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.

2 (8 legs + 8 eyes)

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

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.

 

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.

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.

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.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Monochromatic

Green on green is our entry for the monochromatic edition of the Weekly Photo Challenge.

Boss hummingbird, fluffed up on a cool morning, holds his ground as a second bird tries to run him off.

Weekly photo challenge: Connected II

One more look at this week’s photo challenge, visualizing “connected.” Nature provided a few examples this morning.

A gently curving branch connects globes of magenta French mulberries in a sea of green.

What more natural connection than little white morning glories on a vine?

Weekly Photo Challenge: Connected

This week’s challenge is all about being connected.  Shoes off and safely slung between two trees, a student takes advantage of a warm, sunny afternoon in a campus green belt to keep connected via cell phone.

HANG OUT – Student at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock takes a break between classes in the Coleman Creek greenbelt. Taken Sept. 3, 2015.