CAMERA CRITTERS #48

MOSQUITO AND BUTTERFLY

MEETING ON QUEEN ANNE'S LACE

WITH THE SETTING SUN

EARLY OCTOBER A FEW YEARS BACK
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A WHITE MOTH OR BUTTERFLY
TAKEN WITH A FLASH AT NIGHT

BRAINIAC CATTERPILLAR???

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WHILE TAKING THE PICTURE HE ATE MOST OF THE LEAF SECTION THAT IS MISSING, FROM HEAD TO POINTY BUTT.

TODAY'S FLOWERS #30

...............................................MONKEY FLOWER
...............................................MIMULUS RINGENS



.............PRIMROSE PACIFIC GIANT HYBRID

CLIMBING RED ROSE HYBRID

...................................................MAGNOLIA X BETTY

OSI: FORK IN THE ROAD

FORK IN THE ROAD

Sauntering alone one fall day,
Came upon a spoon in a brook,
Although I had the time, No way
It was a stream to go afishing in.

Weathered stones, weathered spoon,
Much time together had been spent,
Some much alike they’ve come to be,
To separate would violate. So I went.
And I left them.

Sauntering home that fall day,
Came to a fork in the road,
It was new, so I took it, and that,

That never made any difference.

............................................RDS

MARCH, WINTER RETREAT AND WORDS

Mourning Cloak Butterfly resting on milkweed

Nymphalis antiopa
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Butterflies with sooty wings
. ........Fledgling Poet




To whom it may concern,
That at a place far away
On this distant date, March 1, 1972

“The day dawned with a slight haze which gave the eastern horizon a fresh, rosy veil to clothe the awakening sun.”

I saw and confirm hereby,
That at a place nearby
And most recent,

IT DIDN’T!! RDS



Warmed by March sun, a tinge of spring arrives.

On non-storm winter days
When cold penetrates the body,
A silence penetrates the soul.
Painful is the lonely silence,
Seems no life is found.
The soul exposed is naked
As trees devoid of leaves.

Soon melt replaces silence.

The loosening winter grip frees
Thoughts as well as streams.
The winter melt is transient,
Come and go, give and take.
A front goes by, winter appears,
Approaching lows westward pass
And spring magically appears.
...........................................RDS



.......WORDS


Words
Said often enough
They soon give up their meaning
Words
Said often enough
They soon become no meaning
Words
Said often enough
they are just noise and scratchings
Wandering inside the brain
Lost, confused
Devoid of sense,
Between noise and knowing.

Words anger or console,
Connect sense to idea.
Imperfect means to spread the word
Masking as reality.
Even in disconnected words,
Beauty can be found.

What is sense? What is idea?
......................................RDS

CAMERA CRITTERS#47 & WATERY WEDNESDAY #25

LEOPARD FROG

Rana pipiens







BLUE DARNER
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Waterfalls

I Remember Wondering,
While Standing at the Brink,
On the Edge of a High Cliff,
What if the Placid Water
Slowly Gathering Speed
Could Ever Realize the Wild,
Yet Unavoidable Journey,
It is About to Undertake.
Life is Like That as a Kid,
Lots of Wondering.
............................................RDS




.......WINTER WATER COLORS


Not pulsing green of life
That strange green color
Permeating stream water
Charting its ice free course.

A green born from the cold
Not begot by warming sun,
A green that chills not cheers
A winter weary soul.
...................................RDS










With the chill the blood rushes from the extremities to preserve the body at the expense of the brain!!






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FORMING HABITS

After repeatedly repeating a task,
Shifting brain gears to automatic,
Freeing rational brain portions
To achieve a goal hard sought
By repeatedly repeating the task,
The extension of the brain
To the body to the task
Magnifies the effect of the affect desired.

Thus is born a comfortable habit!

Learning is a wonderfully painful process.
.............................................RDS


CLIFFS

Etched on crumbling cliffs,
Wondrous tales do unfold,
So clearly in these layers,
A fresh spring story is retold.

Etched on crumbling cliffs,
Each spring unlocks pages,
Reveled stories of long ago,
The wisdom from the ages.

Reduced to no significance,
Within this towering pastness,
Not etched on crumbling cliffs,
Our time in this great vastness.
............................................RDS

ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION #53 CIRCLES

................................................CIRCLES

Continued circles of earth to sun
Decrease our allotment one by one.

Circles within circles valid no more,
The present is now, past is but lore.
Circles within circles even still last,
As new life grows, covering the past.

Look to the past to show the way,
Only as a guide it’s valid to say,
For future circles, as yet unknown,
Perfect will be always never alone.
..........................................RDS





Too perfect is the circle,
Round and round eternally.

Today it is so perfect,
Ditto all the yesterdays,
Tomorrow more the same.

Nothing to mark the time,
To show the wear and tear,
And character that that gives.
For this and many reasons
The being’s all a sham.

