Silent Sunday

Damselfly

LANDING ZONE — Resting damselfly casts a shadow on a tiny lilypad in the local pond. The interesting scroll work in many of the lilypads was probably the work of some leaf tunneler.

All y’all, it’s fall!

Fall has definitely made its presence known here in the Arkansas Ouachitas!

DOGWOOD — Dogwood leaf’s red glows more intensely as the morning light hits it.

CONTRAST — Color contrasts against the autumn sky.

GOLD — Hickories light up the forest with their yellow leaves.

COLOR – Fall color spreads through the valley.

FALL VISTA — Fall is ramping up to its peak here in the Arkansas Ouachitas.

Happy Place

This week’s Weekly Photo Challenge asks: ” Where’s your happy place?” For us,  it’s that place where the rising sun’s rays skim across the mountain folds, and updrafts sustain the wind play of vultures and hawks. It’s that place where birds fill the ears with chirps and whistles and hoots, and buck snorts add exclamation points to the Ouachita Mountain soundtrack. It’s also the place that has served as a bird blind, galactic observatory and deer-watching platform. That happy place is our deck.

Sunset Sept. 19, 2015.

AUTUMN FOG — Fog fills valleys in the Ouachita Mountains. Taken Sept. 15, 2016.

Silent Sunday

MANTIS!

Bad sci-fi movies are a staple in our household. Whether we get them filtered (MST3K, Svengoolie, etc.) or consume them directly through the miracle of satellite television, we see at least bits of one every two weeks or so.

It’s somewhat understandable that when we see things like this on the left, it always puts us in mind of the image on the right.

EXCUSE ME– May I use your kitchen window as a platform for world domination? I very much appreciate your cooperation.

IT’S A SCREAM — Insects bent on destroying humanity.

Just before the arrival of fall, we had quite a few of these stringy fellows clinging to our windows in the evenings, preying on whatever was attracted by the light from inside the house.
 

 

Druid

Silhouetted against the midday sun, the broken trunk of a long-dead tree looms like a cowled figure of a druid standing in his oak (and hickory) grove.

MIDDAY & MYSTERIOUS – Trees cast shadows northward on the ridge.

WPC: Boundaries

Boundaries are this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge. Below, lichens set out dark, circular boundaries atop a stone, and in the bottom photo, a wall seems to keep the snake on the wild side of the bricks. (In reality, he often uses the drainage holes to visit the house side and explore the garage.)

CIRCLED — Lichen growth looking like overlapping bulleye’s on a stone.

WALLED OUT — The friendly neighborhood coachwhip glides along the outside of the knee wall.