Cave Cricket

Nature never hurries. Atom by atom, little by little, she achieves her work. Ralph Waldo Emerso

I was on my knees trying to focus my iphone on the water meter numbers.

And Needless to say, when I flipped the cover these
legs appeared.  Oops?  What the heck?
So, one hand on the cover and the other with my
iphone managed a shot.
The long portion of leg was about 2 inches?

I then flipped the cover over and this huge insect crawled
out of the hole.
Another one handed shot (not easy) and managed to get
a pretty clear picture.

 The color is pretty much what I saw.  It didn't hop off, just
wandered off into the grass.
I went on line and described this critter and the best answer is a Cave Cricket.  It has several other names in other parts of the country.
As long as I have been gardening and working in the yard, I have never seen anything like this.
Much to my distress, these can become house pests???

Wild Onions

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them.A.A. Milne

This beautiful flower comes up in the Spring.  The little black buttons are seeds.

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.
Gerard De Nerval

These beauties come up in the oddest places.  This year it was on the side of the ditch in front of our house.

I almost didn't notice as there was already a wealth of weeds growing.

                                              Don't forget to click on picture for larger

No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.

Sheryl Crow

August moon 2019

"The moon is at her full, and riding high, 
Floods the calm fields with light. The airs that hover in the summer sky 
Are all asleep to-night."
-  William C. Bryant

I walked outside at dusk and saw this glorious moon.  It took my breath away.
Run to the house, grab the camera that was fortunately on a tripod.
Then try to capture the magic.
Oops!  Standing in a fire ant bed !!!  Not easy to get a good shot with little devils biting my ankles!!
Moved to the center of the street and managed to capture one more moon.

"Once upon a Lammas Night
When corn rigs are bonny,
Beneath the Moon's unclouded light, 
I held awhile to Annie...
The time went by with careless heed
Between the late and early,
With small persuasion she agreed
To see me through the barley...
Corn rigs and barley rigs,
Corn rigs are bonny!
I'll not forget that happy night
Among the rigs with Annie!"
-  Robert Burns 

Stressed Cardinal

There is nothing in which the birds differ more from man than the way in which they can build and yet leave a landscape as it was before.  ~Robert Lynd, The Blue Lion and Other Essays

I have been watching the female Cardinals change color.
Took these of several looking quite stressed.

We keep fresh water and the feeders filled as much as possible.  Some mornings I look out and the squirrels and doves have emptied them.

To me this bird looks so tired

 God gives every bird its food, but He does not throw it into its nest.  ~J.G. Holland

Don't forget to click on picture for larger view.

I have seen animals that hold their mouths open or tongue hanging out. Never thought birds did it as well.

An explanation for the ragged looking feathers.
Birds have to molt in order to survive, because feathers wear out from physical abrasion and bleaching from the sun. Once a year (in the late summer for temperate species) birds grow an entirely new set of feathers through a complete molt. As birds grow new flight feathers, they are particularly vulnerable.Jul 15, 2013

Butterflies in May

There were still some flowers blooming and the garden was a busy place with tiny butterflies I could not get a picture of.
These two were resting and let me take their picture.



If nothing ever changed, there'd be no butterflies. ~
Author unknown

Red Admiral

Butterflies are self propelled flowers. ~R.H. Heinlein

Hackberry Emperor

The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets all the publicity. ~Attributed to George Carlin

Hackberry Emperor underside of wings

Spring roses

Sometimes Mother Nature has the answers when you do not even know the questions - Keith Wynn

How strange that Nature does not knock and yet does not intrude - Emily Dickinson

I Take issue with Emily; she did not live in Texas with the wild, wild rose vines that swallow up a wild grape grove in one year!!

Warm spring morning.

These wild rose blossoms are only about 2" in full bloom.
They are amazingly photogenic.