Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, I have a question:
Reflecting on life and love…
Reflecting on family…
Reflecting on Nature…
Tag Archives: nature photography
Weekly Photo Challenge: Precious Few
“After a ten-fold drop in the population of the eastern monarch butterfly population over the last decade, a 2016 study predicted an 11%–57% probability that this population will go quasi-extinct over the next 20 years.” Wikipedia
Monarch butterflies used to be so plentiful. I would see them as a child living in the Midwest and study the way they emerge from their chrysalis in school. The Fall breeze was always full of milkweed seeds floating by. Their habitat was ubiquitous – all that open field land hosted several species of milkweed, the Butterfly Plant. When we moved to California where I went to High School, I would see Monarchs by the thousands at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz hanging in great clusters on the eucalyptus trees. Then I moved back to the Midwest and noticed how quickly all that open field land, the prairies, was being developed into shopping malls, parking lots and subdivisions. Here in Milwaukee, we had a Monarch Trail on the County Grounds where there was about 350 acres of open land. Then the city decided to put in a “research park” – meaning technical buildings and apartments – and reduced the Monarch habitat to 11 acres adjacent to the interstate that’s been under construction for 2 years…so far. Once a common insect, the Monarch Butterfly is becoming increasingly rare on the landscape. The life of this wonder includes the amazing feat of migration, which is also being threatened by climate change.
The age of Kings is just about over, as the modern world encroaches more and more on his kingdom. I found this one at George W. Mead State Wildlife Area during the weekend of Independence Day.
I wish you a long life and numerous progeny, Little Prince.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Good Morning!
It’s all about the initiation. The beginning. The sun rising in the east and making the western sky rosy. The fog lifting. The commencement of new sound breaking out of silence. The birds, the frogs, calling back and forth. Another day, a new opportunity for life.
Looking at the effects that nighttime sunlessness has left on the world and realizing that other changes are still to come. The frost will melt. The air will warm.
It’s all about the sun. It’s come back again. Whatever we wished or feared, held in hope or anxiety, we have been given another day to work, to play, to love, to dread, or to be free. Continuation is the gift…or maybe the rule. What will you make of it?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Over the Top
Lately, the world seems to have fallen to new depths of misery. I’m sure ten examples have just popped into your mind. Into this awareness, I want to insert illustrations of the fact that at the same time, the world is more awesome than we can imagine. You’re having an experience that is very pleasant; you’re smiling; you’re happy. Suddenly, something happens that kicks it into another level. For example, my brother’s wedding reception. It takes place at the Winchester Mystery House, which is already very interesting and fun. Then, the Hora Loca begins to play and a new element is introduced….
We were not expecting that! Or that my 80-year old mother would join her on the dance floor. Here’s another…
I was working 5 different part-time jobs when I was offered a job as the Administrative Assistant at a conservation foundation. That meant that I would work in a farmhouse with just one other employee (the Executive Director) and help protect the natural environment. I took my camera to the top of one of the hills on our lands. It was the first day of June last year. The weather was perfect. The vistas were lush. And I was getting paid. Then, this swallowtail came by to welcome me.
The goodness of the real world transcends suffering, I have found. But you have to be open to receiving it as such. A simple, new breath can be the cherry on top of everything. Breathing in, I am alive. Breathing out, I am grateful.
Weekly Photo Challenge: In the Details
I’m with Jen. I love Nature in intimate detail. So much beauty! You have to slow down to find treasures under a leaf…
…or on top of a flower.
When you take your time to look at details, you can change perspective and admire Nature from different angles.
Awareness leads to appreciation. The world is fascinatingly intricate and beautiful.
Soon appreciation becomes an attitude. You see everything for its intrinsic beauty. 
Eventually, this attitude of wonder and respect gets converted to action.
May we all act peacefully and do no harm. 
Weekly Photo Challenge: Looking Up
Looking up is all about being aware of how wonderful the world is…as it is.
“Things are looking up”…
Go ahead. “Look on up from your life…” There’s so much more.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Opposites
There’s a jazzy Jim Henson Sesame Street song about this…
That’s the first thing that popped into my head. ‘Near’ and ‘far’ are opposite concepts. Concrete things are rarely exact opposites. More often, their differences are about contrast and juxtaposition. Here are some examples:
This complex world is full of interesting differences. My hope is that these contrasts become areas for exploration and awe, not areas for fear and hatred. You know what I mean?
Peace, friends. 🙂
Weekly Photo Challenge: Dangerous Curves
The environmentalist in me immediately thought of the graph of carbon emissions from “An Inconvenient Truth” with Al Gore up on a scaffolding trying to get across the frightening point of our increasing threat to our planet. But I don’t have a photo of that. I do have symbols of how man-made things are eclipsing the natural. I have playground curves with a very small moon…
and outdoor art thrown up against the sky…
and wheels, which have dominated the environment for about a thousand years now.
Finally, I have a symbol of Natural grace, curvy and sharp and wild. A yucca plant.
I think the most dangerous curves are the ones we humans impose.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Pure, Pristine Wilderness
Untouched, virgin wilderness is perhaps an impossibility on Earth these days. Are there any places that haven’t been touched with acid rain, air pollution or light pollution? Not likely, even if they have never been trammelled by human footsteps. Still, wilderness is an idea worth supporting and fighting for. Pure may only exist in our imagination, but it can have an impact there. What would the silence of machines, 
the darkness of the night sky,
the solitude of a forest mean to you?
Pure delight or pure dread?
Weekly Photo Challenge: Spare Me!
“…Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these, the least of my Brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” Here’s an opportunity for some deep questions: Who are “the least”? Who are “Brethren”? How do you treat them? And who is “Me”? There can be many answers to these questions, and they all help us to understand what is meant by kindness and mercy. At this stage in my life, I am trying to expand my concepts of Brethren and Me, to be more inclusive, more at One with all kinds of beings. Here are some of my new friends:
Spare
scillagrace 