Lots of Legs

It used to be that creatures like this would creep me out. Now I just find them quite fascinating. 

Not sure of the ID on this guy - 
some type of centipede maybe?

Discovered on a morning walk at Gateway Trail - 
 Blacksburg, Virginia

Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow.

~Henry David Thoreau

Atlas Moth

Like the sky opens after a rainy day we must open to ourselves.... Learn to love yourself for who you are and open so the world can see you shine.

~James Poland

Atlas moth seen at a butterfly conservatory in Georgia.

Artsy Version - HERE 

Brother and Sister

Just back from a week in Georgia. Our son had his Turning Blue Ceremony and his OSUT Graduation. He goes on to Airborne training from here. I am VERY Proud of him!

Brothers and sisters are as close as hands and feet. ~Vietnamese Proverb

Hover Fly Close-up

Photography takes an instant out of time, 
altering life by holding it still.

~Dorothea Lange

Happy Father's Day

My father didn't tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it.

~ Clarence Budington Kelland

Daddy and His Long Legs

Not quite what you were expecting, eh?

The best things in life are unexpected - because there were no expectations.

~ Eli Khamarov

Shake a Little Tail Feather

I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it's the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It's probably the most important thing in a person.

~Audrey Hepburn

Hoping you got a chuckle out of this one!

Print Available - HERE 

Ant - On the Edge

Sometimes when you think you are done, it is just the edge of beginning. Probably that's why we decide we're done. It's getting too scary. We are touching down onto something real. It is beyond the point when you think you are done that often something strong comes out.  
~ Natalie Goldberg

Scorpion Fly

At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time. 
 ~Friedrich Nietzsche

Mantis - After the Molt

As I was taking shots of the Mantis Exoskeleton I found the newly emerged Mantis.

Nature often holds up a mirror so we can see more clearly the ongoing processes of growth, renewal, and transformation in our lives.

~ Mary Ann Brussat

Mantis Molt

One of the highlights of one of my walks was finding the shed exoskeleton of a baby mantis. I didn't even realize the the mantis went through a molt.

This is the same picture. The first picture shows a rotated view but this picture show exactly how I found it - on the underside of a leaf.

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. The old skin has to be shed before the new one can come.

~ Joseph Campbell

Robin with a Tasty Treat

When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life. 
~ Jean Shinoda Bolen

Cardinal Close-Up

 Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow. 
~Douglas Pagels

Print Available  - HERE 

The Red Admiral Butterfly

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

Print Available - HERE 

Wishing you all a Happy Day!

Red Dragonfly - Holding On

A day is a miniature eternity.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Concentration

“It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.” ~Paul Strand

As many of you know - I don't do "People Pictures" very well. But sometimes I get lucky. This was one of the shots from the Beret Ceremony last weekend at Fort Benning, GA where my son is at OSUT Training - which combines Basic and AIT together. After this training he goes to Airborne school. I am a very proud Mama Bear!

Skipper Butterfly - A Summer Treasure

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

~ Albert Einstein

Print Available - HERE 

Birdie Bokeh - Friday Feathers

Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography. 
~ George Eastman

For some info on Bokeh - Click - HERE

A Feisty Lady

The best protection any woman can have ... is courage.

- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive. 
~ Eleonora Duse