowers clung tenaciously to their stems. It defies logic.

(60mm  f5.6  1/80 sec  ISO200)

(10-22mm  f9.0  1/50 sec  ISO200)


My backyard photo shoot was cut a little shorter than planned when this sky moved directly overhead and more blessings rained down upon us.

(18-55mm  f8.0  1/1000 sec  ISO200)

Rainy Day Blues

For a little background music for this post, you could do worse than listen to this.

I hope no one who reads this is from Vancouver (if you are, you'll be able to relate to this):

A woman was attending a conference in Vancouver. Each morning as she went to catch the bus outside the hotel to go to the conference centre, it was raining. On the third day, it was again raining incessantly as she clutched her umbrella at the bus stop. Exasperated, she turned to a young boy who was also waiting there.

"Young man", she asked, "tell me, does it ever stop raining here ?"

The lad turned to her and said "How should I know, lady. I'm only six !"

Well, apparently we are on our way to setting a rainfall record for April. Now, I don't want to compare our situation at all with those parts of the world where rain is causing serious flooding - it's nothing like that. But - the forecast is calling for more rain, every day through next Monday. Here's hoping that the sun makes a guest appearance before then.


(60mm  f2.8  1/80 sec  ISO100)

Just playin' around

Sometimes I don't wait for Phun Phriday to have some phun. On occasion I'll just grab the camera and play around with a subject and try out different settings, angles, light, lenses, etc to see what the possibilities are. Sometimes the results are unusual and the camera exposes things that the eye cannot see. We enter a world that we would never have known otherwise. Do you ever just 'play around' with your photography ?

(60mm  f3.5  1/100 sec  ISO100) 

Sayōnara ... soon

[for some musical accompaniment while you read this, click here]. Our sojourn in these warmer climes is coming to an end very soon. Reports say that the snow back home is mostly gone. Of course we realize that we're not out of the woods yet in that regard - last year we had a last winter fling on April 27 !

But we're looking forward to spring taking a firm hold 'back home' and producing scenes more like this.

(60mm  f11  1/6 sec  ISO100)

click on photo to enlarge

Shroom invasion !

A couple of days ago I was watering grass 'plugs' I had planted in some barren spots in the lawn (they have BIZARRE grass here in Florida if I haven't mentioned that before). Being a somewhat more observant individual these days as a result of practice during my 365 project, I spotted a few small cream-coloured dots on the ground near the stem of a cordaline plant in the flower bed. They struck me as a bit peculiar due to their smooth shape and colour, but I stayed focused on watering and I soon forgot about them.

Today as I happened by the same place, my eye again caught sight of them, except by this time they had grown about 50-fold ! The little dots were now transformed into curious aliens popping through the mulch to get a look at the world around them. I'll keep a close eye on them over the next few days in case they increase by another 50-fold !

(60mm  f22  1/5 sec  ISO200)

Double delight

I drew the babysitting assignment this evening (that's probably a misnomer - child sitter would be more appropriate I think), whilst the others went shopping (you might recall from earlier posts where shopping fits into my priorities). So I had a few minutes to review the shots I made today and show you our wonderful granddaughters who are staying/playing with us for the next 10 days. Oh yes, their parents are too.

I will have to use moments like this, when there's a lull, to post, respond to comments, and visit you - so I expect that to be sporadic over the next 10 days. (In the meantime I will sneak over here occasionally and have a peek at your comments ... shhh).

(both shots made with a 60mm lens at f5.6, ISO100 and shutter speeds of 1/125 and 1/800 secs)

Hailey - 6-1/2 going on 18

Lilly - turning 4 in April

Micro forest

Can you look at a photo you've made and know where you were, what you were doing, and perhaps even what you were thinking when you made it ? I can't claim that I can do it for all photos I've made and I certainly couldn't answer all 3 questions, but surprisingly I can for quite a number of them. Is that another definition of a photographic memory ?

