The Moon Came Down To Earth

The local Moonflowers are blooming now! In the daytime, they are tightly shut! I almost think they are prettier when they are closed.

It is at night, in the dark, when these flowers open. Here are my night pictures.

Here is the bush under a trellis, with a mirror behind it. You can just make out the top of our car at the bottom of the mirror image

Beside the Moonflowers is a small bathtub garden.

A little pause in life, while daylight lingers
Between the sunset and the pale moonrise,
When daily labor slips from weary fingers,
And soft grey shadows veil the aching eyes.
~Sarah Doudney

Mystery Flower

Aren't these flowers adorable? They look like little purple balls. I found them at a garden center, and had never seen anything like them. I wrote the name down, and promptly lost it! Anyone know?

“People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us.”

~Iris Murdoch

The Flags

Today we hung our our fall flags! Our old ones had become pretty faded, so I found a couple at almost half price! We have a little one out by the street, and a big one hanging by the front door.  Happy fall, y'all!

The bright summer had passed away, and gorgeous autumn was flinging its rainbow-tints of beauty on hill and dale. ~Cornelia L. Tuthill

Burned By The Lensball

I am so clumsy that it figures there would be a way to be injured by my new lensball. I kept getting a sharp pain in my hand while holding it. The pain was a burn. You know how you can kill ants by focusing the sun on them with a magnifying glass? Well, that was the way I was holding the ball! Phil showed me a better way to hold it. I forged ahead as we went looking for lensball subjects. Holding it in the car, it got this cool rainbow! And there was no rainbow in the sky!

So here are some of my first attempts. A hot air balloon, upside down of course.

Foxglove flowers.

A wind spinner.

A hibiscus.

A lily.

At least I had a few successes.

"In memory's telephoto lens, far objects are magnified."

 ~John Updike

Wired

The other day, the birds were landing on the wires. By the hundreds. As far as the eye can see, there was no end to them. And I began to wonder why they all faced the same way. So I researched it.

It's the wind, you see. Birds fly and land into the wind for maximum lift and control. They all face the direction they were flying when they landed, and the direction they will need to go when they take off. Which is into the wind. If the wind totally dies down, they begin to preen and hop around; then they will face different directions.

“Wind tries to show Tree how to run wild.
Tree:  “I cannot leave this place.”
Wind:  “Then let’s dance.”
~Terri Guillemets

Sunday Sightings

This evening when we were out, we had a couple awesome sightings! We saw this Great blue Heron fishing in a tiny pond. He was sneaking around very slowly, trying to catch a fish.

Then as we drove down the street, something ran across the street in front of the car!

It was a little fox! I am still kind of unsure of this, because his tail was not big and fluffy. But maybe he was real young. When he turned to look back, my camera was ready.

After one look back, he was off into the corn.

“Animals have these advantages over man: they never hear the clock strike, they die without any idea of death, they have no theologians to instruct them, their last moments are not disturbed by unwelcome and unpleasant ceremonies, their funerals cost them nothing, and no one starts lawsuits over their wills.”

~Voltaire

Just Some Flowers

"Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful."

 ~Jim Carrey

Just Peachy

Come with us today on our trip to Chiles Peach Orchard. It has been here ever since I can remember, and a trip to the country will do you good!

Let's drive past streets with names like this.

We're at the tiny post office now; almost there!

Peaches!

Here we are looking at the outside of the building.

Let's go inside and shop!

And this is not nearly all they have. Peach ice-cream and all flavors of homemade fudge are also for sale. So what did YOU buy?

That a slender wooden tree twig can give birth to luscious pears, apples, peaches remains an extraordinary feat.

 ~Dr. SunWolf