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“And I wonder if the caterpillar at the threshold of death ever knew that she would get metamorphosed into a butterfly that she could fly.” ― Chirag Tulsiani Our camp area was overrun with these caterpillars this past weekend. We’ve been going to the same location for fourteen years and I can’t recall ever seeing so many tent caterpillars, though I did not actually see a colony in any neighbouring trees. On researching… Read More
“Dream high, beyond the sky; no matter wings so small, keep vision bright; just dare to learn, for you are born to fly.” ― Vikrmn I don’t get tired of these plentiful, colourful butterflies. When trying to figure out the exact species, which I was unable to do, I discovered that there are over 250 species in North America alone and close to 3500 worldwide, each slightly different from the other. This one… Read More
“Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas” – “Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses” ― Ovid This was a mystery plant to me, for a long time. On initial inspection, it looks like a wild rose, but the leaf is not right. It looks like a raspberry, but the flower is too big. So, what is it? Turns out, it’s a bit of both. It’s a flowering raspberry, and a member of the… Read More
“I must have flowers, always, and always.” ― Claude Monet I’ve seen these pretty clumps of pink flowers along the roadside before. Many times. I’ve just driven by, last year I saw some and turned the car around to make some photos, but they turned out to be quite disappointing, a bit out of focus, and not showing the characteristics of the flowers well. They are quite pretty and really stand out because… Read More
“Silence It has a sound, a fullness. It’s heavy with sigh of tree, and space between breaths. It’s ripe with pause between birdsong and crash of surf. It’s golden they say. But no one tells us it’s addictive.” ― Angela Long I’m revisiting a Crescent which posed on a clump of Fleabane. My previous post had the butterfly drinking nectar from the flower, with an accompanying bee. In this image, the butterfly… Read More
“The miracle is that the brilliance of the miraculous can live in the blandness of the mundane. The greater miracle is that we have enough brilliance in our own blandness to see it.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough I’m finding even common items fascinating lately, as I get ‘close’ to them. The image above is of a common wildflower, or to gardeners, an invasive and prolific weed. I’ve seen entire lawns infested with… Read More
“You lift your head, you’re on your way, but really just to be walking, to be out of doors. That’s it, that’s all, and you’re there. Outdoors is our element: the exact sensation of living there.” ― Frédéric Gros By far the most common of local meadow butterflies are skippers. Once you spot one, you suddenly see dozens. The name skipper is so appropriate too, as they move quickly from flower to… Read More
“There are 365 days in a year and you will meet all the colours of life throughout the year: The blue, the black, the pink… Only blue is not a life, only pink is not a life, only black is not a life! Life is all the colours!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan The outdoors is filled with unexpected gifts. As I set out to photograph the Lady Slipper Orchids last Saturday, that… Read More
“She glitters like she walked out of a Klimt painting” ― Jandy Nelson I came across this Emerald Jewelwing, who was resting briefly on a leaf just below eye level. There are time where they just sit and pose for long periods, but not today. This brief pause lasted only a few seconds and it was fluttering madly about once more, in the warming air above me. It also provided me a… Read More
“Time is for dragonflies and angels. The former live too little and the latter live too long.” – James Thurber Here’s another companion from my orchid hike. A beautiful yellow dragonfly, sunning itself in the warm trailside sunshine. If someone could help me out with its identification, that would be appreciated. I’ve had varying luck photographing dragonflies, and this is my first shot of one using my 90mm macro lens. I’m quite… Read More
“We only know a tiny proportion about the complexity of the natural world. Wherever you look, there are still things we don’t know about and don’t understand. […] There are always new things to find out if you go looking for them.” ― David Attenborough There are moments in our lives that leave us breathless. For me, one of those moments occurred last year, when I came across this small cluster of… Read More
“What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life’s pathway, the good they do is inconceivable.” ― Joseph Addison Yesterday morning, my son and I went for a hike to see how a patch of Showy Lady Slipper orchids were coming along. More on that in a future post. On the way into the forest, the wildflower lined path was abuzz… Read More
“With the utmost love and attention the man who walks must study and observe every smallest living thing, be it a child, a dog, a fly, a butterfly, a sparrow, a worm, a flower, a man, a house, a tree, a hedge, a snail, a mouse, a cloud, a hill, a leaf, or no more than a poor discarded scrap of paper on which, perhaps, a dear good child at school has… Read More
“I will be the gladdest thing under the sun! I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one.” ― Edna St. Vincent Millay Before they fade with the heat, I thought I’d make a quick image of this anemone blossom. Which, like all the studio close-ups, reveals wonderful details and complex structures. This blossom, a bit ‘mature’ has dropped a lot of pollen on the petals already. I’m not sure what… Read More
“This might be the most important question for every creator and maker in the world: how do you make something new if most people just like what they know? Is it possible to surprise with familiarity?” ― Derek Thompson With a gradual warming and ample moisture, fungi are now beginning to emerge from cracks and crevices in rotting logs. I’m not skilled at early fungus identification, but I imagine these ‘fingers’ will… Read More
