Uncategorized · daily prompt · Nature · Nature photography · Photography · spiders

Here’s A Spider

How do you balance work and home life?

Actually, here are a few spiders. Happy Saturday.

When I see a daddy longlegs, I’ve got to high five at least one leg.
Tiny spider web covered with dew, inside of my lavender seedlings.
This is Katherine I. She was my friend. She was fierce. She was an Orb Weaver. She made her home on my porch a few years ago. I watched her repair her web every morning. It was fascinating. She lived well into December of that year and left two egg sacs, which I moved to a safer place. I miss her.
Katherine doing Katherine things.
RIP, Katherine I. She lived until mid December of that year. I promised her I would take care of her babies and move them to a safer place for the winter. And when she died, I scooped her up and put her in this tissue, and then buried her in front of her clematis vine home.
Katherine’s web. This is a typical feature of an orb weaver’s web. They are very large webs, taking up the spanse between the two porch poles.
A spiderweb captured on a chilly morning.
Me looking for Katherine while taking photos of my wig – we were friends and all, but I didn’t want an orb weaver in my hair. Respect where respect is due.
animals · daily prompt · Flowers · Nature photography · Photography · Summer

Summer

Daily writing prompt
What is your favorite type of weather?

I live in the Northern Hemisphere, so summer will be starting in June. I live on the East Coast of the US where it gets very hot and very humid in the summer. Not so long ago, the heat and the humidity didn’t bother me. Since I’ve had this migraine diagnosis, I’ve learned migraine brain does not like heat nor humidity.

But Amy‘s brain can do whatever it likes.

The rest of Amy likes walking in the cool, soft grass with bare feet, wearing sundresses, feeling the warmth of the air and the sun on her skin, seeing the trees, lush in all their summertime greenness, smelling the warm air and hints of a storm brewing. (Her birthday is also in the summer, so maybe she is biased towards the season.) Sitting under a canopy of leaves looking for four leaf clover while sipping an iced tea or eating an ice cream bar is considered the finer things in life. Peeking out the window as it gets closer to lightning bug season, waiting for the first bioluminescent buggy butt still brings her great joy after many years. She still squeals when she sees it. Watching the bunny rabbits play late into the night when it is still light out is one of her other favorite sights. Spotting hummingbirds is at the top of the list of Exciting Events. Chasing butterflies with a phone camera is a close second, although the butterflies do not feel the same, and she thinks they even give her the side eye as they fly away. No matter. She will chase rainbows after a heavy storm and wait for the butterflies to return.

Summer Bunny just outside my front door
A Monarch who felt sorry for me and let me take a photo
Black Tiger Swallowtail
A bumblebee butt in the peony, with a large amount of pollen stuck to its leg. The wings are pixelated because they are moving too fast to be captured.

Yes, I took all of these photos. And yes, none of these creatures were happy about it. My neighbors likely believe me to be just a touch off…but it’s not my fault. They won’t stop for the camera and I have to chase them down, yelling for them to please stop and just let me take the photo.

daily prompt · Summer · tennis · Writing

Creatively Speaking

When are you most happy?

When I am creating another world through writing, showing a glimpse of a world through photography, sometimes combining the two. Making basil pesto pasta sauce from scratch. Baking brownies. Spending time with animals. Wrapping Christmas presents.

Creating something or some things that will be perceived by or given to others for their hopeful enjoyment is usually when I am most happy.

Watching tennis makes me happy. I’m not creating anything but noise for anyone else, but I enjoy watching tennis, especially from the stands.

I am also most happy in the summer. When I can walk through the soft, cool grass, with bare feet and feel like the warm air is an enveloping calming blanket, I am content – the combination of happiness and stillness.

poetry · Summer

The Corner of Summer

At the intersection of lightning bugs

And honeysuckle

We would sit in your yard

And you would smoke your cigar

The highway nearby

With speeding cars that sound like flies

And trains that rattle like thunder

Move on just as time does

And the scenes that were dreams

Remain so

It snowed today

The honeysuckle sleeps

Lightning bugs slumber

It’s the icy road of winter

No more the corner of summer

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