This made my day!

A couple of evenings ago, I decided to wander around outside after supper with the camera and iPad, just to see what I might find to take photos of. I almost switched from my zoom lens to the regular one on the DSLR, but for some reason decided not to.

First I saw this milkweed flower, which seemed extra bright and pretty in the golden hour sunshine.

Then I turned around, and much to my surprise, I saw this staring at me!

Was I ever glad I'd left the zoom lens on! It wasn't terribly far away, but the zoom was needed for shots like these.

It posed nicely, then trotted off for a different pose. Very cooperative subject, it was.

Such a dainty, lovely creature! I love how the spotted area of its coat looks like a blanket was laid across its back.

It stomped its little foot at me a couple of times, then off it went, showing off its feathery white tail.

What fun shots! Yes, my day was made! These are some of my favorite photos ever, and I think I'm going to print them all.

Miscellany

One evening during the "golden hour", it was so lovely outside (in other words, not windy) that I wandered around snapping photos. Here are some of the things that caught my eye.

A robin's egg that didn't make it to the nest:

A maple leaf that was full of gall mite nodules:

A closer look at some more of them (kinda creepy, huh?):

An old empty milkweed pod, contrasted against the new spring growth:

Wild phlox Update: A very observant reader discovered that these are not wild phlox but "Dame's Rocket" growing in the ditch (thanks, Jenny!). In my reading, I found that they're an invasive species that crowd out natural wildflowers and should be removed. Hmm... I think I'll leave them there... I enjoy them. ;)

Half a moon:

Rolling hills of new crops:

And I didn't have to walk more than 50 feet for any of them.

"Golden hour" photos, Part 3

Thanks, Mark, for mentioning the milkweed pods (in yesterday's comments). I'd forgotten about these pics I'd taken earlier. They're not from my "walk", but they were taken during the "golden hour" another evening.

For those of you who don't know, this is what milkweed seeds look like in the pod. These happen to be exposed because I'd run over the pod with the lawn mower (the plant was leaning over onto the ground).

The pod contains all those seeds, and when it opens on its own, the seeds get blown around on this silky, fluffy stuff, and they spread far and wide.

The above photo was from another pod hit by the mower, and I took it only to show the pretty "fluff". When a pod opens naturally, each seed floats around in the air via its own bit of fluff, not in a big clump like that.

Incidentally, if you look VERY CLOSELY at that above pic, in the bottom right quadrant, you will see a super-tiny pinkish star-shaped flower. Cool, huh? I didn't even notice it until I was editing the photo.

Back to the milkweed seeds... here's a size comparison for you:

They look rather golden in that sunlight, too, don't they?

Snow?

Great big puffy flakes?

Umm.... NO! Not snow, thank goodness!

Those big puffy 'things' are from here:

Yes, milkweed seeds. So pretty!

Here's what they look like packed neatly together in the pod:

They just seem to explode out and go flying everywhere on the breeze.

This next one's my favorite. Like how shiny it is in the sun?

And then an assistant showed up for the photo shoot.

His sister came, too. To give you a little size perspective, I guess. ;)

Thanks Hairry and Princess!

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Random fallness, part 4

Even weeds make for pretty fall pics.

Like milkweeds:

Or goldenrod:

(Click any photo to enlarge.)

Endings

Although it's warmed up again the last couple days, earlier freezing temps brought an end to many things. I took in the birdbath a few days ago. I hadn't seen any birds at it for quite awhile. And eventually ice would be a little hard to drink.

And here are the last tomatoes of the season. (Yep, the pickers missed a few, Kris.) Rather pretty, aren't they? I pulled the frozen vines out yesterday. So the garden is done for the year.

Okay, one of them isn't totally pretty. But I bet the deer is!

And remember the milkweed? Here's what it looks like now.

I mowed the lawn one last time yesterday. Nice to have that job done for the year, too.

Milkweeds and milkweeds

Jess and Alex spent Memorial Day weekend in the Smoky Mountains, and while there they noticed a very pretty flower, but they didn't know what it was. Jess posted this photo of it on her blog...

...and one of her readers informed her that it's a milkweed plant. It's not quite like the ones we have around here, so I've been waiting to find one of ours blooming, just so I could satisfy my curiosity as to how different they really are. Finally, yesterday I happened to see this one, with all stages of blooms.

I'd never realized they were actually so pretty! :-)

Even weeds can be pretty