“Humans do artificial things But nature always hits back naturally !!!” ― Akshay Shinde I decided to give this one the studio treatment, to show all the complex textures apart from the ‘clump’ growing in my front garden. The Wood Anemone is a native plant and through a natural process, ended up growing my gardens. I enjoyed watching it flower a few years ago, till it started taking over the entire flower… Read More
“Our brightest blazes of gladness are commonly kindled by unexpected sparks.” ― Samuel Johnson I’m revisiting this interesting flower one more time. When I first discovered it, I was not sure what it was, so I took several photos, hoping to identify it when I got home from my hike. Sometimes, a surprise awaits, as in this image, which shows the Avens flower very nicely but also includes a guest, in the… Read More
“Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.” ― Gérard de Nerval I had to go back to this location again and get just one more image of the bunchberries, before they fade into summer and memories. There are certain plants that have a subconscious draw on me. Bunchberry is one of those. perhaps it’s my love of dogwoods, a family of plants to which these also belong. Miniature dogwoods! It’s the… Read More
“Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” ― Roger Miller Another rainy day image, though the rain has finally moved on. It was so cool and wet this day that the Goat’s Beard blossoms remained partially closed. This one had a special appeal to me because of the raindrops that cling to it, a reminder that it was, in fact, raining that day, lest I forget. Though I find… Read More
This week’s submission to Norm 2.0‘s Thursday Doors. Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favourite door photos from around the world. “Abandoned” This image is a far departure from my usual images of stately, ornate doors, yet they are still doors and I found them quite intriguing. As I was out hiking earlier this year, I came across an abandoned maple sap… Read More
“Love softens the hardest edges of life’s tumult.” ― Bryant McGill Along the dirt road that leads to one of my favourite hiking trails, are huge clumps of lilacs. There are many varieties, ranging from deep purples to the purest of whites. Their fragrance fills the air, even in the rain. They certainly aren’t native to the location, likely planted as ornamental shrubs by the property owners many years ago. And, their… Read More
“You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich This little flower is aptly named. As I returned from my photo hike last weekend, I thought I had come across some real rare, hard to find flower. When I found it, and saw the name, I smiled. I smiled… Read More
“Life has pounded me down and thrashed me around, Time and time again, But I always get right back up, Because I still love life – Just as the earth still loves The rain.” ― Suzy Kassem The continuing theme of the past few weeks, is ‘Saturated”, as evidenced by this dandelion seed head. Entire fields of dandelions looked like this, after days of non-stop rain and mist. From my Sunday hiking… Read More
“A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.” ― Abraham Lincoln This one is a new plant for me. While hiking on Sunday, I caught a brief flash of burgundy a short distance… Read More
“When one tunes in into nature’s frequency, life becomes change, change becomes hope!” ― Aniekee Tochukwu Ezekiel The honest truth, over the past few weeks, it’s been difficult to photograph anything that is not either dew covered, or rain-soaked. As my previous few posts have indicated, it has been WET here. To the point where I finally had a chance this past Sunday to take a brief hike in the local forests. Even… Read More
Pink and tiny, you sparkle from the forest floor. Sweet and delicate, you lead to summer’s warmth, from late spring rains and mist. – Ed Lehming This delicate pink flower, Herb Robert, is in fact, a native Geranium. While a far cry from the fancy hybridized varieties we see in gardens, this diminutive wildflower is still quite lovely. I made this image during my recent forest hike, just after the rain had stopped, so everything… Read More
“It is easier to tell a person what life is not, rather than to tell them what it is. A child understands weeds that grow from lack of attention, in a garden. However, it is hard to explain the wildflowers that one gardener calls weeds, and another considers beautiful ground cover.” ― Shannon L. Alder As I mentioned yesterday, it’s been too long since I had the opportunity to go for a… Read More
“I wanted to unfurl my toes for a little while. I wanted silence, isolation and an invitation to exhale life’s complications. I heard nature’s melody and I harmonised with every single note. I needed the trees, their colours, and the sounds of wildlife breathing. I inhaled the essence of the forest and smiled as life coursed through my veins” ― Amelia Dashwood After several extremely busy work weeks and weekends filled with… Read More
“I think I like wildflowers best,” I explain. “They just grow wherever they want. No one has to plant them. And then their seeds blow in the wind and they find a new place to grow.” ― Rebecca Donovan The first wave of pinks is on its way. Dame’s Rocket looks a lot like garden phlox. In fact, at one time I used to call it phlox. Around here it varies from… Read More
“Forget-me-nots… She loved those flowers more than any other in their big beautiful garden or in the whole wide world for that matter. They were sky blue, just like his eyes, they held a promise… Forget me not.” ― Melanie Sargsian Well, here I am, back to living flowers. It can be partially attributed to the rain finally letting off, for today at least. It’s been terribly wet this spring, and even… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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