The trail opened back up . . .

"The trail is the thing, not the end of the trail.

Travel too fast, and you miss all you are traveling for."

- Louis L'Amour

Just follow the light, to the beginning of the trail.

The early bird fisherman catches the fish, and a beautiful sunrise at the same time.

The beginning of the trail, where your husband energizes for the day's trailblazing.

It's been some time since I've been on this trail....construction...(they say it was flood control)...

I've missed the the light here.

And these trees . . . they remind me how small I am.

I found this ONE dragonfly, where I usually see dozens and dozens. The construction consisted of tearing down very old mature trees, marsh, bushes, homes for wildlife, the very spot the dragonflies would pose for me . . . they destroyed hundreds upon hundreds of feet of pines, oaks, the home of the King Fisher's, the place I usually could find fall color. They did this in the name of money for some rich dude who needed fill dirt, and they sucked the fun right out of my trail. I cried all the way back to my car.

Order up . . . bird + bokeh = lots of happy! 

This was still here. Do you remember the red iron bridge. . . they moved it over 100 feet but . . .  the bird feeder, AND my swing are missing!

But then, sigh, I found this on the other side of that wooden foot bridge. More beautiful light and bokeh.

The small bokeh in this image is original, and then I took a photo of more (just) bokeh and

added it on top the the flowers for more dreaminess.

And now for some random . . . 

1. This morning I made my coffee with our Keurig coffee maker . . . that was free.

My daughters friend won it at graduation and didn't want it and just gave it to her.

Well, she is not a coffee drinker and although you can make hot chocolate with it too, she decided

it wasn't something she wanted to take with her to college.

2. But . . . I made coffee in the Keurig with the adaptor that allows you to use your own coffee.

I did the math. . . An average 10 cup Keurig pack for about $12 costs 1.20 per cup.

My coffee, freshly ground as I need it, is $9.99/lb. and I can get about 37 cups of coffee in the one pound.

That makes the Keurig coffee cups 4.5 times more expensive.

And then for more fun I figured out that my coffee, drinking on average 2 cups per day would last me

3.7 times longer, costs me only $3.78/week vs $16.80/week. That means I could go to Starbuck's and order 2 specialty coffee's and still have money left over.

3. Remember the Tersa Sphinx caterpillars from last week, both of those big ones have made a little magic and pupated! Now we wait.

I put some soil in the bottom of the container with some leaf litter and shredded paper towels

and they made these cute little nests, for a lack of a better word.

This one I was able to lift with out disturbing it too much. As the time gets closer

(takes about 2-3 weeks) I will remove the paper towels and most of the dirt and put a stick

inside so that they have something to dry their wings on.

4. Today, I'm going to take the plunge and order all my supplies . . . for making wearable art jewelry using my photos. And then . . . get really busy sawing, cutting, hammering, riveting . . . yep it's gonna sound like

Santa's workshop around here.

5. I went to sleep last night and when I woke up it was morning! Well, what I mean is,

that I didn't wake up in between and slept all the way through. THAT doesn't happen very often, and I seriously can't remember the last time. I feel like a new person! 

TGIF a day early my friends, have a stellar weekend!

Love, Kim

linking with Little Things Thursday, Random Five, Friday Finds, Friday Photo Journal

This happened . . .

"Don't cry because it's over.

Smile because it happened."

- Dr. Suess

Well, it's a little bittersweet.

I think the time has come . . . it's getting to be late in the season.

I think this was probably my last butterfly to emerge.

This is my almost 30 something Black Swallowtail, a female, a tiny one at that.

1. You can tell the male from the female when the wings are open. The male has

more yellow spots and the female just has more blue in general.

2. Random act of kindness . . . after having lunch with the hubby I was driving home

and spied this coral vine growing along the fence across from where I turn. I had

my camera with me, so I pulled over to get some shots and I hear this voice.

"Ma'am, that's my house and vine and you are more than welcome to take

some cuttings with you." Oh yes, I will be going back with my sissors, thank you!!

3. My find this week . . . ah more caterpillars . . . but not just any caterpillars, Tersa Sphinx

Moth caterpillars. The ones that turn into a Tersa Sphinx Hummingbird (or hawk) moths. They

are often mistaken for hummingbirds as they can hover just like them. They have been coming

to my purple trailing lantana at dusk as they are nocturnal. I decided to try my hand at raising these

guys . . . flying by the seat of my pants on this one, wish me luck (well, or them)!

4. Last nights game 42-8!

Yep, that's my boy #22 with some serious vertical and hang time. He had a really great game (they all did), considering he was just playing two weeks ago with taped wrists because of a break through in his arthritis. My photog buddy David let me borrow his 70-200mm f2.8 lens last night . . . that was a treat. Usually when I get to borrow his lens(s) it's for varsity, so it was fun getting to use it for my boys game.

