Texture Tuesday/ 8-9-2011

it's all about the small stuff over at Kim Klassen's Cafe today. i used her  free 'Not too Shabby' texture with one of my photos (square crop). Thank you Kim~!~

today's gifts included:

• playing tug and fetch with River (she's not 'lost' anymore)
• watching the hummingbirds chase each other around the feeder
• participating in the texture tuesday challenge this week

today i mailed off all three small AAQI quilts. the process really is quite simple and i will be watching for when they've been posted for sale. i imagine it will be a while but having never done this before i'm really not sure.

 #3

yesterday i was out of town seeing the orthopedist. it seems i'm in need of a 'hip replacement'. the up side is that once it's done i won't be in pain anymore. the down side is it scares me. for now there are lots of insurance details to figure out as well as dates to clear on calendars and what-not. i may be less regular than ever with my posts as well as hopping around to all of the other blogs that i like to visit, but will get them in when i can. this is why i did not post my texture tuesday image. i hope to find time later in the week to work on that.

i promised to show progress of the latest AAQI quilt that i am working on so below you will see that the body of the piece now has the two 'border' pieces attached. i've cropped the photo so that the other two (raw woven edges) don't show much. i'll decide what i'm going to do with them later on.
next i will be cutting a pear shape (from the hand dyed fabric that i posted shots of recently)  and then i am looking forward to beginning the embellishment and appliqueing of it. i have no plan and will just stitch what feels 'right' as i go along.

toady's gifts have included:

• getting my AAQI package mailed
• taking some time to think
• being able to relax (a little) about some of the goals i haven't met

i've been away from home for a couple of days so am quite behind on just about everything. but while i was away from home i bought some extension rings for my camera and had to go out in the garden and give them a try . . . this is the first and only mantis i've seen this year.


one of the few remaining moss rose flowers.

ATC #2

photos/practice from the morning garden

Bugs and an Adventure Story from Honduras

the garden is currently plentiful of more than just flowers, fruits and vegetables. when i was out with my camera it seemed like there were beautiful bugs everywhere that i looked~!~ this butterfly was about the size of my thumbnail and the inside of the wings were an electric blue similar to the brightest blue areas on the outside of it's wings. the wind was blowing pretty hard but it was very patient with me and i did manage to get a couple of decent shots although none with the wings opened up. i'm not sure what kind of a butterfly it is. i do know that i used to see many more of them a few years ago than i see now.

not only are the (yukon gold) potatoes in abundance but so are the garden worms~!~ which is supposed to be a very good sign of soil health. are you able to find the worms sticking out from the dirt in this shot?

this mantid was basking in the last of the evening sunshine. i'm pretty sure it was a female judging by her super extended abdomen . . . and i think she's giving the camera the stink eye~!~

this little grasshopper thought it was all about camouflage and so didn't hop away when i was taking it's photograph.
i loved looking at all of the amazing details in this shot (both of the grasshopper and the tree bark it was sitting on)~!~

there are quite a few of these spiders in our garden. i know them to be an orb spider and generally beneficial. i managed to get a photo of both her (i think this one is female) topside (above) and her underside (below). she was accidentally disturbed when weeds were pulled from beneath one of the pine trees and so she is perched here on a tiny pine bough. she was roughly an inch and a half long (including leg span). usually they like to sit smack in the middle of their web and almost always have a zig zag bit of creativity woven into it. i will try to get some shots of one of the better looking webs before the summer is completely over.

apparently the bugs are plentiful in Honduras too, as last evening brought a call from my daughter with tales of a very large (5 to 6 inch) tarantula that came visiting one evening right before bedtime. the one thing that this courageous girl of mine seems to be truly afraid of is spiders. i don't have to tell you that in a tropical environment they thrive (meaning they grow quite large) in many variations and this has been a difficult thing for her to deal with. for the most part she manages to keep herself calm and does her best to ignore them, but apparently this particular specimen was just "too much" and she was forced to run for help. she describes a lot of arm waving and heart palpitations at this part in her story. the family that she is staying with was quick to jump into action with "dad" bearing a broomstick and "mom" at the ready to squash it. in the end, the reportedly large mess of the squashed spider (and all of it's remaining parts) was swept up and deposited outdoors. so other than a restless night of sleep and her host family's gentle teasing, all was once again well. poor kid.

Sunday Postcard Art/Botanica

this week i was so inspired by the theme for Sunday Postcard Art that i decided to make two paper postcards. both cards use plants/flowers that i pressed myself and a bit of map that is from a nearby area. i aged the map with tea/coffee and added faux postmarks as well as some brick colored ink to the edges. on the second card i created a tag with "Ephemeroptera" on it which i thought was wonderfully serendipitous: read my previous post regarding the mayflies discovered in my pond.

www.sundaypostcardart.wordpress.com

Life Emerging

this afternoon, with camera in hand, i went to sit by the pond just to see what i could see . . .

a small bug dive-bombed into the water and was struggling. i stuck my thumb in and under it in order to bring it out with as little damage as possible. and started snapping shots with my other hand. when it was in the water i thought that it was possibly a lacewing . . . you can see by the above shot that it was very small and the only reason that you can see it's details very well is because i was shooting in macro. and because of this, you can see that it's actually a very tiny dragonfly~!~

eventually it dried off enough so that it's wing was no longer stuck to my thumb and i gently placed it beside the pond among some small pebbles so that it could continue to dry off.



in the meantime, i took LOTS of photos~!~

at some point it was laying on top of a pebble in this superman position that you see above. i have no idea why, except maybe the surface was warm and it was trying to make the most of the situation. it stayed there like that for quite some time.



