Resilient

The folks who live in the wind-blown areas of west Texas seem to have always known the utility of windmills. Here, near Wildorado, an old-school windmill still spins, dwarfed by the forest of  80-meter giants of this wind farm.

Below, a lonely windmill west of Santa Fe, New Mexico, still drawing water for the scattered cattle grazing its scrubland.

Tiny

Like a galleon being boarded by pirates, the body of a ladybug is rocked violently by the movements of the many fire ants dismantling it. One ant clambered up a mast-like wing; while ants on each side tilted the round hull of the little beetle from side to side, until naught was left.

Just one of a million tiny dramas being played out at any moment in the Arkansas Ouachitas.

At the edge

This spider, its tiny body almost doubled over as it clings to the slenderest grass seed head, certainly seems on the edge.

 

Top down, shift up

*Weather permitting, there’s nothing like seeing the whole sky while taking road trips. Here, the blue sky and its fair weather clouds are reflected in the shift knob on a top-down day.

*Most any weather, short of a tropical storm, will do.

2 (8 legs + 8 eyes)

Funnel web spider out of his silken tube, mirrored in a glass window.

Fire in the hole

Every once in a while, the hard working crew at my office just has to bust loose. On this particular August day a couple of years ago, a pair of co-worker cut-ups in Community and Economic Development decided to have a little workday fun during a break with Mentos and diet Coke.

Loading up the Mentos.

Getting ready to pull the pin allowing the Mentos to drop from the tube into the drink.

Thar she blows!

Geyser!

 

(no endorsements intended)

Ghost leaf

Arkansas summer mornings give rise to interesting conditions, thanks to the high humidity and the difference in temperature between inside and outside. Condensation on the windows can be especially telling — as if Nature was deploying her own forensic technique to seek the whereabouts of creatures and things. On this July morning, this ghostly outline appeared on the glass — retracing the landing spot of some storm tossed leaf.

Morning

Even though the alarms go off at the same time each weekday morning, no two a.m.s are ever the same. This particular morning, an indigo bunting issued his own wakeup call from the top of a pine tree outside our bedroom window.

 

The details

You know that old saw about stopping to smell the roses? Photography can be something like that, except you lean in with your lens, absorbing all the details. Suddenly there appear all those wonderful bits of life and texture that on regular day are as invisible as the quantum world.

Beetle breakfasting on the petals of an iris.

A trio bees minister to the curly topped spire of a magnolia blossom.

Wind-driven swing dance

The scene was like some botanical swing dance, with the partners tethered by the slenderest strand of spider silk. A hot summer breeze kept the seed parachute aloft, but never out of reach of its partner.