Perfect beings, circles,
Perfection one can fear,
Perfect every boring way.
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I’d rather be a gear!!

...........................RDS.

.......WIND

Yesterday the wind
With snaps and howls,
Whipped thoughts
Right from my dread-filled head.
Reality flew away,
Leaving fear to stay.

Until the devil moves along,
Defiance is in vain,
Either stand, be brave
or cower half-insane.

Today the quiet has returned,
Free flowing thoughts are norm.
Survival has survived.

...............RDS

WATERY WEDNESDAY #24

SUMMER DEWDROPS




Dew drops glisten on a spider's cobweb in late morning August sunshine.

Seems along way off in February
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AFTER THE STORM

After wild storm thunder,
Dark, dreary rain clouds,
Relieved of their weight,
Lighten, float over the ridge.

Now dusk, sunlight breaks out,
Hill shadows descend to the lake,
Raindrops, looking like dewdrops,
Sparkle and dance with the sun.

And I go home.
.........................................RDS

Rain drops on canvas boat cover
At Treman Marina
Cayuga Lake , Ithaca, NY

ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION--TWILIGHT

SEASONAL TWILIGHT

FIERY OCTOBER SUNSETS

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While The Harvest of Summer
Alights upon the Breezes of Fall,
Fiery October Sunsets
Mark Summer’s End.

While Spreading Nature’s Bounty
On Delicate Gossamer Threads,
Fall Breezes Down Leaves
Forming Seedbeds for Spring.

The End Is Really the Beginning.

..............................................RDS

TREES & WATERY WEDNESDAY #23

IDLE THOUGHTS LOOKING AT TREES.

Branches are stretching out into the sky searching; leaves are hanging in air, grasping for an elusive something, light. Roots are tunneling blindly through the soil, mining chemicals in minute deposits, patiently searching for life-giving water. They are growing so they need ever more of these scarce resources, struggling, clinging to life, only to be knocked down by snow, wind, ice, lightning, disease, any one of innumerable agents.
Why struggle? Why life? What good is it? The tree must know for it continues the struggle unabated. You and I seemingly must know for we also continue our struggle!
The earth endlessly circling the sun is interesting physics, but the tree growing from virtually nothing to tremendous size, is life, overwhelming purposeful without a seeming purpose, the life spirit, the endless fight to temporarily reverse entropy.
The tree builds order out of chaos, organizes minerals, water, air, light into a structured whole, if only temporarily. The human body also builds order out of chaos, organizes minerals, water, air, light if only temporarily. In addition the human mind also builds order out of chaos, organizes forces and thoughts into a structured whole, a culture, if only temporarily.
The principle is the same, reverse entropy; only the degree of complexity is different. The common factor is life; the difference, again, is only a matter of complexity. Maybe the degree of complexity arises through mobility. If a tree could walk, could it eventually develope a culture?

Honor all temporary, entropy reversing entities.

---------------WATERY WEDNESDAY #23

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The setting October sun glowing through condensation on a plant room window

REFLECTIONS&SAUNTERING BLACK CREEK CHILI,NY

REFLECTIONS


Reflections are but half-truths,
Where reality seems surreal,
Where reality ebbs and flows.

Reflections are but half-truths,
Not perfectly reflected back,
But faithfully enough to be
Recognized as half-reality.


Projecting on one unseen
Reflections of ourselves,
Reveals more to one’s self
Than bruising self reality.

Sauntering to Black Creek and back,
In Chili, NY many years ago
On a glorious winter afternoon.



The low winter sun shines golden, almost warmly, on the chill arctic landscape. The short thaw of a few days ago caused a curious phenomenon on the creek. During the recent thaw, the flooding meltwaters had overflowed the stream bed, leaving a white ribbon of snow, suspended between two sections of frozen brown slush not yet snow covered, thus mapping the summer stream banks.

The graceful curves of the white ribbon wandered between tree boles rising from the discolored slush. The slanting rays of the winter-weakened afternoon sun warmed to a golden-brown the tree boles that stood ankle deep in frigid melt water. The infinite blue depth of the north sky provides the perfect backdrop for the snow bound herbs. Even the gray seed-heads of the goldenrod catch the yellow light to offer a faint reminder of the long ago summer sun.

As the sun descends, a few wisps of white clouds arise, dotting the blue sky. Soon a thin grey veil is drawn; shadows lose their blue blush and become less distinct. The sun’s warmth, though slight, quickly disappears. The bronzed boles become cold and grey, the glory of the sunset will not be. The distant horizon shortens up as the grey of the clouds blends with the newly greyed snow.

A cold shudder runs through me as I begin the trek home. My morning footsteps extend ahead of me forever; the grey of the clouds blends with the newly greyed snow, earth and sky seem one, as I go home.
..............................................................................RDS


…in the midst of a crowd keep with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
..............................................................................................Ralph Waldo Emerson

WATERY WEDNESDAY,CHITTENANGO FALLS & more

WATERY WEDNESDAY

FLUTED ICICLES

IRONDEQUOIT CREEK

FISHERS, NY

CHITTENANGO FALLS
















Drawn into its spell.