 I was lucky to get some shots of him with his tackles . . . it seems he is always on the opposite side of the field when there is a big play. OR, the ref gets in my way, how rude! Someone needs to have a serious

talk with these guys, LOL!

5. Hard to believe I haven't been to the sunrise in months. They have been doing some construction, in fact my birding trail has been closed all summer. It was only supposed to be closed for like 6 weeks? So this is a new spot, and I kinda like it! Oh but when the time changes, it's gonna be real early for a while!

So this is my week in randomness. I missed my normal posting yesterday because of random item #1. The

chrysalis had turned black so I knew it would eclose but they are so hard to figure out when. So I brought the dill plant is was on upstairs with me and set it down on my desk and kept glancing back and forth. But then I heard "the sound" of the chrysalis trying to open. So I grabbed my camera and the plant and tried

to get down the stairs and outside in time . . . I almost missed it. The poor butterfly, it was so windy she was

having a hard time holding on to the plant. She had an easier time holding my finger. Let's just say I got really sidetracked and it got late and then it was the game . . . 

I hope you all had a great week of randomness too!

Love, Kim

linking with Friday Finds, Random Five, Little Things Thursday, Friday Photo Journal 

From my garden . . .

"No occupation is so delightful to me

as the culture of the earth, and no

culture comparable to that of the garden."

-Thomas Jefferson

It's been quite the busy week in my garden....

Both Monarchs and Queen butterflies emerged, in my dining room, although I think it now counts as an 

extension of my garden. This is one of the Queen's, not a Monarch, but a close relative. Their color

is much deeper and more brown in color. I was having trouble photographing this little lady on my plectranthus, so I clipped some of my pink penta and put it in a bottle. That's when I discovered something.

This little egg . . . I knew right away what kind of caterpillar this would be as when we first moved in

to our house, they completely devoured my pentas. Only then, I didn't realize what kind of caterpillar it was.

And, it hatched the next day. Just Check out that horn on his back end...it's harmless. This my friends is going to be a tersa sphinx moth. And I am going to try my best at keeping track of this little fella and hope he doesn't fall prey to something. After I noticed the egg, I went back to take a look at the plants and see if I could find more. Nope, nada, but I did find evidence that there had been some small caterpillars from the small chewed holes in the leaves. But so many lizards and assasin bugs...not sure what has a chance!

*(Update: I did this post last night, and upon checking this morning....it...is...GONE!

Can I hear a collective....AWWWWW! It was on my front porch because I read somewhere

NOT to bring it in the AC, so I left it outside against my better judgement.

I. Am. So. Disappointed!)

And then one afternoon after a good little rain fell, the sun came back out, and the butterflies were back out looking for food. This is a Grey Hairstreak Butterfly enjoying the milkweed . . . 

And let me tell you it has been an incredible week of close encounters. Not only did he let me get super close for a mug shot, but....he let me pick him up!

See....I have proof.

And then, he even let me put him back without flying away. It seems he must have more than one life, notice the little chunk out of his wings at the back? They were designed to still be able to fly with bits and pieces missing from their wings.

And as I was knelt down trying to see if there were any caterpillars under the milkweed leaves, this little guy pops out from the bush and comes over, curious they are. 

And it always delights me when my butterflies come home again!

And how excited am I that they finally found the feeder. But boy are they tricky to get on film...so fast!

This week is our monthly Photo Art Friday over at Pixel Dust Photo Art. The optional theme is sky. It's always the first of the month, and it sorta snuck up me this time and I didn't leave myself enough time to play with this theme since I remembered just last night. I used her textures Painting Maker, Muted Monet,

Van gogh Sky, and last a Kim Klassen texture I forgot to write down.

In other news:

1. I can't find fall...it's still in the 90's and humid. One should not sweat at a football game.

2. You remember my pink highlights? The hummingbirds quite fancy them...I was sitting on my front 

porch earlier in the week and with my camera to my eye focusing on the butterfly right in front of me

drying its wings, I hear a hummer come over and at first I think he is wanting a drink from the plectranthus

that the butterfly is on...then I hear the sound of his wings right in my ear and feel a hurricane of wind on the top of my head. I'm pretty sure he was attracted to my pink hair.

3. If that wasn't exciting enough...the next day when he came back he came right up to me at eye level about fifteen inches away and just hovered....we had a moment! And just this morning, he was back again doing the same thing!

4. The last of my Queen butterflies are about to emerge...I need to get off this computer!

Even though I've seen it hundreds of times, it just never get old.

5. Oh, and speaking of close encounters I almost forgot. A giant and beautiful dragonfly just came over and

landed on my big toe one morning while I was outside standing there. I kid you not, and I can't believe I didn't have my cell phone to capture it.

Have a fabulous weekend y'all

Love, Kim

linking with Little Things Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Photo Art Friday

Random Five Friday, Photo Art Journal