Fall Reflections — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.
Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
The winds will blow their own freshness into you,
and the storms their energy,
while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.
John Muir
So well said! — kenne
by Ethel Mortenson Davis
After the storm,
on our morning walk,
deer tracks ran
along the water’s edge
in the heavy snow.
These were running tracks,
with great distance
between each footprint,
its force making
a deep imprint in the snow.
Yesterday was the last day
of hunting season.
A heavy snow and ice storm
ran all day,
keeping hunters at bay.
Because hunters cannot
hunt along the water’s edge,
these deer found refuge
along the lake’s shore,
among the cedar groves—
respite for another year.
There is so much beauty in this world. — kenne
My recollection is that beginning with those empty lots in East Flatbush Brooklyn, they awaiting the inevitable construction of new homes, and continuing here in Georgia’s Piedmont region in 2019, I have seen some 2,867 Monarch butterflies. That includes Monarchs seen in New York state, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Arizona, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, Arizona, Missouri and Oklahoma.
When I saw this coupled pair of Monarchs, he seen here with wings spread, in the Perennial Gardens of the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, these 2 Monarchs were the largest Monarchs I’d ever seen. She flew onto this Lantana plant first, and moments later he flew to her, with much force, and they joined bodies.
I stood there, wondering why these Texas Danaus Plexxipus individuals were so much larger than any I’d ever seen before??
Jeff
Taken in early December 2011, this may still my only image of a dragonfly in flight. — kenne
Dragonfly In Sabino Canyon — Images by kenne
Near the end of last Wednesday’s SCVN Nature Walk, leader Ned Harris lead us over to a marshy area near Sabino Creek where he had seen dragonfly a few days earlier. Since the cooler weather isn’t conducive for dragonfly flight, I wasn’t expecting much. So, not surprisingly, there were only a few dragonflies darting around the small marsh area. I walked out near where one had found a favorite place, which I had notice, in his flight, he kept coming back to the same spot. The top image is the spot, and the lower image is dragonfly in flight — my first ever.
kenne
Male Phainopepla In Sabino Canyon — Image by kenne
December Desert Sunset (Tucson Basin) — Image by kenne
— Dr. Seuss
Blues Legend 
