European Alder Spittle Bug

Climb little spittle bug

uninterupted

 

 

Aphrophora alni

 

 

'Keep close to Nature's heart...

and break clear away, once in awhile,

and climb a mountain

or spend a week in the woods.

Wash your spirit clean.'

~ John Muir ~

 

 



What are you, yellow-bellied?

 

Sciara hemerobioides

 

 

 

 

'I say you're a bunch of gutless lily-livered, yellow-bellied eastern sissies.

All you've done since you got here was whine and complain.

Now why don't you go back and leave the west to the real men !'

 

~Bartender in Wagons East, 1994~

 

 

Wait for it on 0:54

 

 

candy stripe lavender

 

 

 

The candy stripe spider (Enoplognatha ovata) on a lavender sprig



 

 

 

I wonder if spiders get the same soothing effect lavender gives me when I smell its wonderful perfume...

 

 

 

 

 

'My dear, have some lavender,

or you'd best have a thimble full of wine

your spirits are quite down...'

~John O'Keeffe, A Beggar on Horseback ~

 

 

 

Chuck sings

Chuck is the wild European Serin (Serinus serinus) that lives in our garden.

 

I caught him on the rare occasion that he brought his evening song in a tree close to our home, but I didn't like the result...

 

 

 

So from one rare occasion to another, I edited the picture. 

 

 

 

 

This is my favorite colour: The black outline of a tree against a deep blue evening sky...