I was on a hike in the fall with other family members up what is locally known as Blue Mountain (which is actually a tree-covered hill several hundred feet high - but when all the land around you is fairly flat you'd call a prominent bump on the landscape a mountain too). We were on our way down when I saw this patch of mossy greenery. I got right down on the ground and stuck my macro lens into the moss - these plants are actually only 3-5 cm/1-2 in tall, but they reminded me of a little forest. I suppose if you were an ant, this might be the forest you'd have to find your way through.

(60mm  f2.8  1/250 sec  ISO100)

Winter blahs be gone !

In my virtual travels around blogland I've seen people take different approaches to winter. [I need to digress momentarily and let you know that this is the first year we voted with our feet not to enjoy the many pleasures that winter can offer by heading to warmer climes. We're also all too familiar with the dreaded feeling that usually sets in around this time of year that winter simply will not end.]

Some people tackle winter head on: they strap on skis or skates, or hurtle downhill on toboggans and other conveyances and later gather round a bonfire with rosy cheeks while defrosting various parts of the body. Others ensure a good supply of books and firewood and hunker down to wait for spring. Still others deny the existence of winter altogether and pass the time viewing and posting photos of happier (read 'non-winter') times. But most of them by this point in the winter are more than willing to close this chapter and get on with spring.

So I thought I'd share a couple of shots made today to help move the yardsticks forward - no, nothing that will affect the weather - I'm talking about the mental yardsticks. And no, these aren't growing outdoors here (although our bougainvillea are lovely).

Enjoy - spring is just around the corner ! It's never failed to come yet.

(60mm  f6.3  1.6 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f5.6  1.0 sec  ISO400)

Tide's out ...

... or at least that's what it looked like to me at this point on the St. Lawrence River. Although the St. Lawrence is influenced by ocean tides, their effects disappear far from here, at Trois Rivières, Québec, so I'm not sure how this apparent high water mark developed on these rocks. It's possible that plants are/were growing in a narrow band to create the illusion.

(60mm  f8.0  1/15 sec  ISO200)

Back to the future

As I was combing through the archives I came upon a series of shots I made in spring last year (although I only needed one shot per day for the 365 project last year, I quite often found myself carried away and I'd make 50 or 100 shots in a day - no, not all were keepers). If all goes as planned (which is largely out of our hands), I hope to see scenes like this soon after we make our way back north.

(60mm  f2.8  1/500 sec  ISO200)

Pool-side guest

I spotted this 'visitor' inside the screened-in pool area today. From a distance it looked a bit like an anole, but as you can clearly see, that wasn't the case. I'm not sure if these creatures can jump but I was glad I had a camera between him and me.

(60mm  f10  1/125 sec  ISO200)

click on photo to enlarge (if you dare)

(60mm  f14  1/160 sec  ISO200)

The universe is unfolding as it should

(60mm  f5.6  1/20 sec  ISO200)

Looking on the bright side

There's a bit of good-natured banter between our kids (in Canada) and ourselves when the subject of weather comes up. They tell us about the latest storm and how much snow they got and how cold it is. We try not to dwell on the warmth and sunshine down here, and while they ask about it, I don't think they always want to know. Yes, they may have to shovel snow, but on the other hand they don't have to pull weeds, like the one I found today, out of the flower beds. From my point of view that's a fair trade.

(60mm  f4.5  1/320 sec  ISO200)

Just foolin' around

We've had intermittent internet issues (practising my alliteration) over the past 24 hours and I wasn't sure if I'd get access tonight since it had been dead since before 3:30 pm. Thunderstorms set in early in the evening, and got a little intense around 8:00 pm. That's when we had one extremely bright flash of lightning followed immediately by a tremendous crash of thunder. The lights went off for 2 seconds and it was eerie to be in pitch darkness after such an intense flash of light. Everything came back on, and lo and behold, I had internet access ! It was as though God had pushed the reset button !

I got the camera out and started doing a little experimenting, something I hadn't done indoors in a while. And it's not even Phriday yet.

(60mm  f6.3  5 sec  ISO200)