i know that i have included quite a few shots here and you may find this pretty boring but i was totally captivated and took more than 200 shots while watching this all happen . . . you should be able to click on any one of the shots to see details if you are so inclined. i have tried to include various perspectives for those who may be as fascinated as i was.

by this time even i was beginning to get a bit bored and it seemed to be wandering about quite a bit so i expected that it would eventually fly away . . .

and it probably did. my attention was back on the edge of the pond momentarily . . .

when i happened to notice this little swimmer. upon looking closely i thought that it looked quite a bit like the insect that i had rescued earlier. but there were a few differences . . . such as i couldn't see wings and the tail end of it had three long whisker like bits rather than two AND it seemed to be swimming about quite proficiently . . .
the shot isn't as clear partially because it's actually under the water but if you look closely you will see the differnces too.

i was pondering these differences and wondering what i was seeing when suddenly this little "being" bobbed straight up to the surface and split wide open and flew away~!!~ all of that took a split second and i was quite startled by the whole event.

and this empty bit of outer shell was all that was left . . . floating on the water . . .
i'm guessing that the first one just didn't have quite as successful of a launch and once it's wing was wet it was in trouble. the second one flew quickly off, up and away . . .

check out those ultra tiny hairs on the whiskery end bits. no wonder it was such a good swimmer while still in the "shell"~!!~

i'm so very delighted that we have this life cycle in our pond and that i have now seen a part of it that i had never seen before~!!~and with my camera at the ready, no less~!~

UPDATE*UPDATE*UPDATE

it's a mayfly~Ephemeroptera~!!!~

i have such terrific readers~!!~THANK YOU all for your interest and support and for the wonderful additional information that you have contributed.

Eileen of Keeping it Rural in Wisconsin (http://ruralwisconsin.blogspot.com/ ) has added: http://www.earthlife.net/insects/ephemer.html

and

jonskifarms (http://jonskifarms.wordpress.com/) has added: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/pictures/Ephemeroptera.html as well as: http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/resources/glenn_firebaugh/0374alt.jpg/view.html

****by the way: don't you just love the latin word for it~!!!?!!!!~ Ephemeroptera . . .

definately going on my list~!~

an early morning harvest from the garden produced a wonderful assortment of goodies~!~peas, zuchinni (green and yellow), basil (two different kinds), eggplants, cherry tomaotes and flowers~!!!!~ i'm just now realizing that i didn't upload the shot that had the eggplants in view . . . oh well, you'll just have to trust me, i guess. a detail of the yellow squash and the purple basil. i thought that they looked so pretty together.

and this is an "after" shot of the harvest. i roasted both yellow and green zuchinnini, tomatoes, both kinds of basil and the eggplants in a hot oven with a drizzle of olive oil and some sea salt. added a small grind of black pepper to the food once on the plate. i wish that i had done a better job on the photo . . . i was sort of in a hurry to eat it, i guess. it was delicious~!!!!!~

i also managed to pick a few stems of lavender and some grasses for a small vase for the table. i didn't take a shot of them but there was another small vase with some roses too. when i was finished with the early morning harvest my hands smelled like lavender, basil, tomato and roses all mixed together. i'm pretty sure that is what heaven is going to smell like~!!~

and now for just a couple of "whimsy" shots:
a small heart shaped stone in a periwinkle colored ceramic bowl

and an early morning moth on the screen door

if you click on it to enlarge you will see some wonderful details.

i finished this fabric postcard yesterday and am pleased with the final results.

i've begun to distress some sheet music for another paper collage.

yesterday i took a break from blogging and collage work. read a little bit and had a nap with the cat. then read some more. it was nice. now that i have accomplished my 365 photo a day discipline i feel a little bit more relaxed about what has to be done and when . . . i think this sunday postcard art challenge is going to be a great fit for the next little while . . .

today we decided to visit the lake. Angel Lake is a relatively small mountain lake that sits in a rocky "bowl" surrounded by mountains. it's at such a high altitude that many of the trees and flowers are just now beginning to really get leaves and blossoms. it was a beautiful day to be there.

i so rarely take photos that aren't macro that it feels very odd to do so and i really REALLY need to practice~!!~but here you have it; a landscape/lakescape shot. so now i'll get back to the more comfortable realm of the macro.

found these mushrooms by a very tiny stream (created by snow melt). they were growing all stacked up on top of each other like little apartment houses . . . the light was very dappled due to the dense foliage over their "heads" which is why i got the wonderful glow in this shot~!~it's a fairey tale shot . . .

this is a tiny grass flower that was nestled in with a thick layer of mosses.

this is what greed looks like~!~

:)

this ant (and some of it's buddies) were busily licking out (all) the nectar from the middle of these blossoms.

yum. yum. yum.

not sure just what kind of butterfly this is. it's very small and much bluer when it's wings are spread open.

i can never resist

taking a closer look

at the lichens on the rocks.

they can be so varied in their shapes and colors~!~

we found a water snake that allowed me to get a few shots. you can see the very tip of his tongue if you click on the photo to enlarge it.this shot makes it look a bit menacing but it was just very interested in getting back into it's own environment and not at all looking to hurt us.

i'm very happy to have gotten to spend some time with my daughter in this beautiful area today. it was her idea to go up and i'm glad that we did.

tomorrow we will be taking an early morning trip to the airport to send her off to Honduras. everything seems to be in order and she is VERY excited to begin this newest adventure in her life.