what early mornings bring....

This day started earlier than usual... 6 am... auch :)

This means that our morning walk after breakfast was early too but I don't regret leaving the house.

It was a misty morning and I decided to take my camera.  Good call!!

these are the results of a really nice morning...

It all began when I noticed that the newly installed fence on a pasture near our home was covered in tiny threads...

the entire fence (+ 10 meters long, min 2 meters high)!!

This is either a huge spider nest or one busy spider!! 

Then our buddy wanted to 'swim'... mist drifted over the surface of the tiny basin in the woods, but we couldn't stay too long because the little one was eager to go in too...

noooo, too cold!!!

Autumn shows its colours

The great beech tree... sees all....passes no judgement...

One of my favorite places here... look at all these lovely trees... 

My two favorites under my favorite tree... precious photo

Since the spider fence, my eyes were on the lookout for some more...et voilà...

Spiders too like plants in their homes

These last two pictures absolutely made my day... little pearls of dew on the web and the spider, patiently waiting in her tiny shelter...

A Poem is a spider web

Spun with words of wonder

Woven lace held in place

By whispers made of thunder

~Charles Ghigna~

To the Zoo!!

Free tickets to the Zoo!!
On a wonderful sunny day in August, we took our little rose, my godchild and his sister and they loved it!
The Zoo in Antwerp has recently renovated several areas and they did a good job creating more space for some of the animals.

Sometimes you need to do some daydreaming...

I can relate...

The owls could use some more space to fly...

How dare you disturb my good day's sleep!!

'And I said to Gisella, I said: anything that's the size of a domestic sheep...'

Wanna see me flip my ears? Do you?

Combine beauty with danger...

Cuddlesome seniors


The zoo is a fantastic place to show our children the animals we would hardly ever see in the wild...
however I can never visit a zoo without feeling guilty and hypocritical...
The feeling was worse when we went to the chimpanzees and one of them came up to the window and started gesturing and moving her lips as if to say: 'Can you take me with you...'
It could have been: can I wear your hat? but still we felt bad....


"The voice of the natural world would be:
'Could you please give us space and leave us alone to get along with our own lives and our own ways, because we actually know much better how to do it than when you started interfering.' "

~Jane Goodall~

Light

Light shows us beauty where we wouldn't expect it

Our imperfections and the marks life leaves behind become more visible

They show us as we are...

who we are...

If you look close enough, there's beauty everywhere,

you just have to find the right light

'There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in' ~Leonard Cohen~

Potato love

 

It is easy to halve the potato where there is love.

~ Irish saying ~

 

 

 



A little sunshine on rainy days

Let the rain kiss you.

Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops.

Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

~ Langston Hughes ~

 

 

 

Rock Stonecrop (Sedum forsterianum)

 

 

 

 

Yellow Hawkweed (Hieracium caespitosum)

 

 

Mugwort (Tanacetum vulgare)

 

 

 

 Ragwort (Jacobaea vulgaris)

 

 

  

Sunflower (Helianthus)

 



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...

 

 

 

 

Photochallenge Daily Post: Contrast

'There are dark shadows on the earth,

but its lights are stronger in the contrast.'

 

~ Charles Dickens ~

 

 

A forest in Saint-Léger



 

 

 

 

If you would like to add your view on Contrast, pleas visit the Daily Post

 



Longhorn moth

 

 

If there would be a contest for the longest antennae, we might have a winner here...

 

Nemophora degeerella

 

 

 

'The antenna is a growth not always

functional in all people '

~ Mia Anderson, 'The Antenna' ~

 

 

 

 



Photochallenge: Between

 

Gate of All Nations, Persepolis, Iran

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Persia !”the current shouted, and then slowed down.

But since the paddles were lost, there was no choice but to wait...

But what for?

 

“Sometimes the current can go slow

but you'd be surprised at what flows underneath.”

the lioness whispered.

 

~ My copy of 'Creation' by Gore Vidal ~

 

 

 

The challenge this week was to capture something in the middle of two things.

If you would like to participate in the weekly photochallenge, click through to The Daily Post.

 

 

 

Itsy Bitsy

 

Welcome home!

 

 

 

I've been waiting forever it seems

 

 

 

Right here so you could see me when you unlocked the door

 

 

 

 

The beetles and flies at the sight of him fled,

And even the birds were afraid.

He had two great nippers, and eight wicked eyes;

How he ran and what leaps he made !

 

 

I and all who lived in the garden knew

That terrible spider's lair,

And told their little ones, under their breath:

'O never, O never go there!'

 

 

~ Passage from 'Spider and Wasp' by A. Vine Hall ~

 

 

 

 



Sky on the road

 

Keep moving forward...

 

 

 

Towards the evening sky.
 

 

 

Its beautiful colours

encouraging to continue.

 

 

 

 

Every new day holds the promise of a beautiful sunset...

 

 

 

 

'Nothing behind me, everything ahead of me,

as is ever so on the road.'
~ Jack Kerouac, On the Road ~

 

 

Yellow extra photochallenge

 

Un soleil, une lumière que faute de mieux, je ne puis appeler que jaune, jaune soufre pâle, citron pâle or...

Que c'est beau le jaune!'

~ Vincent Van Gogh ~

(A sun, a light that for lack of anything better, I can only call yellow, pale sulphur yellow, pale golden lemon... How lovely yellow is!)



This week's assignment on The Daily Post is to  'share a photo that has a little something extra'

The Yellow Hawkweed is beautiful on its own, but this little hoverfly proves that nature holds different shades of one colour.

 

 

Curious Acrobat at work

 

 

Balance like an acrobat

Jump from work to play

 

 

 Some people say I'm a well-dressed rat

But I just let them say... 

 

 

 

'A well-developed sense of humor is the pole that adds balance to your steps

as you walk the tightrope of life.'

~ William A. Ward ~

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Photochallenge: Room ... for moor fun

 

 

There's always room for fun on the moor

'Brennan on the moor. Bold, brave and undaunted was young Brennan on the moor.'

(19^th century ballad about William Brennan, an Irish highwayman)

 

~

The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor.

And the highwayman came riding... riding up to the old inn-door.'

(Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman)

 

 

The daily post weekly photochallenge: 'In this week’s photo challenge, share your take on the idea of room — it could be an actual room in your house, a favorite gallery in your local museum, a cubicle at work. You could also take this challenge in a more abstract direction, and show us where you feel like you have room — or lack it.'