This handsome but voracious Japanese beetle photographed in Maine at the botanical gardens is obviously on a path of destruction. Even though he was bent on the destruction of this lovely rose his beauty is what I saw first. So he fits very nicely into the Tiny Wildlife gallery on my site: https://elliekennard.ca/ekgallery/tiny-wildlife/
See the full size image on my website : www.elliekennard.ca/beetle
Ladybirds, ladybugs or ladybird beetles* are usually associated with the outdoors, climbing up plants and flowers in their bright hard shiny shells of red and black. This little one will not be staying there for long as the weather was becoming too cold and had crisped the leaves of this plant, one of the signs that it was time to seek shelter before winter arrived.
Here in Canada, these insects cannot survive in the months of winter cold and so they all search for a warm place where they can stay safe and wait for the spring. Somehow, despite the screens on our windows, they manage to get into our house where they choose to lodge in the top corners of our cupboards and bedroom walls and ceilings, where they congregate in big heaps. I don’t mind seeing them there as they always remind me that if they can be patient just sitting there waiting for the winter to pass, then so should I.
As the days start to lengthen and the warm sun streams through windows, they begin to wake up and start to stretch their little legs and wings, preparing to start their new cycles, raising their young in the great outdoors. While it’s still too cold outside, the ones in our house take their daily (and nightly) exercise in our bedroom, landing on lampshades and even on our faces at odd times in the night. I was shocked when I realized that they have a little nip to them when they are upset (when you accidentally brush them off your face too roughly when you are woken up by them!) I like them much better when they are outside, like this one.
View the whole “Tiny Wildlife” gallery here: “Tiny Wildlife”
* Ladybirds (UK), ladybugs (US): From Wikipedia “Entomologists in the United States widely prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as these insects are not true bugs.”
The world has lost a great musician this week so purple seems to be the appropriate colour in memory.
Somehow seeing a grouping of African Violets in a multiple exposure image intensifies the experience as they are photographed from multiple angles and combined. This one is a lovely rich purple with beautifully contrasting yellow centres. The tiny hairs on the petals seem to be highlighted by this process.
View the full “When Life is a Blur” image gallery here.
I was brought up in a big city (Montreal) and I remember so well as a little girl the rare times when I was coming home with my parents late at night in the winter (had we been perhaps visiting a friend or relative?) in the back seat of our car. My mother sat with me, I remember and I was cuddled into her side against her warm soft coat of some kind of fur, smelling her perfume and hearing her soft voice. The car was warm though it was wintry cold outside. From that feeling of sleepy, comfortable love and security I would watch the city lights below me as we drove across the top of Mount Royal. I would wait for the sweep of the searchlight on the top of the mountain as it made its way back around the dark sky time after time. Though this was very long ago now, still, the lights of a city always bring back some of that same feeling.
This was taken during our visit to the city of Québec.