This finally happened . . .

"The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses."

~ Hanna Rion


Big, huge, sigh . . .
I can hardly believe it's been a month since I've been in this space.
And,
I can hardly believe that we just got the flower garden planted, in mid July!

But none the less, it really makes my heart happy to see all this color, and well,
they were 50% off. That sale usually happens at the end of May, but I suspect
our lingering spring with cooler temps pushed it back. And you know, I just wasn't
about to miss out on that sale, so my patience and I hung in there.

Coneflower, angelonia, pentas and salvia. Black eyed susan, gomphrena and zinnia's.
Purples and pinks, oranges and red. White, yellow and blues.

I had to move the birdbath closer to the sidewalk so I can empty it every night...you know, mosquitoes.

And I have had more fun making dreamy Monet-ish photos of this space.

{KK pinit8)

There have been many visitors, swallowtails, gulf fritillaries, monarchs, skippers, painted ladies, and even a question mark. No, really, that's the name of the butterfly....there is even one called a coma.

I've been trying to live simple in between complicated and unexpected.
But it takes a little practice,
to make new habits,
to revel in the sometimes overlooked moments
ones that no matter how small are significant and desire our consideration.
To appreciate them,
and to linger with all five senses.

I'm also over at Focusing on Life today. A very short story about one day last summer . . .
Please come on over and join me, us!

Until next time,
love, kim

sharing with Texture Tuesday, Sweet shot Tuesday

Five feet from my front door . . .

. . . there is a magical place.

It may not be a national treasure, but it's my treasure none the less.

 And I am so grateful for it.

"Nature is man's teacher. She unfolds her treasures

to his search, unseals his eye, illumes his mind,

and purifies his heart; an influence breathes from

all the sights and sounds of her existence."

- Alfred Billings Street

Sometimes it's hard to get anything done . . . because of the five feet out my front door.

When it comes to critters I seem to have an eagle eye, and you know when I was younger, I could

see caterpillars crawling across the road . . . while I was driving. Yep, that was hazardous. 

We did some tidying of the garden about a week ago and then a few days later I went out to tidy up

all the mess on the sidewalk. But, the only thing I ended up accomplishing was with my camera. This little guy

hopped across my path and started it all. Believe it or not this toad is only about an inch. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pose a toad in a small puddle and ask it not to move? And he was already feeling so defeated by our photo session that I decided I would keep to myself the fact that his nose looked like that of a cat.

I have had lots of spider webs lately too, or more like spider condos, one built on top of another and another. This web was only about 3 inches wide and the spider couldn't have been more than 1/4". Yep, I had to get within an inch of my life to get this. Did I mention it was a little windy...whew!

Oh, and these jumping spiders . . . are just the most curious spiders ever, seriously. When ever I'm outside

sitting on the front porch there they are, they just show up and always end up checking out my books, my coffee, AND, they seem to love my camera! This one, was no exception. It was so hard to get this because he/she/it kept getting closer and closer and would raise up it's front legs like they do before they jump and I would have to back off. But, at one point it was just a little quicker than I was. Yep, through my lens I watched it jump out of my frame and towards me. They usually just end up on my lens, but I couldn't find this one. He either missed entirely or ended up in my hair? All I know is that they have the cutest eyes with so much personality. You can beg to differ, that's okay I still like you! ;)

It was a total critter smorgasbord. I found this little green tree frog just chillin' between two stacked pots. I think he was enjoying the 90 % humidity that day, me not so much!

This is the ever elusive Tersa Sphinx Moth that comes out at dusk. You know, when there just isn't any viable light to take a photo. I had to bump my ISO into oblivion just to get this one. I'm still waiting on those three pupa to make an appearance into the world.

UPDATE: Right before I went upstairs to post this, I checked on those pupa like I do everyday, AND

guess what? One pupa is empty. I found it hanging on the stripped milkweed plant in the Monarch enclosure!! Whoo Hoo

And, I'm still seeing butterflies in the garden. Thank goodness for purple lantana as it has a very long growing season here. This is a Gulf Fritilary and a little hard to capture as they are always flittering. Have had some Long Tailed Skippers too but they have been hard to get as well. Still seeing a few Monarchs, and have one more chrysalis. I'm hoping it will hold out until my in-laws get here this weekend so that they can watch it emerge. Two more (the last ones) from that batch I found in my back yard are now j-hanging.

Hope you all have a great weekend. I will be getting ready for my in-laws who will be joining us for Thanksgiving. In fact this will be the first time any family has joined us at our home for turkey day. I don't dare go anywhere with my camera in the next two days, too much to do, so little time.

Until next time...

Love, Kim

sharing with Little Things Thursday, Thursdays Favorite Things, Friday Photo Journal

Friday Finds, Photo Story Friday

A little stroll . . .

"There is an art to wandering. If I have a destination,

a plan - an objective - I've lost the ability to find serendipity.

I've become too focused, too-single-minded.

I am on a quest, not a ramble.

I search for the Holy Grail of particularity,

and miss the chalice freely offered, filled full to overflowing.

- Cathy Johnson, On Becoming Lost



Oh how I love this quote! You know wandering IS one of my favorite things to do, but sometimes
time doesn't allow (or my budget) to wander to some of the places I would really love to visit.
But that's okay, because if I could never go to another place, I would, be quite content to just wander
the 8 acres of my favorite place, Maas Nursery. It sits just along Galveston Bay and borders the
coastal birding trail I like to visit, a two for one!

It's where I went last weekend in a quest to quiet my mind from the busy week. And it seems fall is
just as busy a time as spring for all the bees, who were in abundance gathering their stores for the
cooler weather . . . if we ever get any.

This bee took off right as I was snapping the picture, but there is something about the perspective of this
that I really liked.

There were tables upon tables of beautiful pink Dianthus....

And morning glory vines blooming. And then I heard it,  this little sound,

that is very distiguishable and matches its sweet owner . . .

{Flower art Friday}

 . . .  and then I saw it - he flew down from the tall Oak trees to perch on this wire above the table
that held the Flame Acanthus.

And then down for a little treat, but I'm not sure who it was sweeter for, him or me!

Okay, I think it was me . . .

No, I'm sure it was me!! You know, these little gems are soooo fast, and it was almost dusk and the light

was fading, so I had to really bump my ISO just to get a half-way decent speed.

{Photograph life}

And this week at Pixel Dust, Bonnie asked us to use the prompt to compose a seven word sentence that describes your life or experience or process as an artist (be it photographer, painter, mixed media artist, digital artists, whatever...) and marry your sentence to a piece of photo art that somehow illustrates your sententce. 

And this is what I came up with . . . finding Bonnie's blog, and her link up of photo art opened up my world

to a whole new meaning of creating and she generously shares free textures for us to use in our creations. As usual I waited til that last minute to create this, and not sure I'm completely happy with it. But Bonnie just know you have been instrumental in opening up a new world for me, and I thank you!  

 Wishing you all a weekend full of wonderous serendipity!!

Love, Kim

XO

Sharing with, Photo Art Friday, Flower Art Friday, Photograph Life, Finding Serendipity