A wild patch of roiled water
Awe filled in its power,
Frightening in its anger,
Mesmerizes in its ability
To awe, to frighten, to endanger!

Raging water carry me along
For the ride, the thrill, the danger,
But don’t carry me over the edge
The drop’s to steep, the fall to long.
...........................................................RDS


Barging into the brain raw thought,
Raw energy needing to be tamed.
Tamed by time, civilized to usefulness,
Raw thought matures into idea,
Acceptable, but tame.

Spend more time with raw thought.
.........................................................RDS



Absorbed in self,
The non-self is ignored.
Since much greater is the non-self
Why waste yourself upon the self.
The reason is quite clear,
Without the self,
The non-self disappears,
And thus more easily ignored.

Without non-sense the world is really boring,
Even with no sense at times it can be tedious.
...................................................RDS

Lofty boles in winter woods,
Dwarf into nearly nothingness
A sauntering soul in search.

......................................RDS


The rising sun light loosens,
As winter’s grip is weakened,
A steady drop of drips,
The only sound that’s heard.
As clouds move in,
The sun moved out,
The morning melt
That dripped of spring,
Changed back to winter.

A sad chill is felt.
.....................................RDS

ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION 2/15/09 SPECTRAL

SPECTRAL VISIONS

Out of the frigid night
When demon’s haunt….

Escape! Escape! Escape!
It’s not an option though.
The worst is stuck in here
Here, in the head, the race is lost
The mind cannot out run.
Reminders ever reappear
In unexpected places
To mock good thoughts
Into oblivion.

..........................................................................................

Retreats the goodness in an instant
When demons do appear
Many a pleasant moment,
Dashed by fleeting thought
Recalls the demon’s presence
When absence cannot be bought
With fresh currency of good thought.

Away, away, away you demons that do haunt.
Banished forever from my kingdom
The kingdom of my thought,
Invited not you are
To ruin another day.

There is a part within all of us,
Needing constant taming down
For suddenly, from depths unknown
The demons rush right in.
Rising from the backwaters of the mind,
Twisting angels into nefarious beings,
Demons everywhere appear.
Common-place death, death to the demons.
Let good spirit override.

Our alter ego, evil,
Its ugly head arises
Out of completely nothing
His vision can appear
To mock the pleasant nature
That civility wants to hear.
Visions that are that vivid
Must reality based appear.

Save me from myself,
Elevate my thoughts,
Oh unseen Muse,
Betray me not in time of need
For sanity is at stake.
The tide of battle hinges now,
With room for no mistake.
So unseen Muse, return,
Return to strengthen my resolve.
An evil genie just released
Seems impossible to contain.

Why does one stray, evil vision
Over power a multitude of good?
Fearfully it seems,
One’s nature drifts towards what it is,
Not what it wants to be.
Demons of self doubt
Stifle much that is so good.
So vanish demons of self-doubt
So vanish demons of the soul.

..............................................RDS

MOVEMENT OF LIGHT

Movement through
The tangle of one’s self
Light and love distract.

The tale is much confused,
More than slightly twisted.

Each day’s light impresses,
Forever does it change,
Perceptions of affections
Of when we love and why.

The photo is the sun backlighting the filaments of the seeds of the native clematis commonly called Virgin's Bower. It flowers early summer and the seeds form in late fall.

The color is from the sunlight, the seed filaments are actually white.

ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION, WATERYWEDNESDAY updated Feb. 5

Observing Crustose Lichen on Granite


Strange Bedfellows These Alga and Fungus
Joined Together to Forge an Alliance of Ancients
To Dissolve an Even More Ancient Alliance
In Order to Form a More Perfect Alliance.






SOLITUDE

In solitude, drifting in and out,
Words rarely disrupt or intrude.
But words can sneak into the mind
To steal away that solitude.

From long dusty pages of prose
To vibrant pulses of bits and bytes,
Only a few heart sourced words
Refocus a drifting soul from self
To beyonds and endings unknown.


Solitude is always never alone.
........................................RDS




In the distance, bathed in sunlight, an embankment's
fall foliage reflection is caught in the garden pool
at the Glen Iris Inn located at Letchworth State Park, NY.
The concentric rings are from a fountain in the pool.



So we saunter toward the Holy Land, till one day the sun shall shine more brightly than ever he has done, shall perchance shine into our minds and hearts, and light up our whole lives with a great awakening light, as warm and serene and golden as a bank-side in autumn.

Walking by Henry David Thoreau







WATERY WEDNESDAY






White Water, White Noise.

White water, white noise,
The focus to daydream,
Focusing on nothing
To focus on everything,
A joyful adrenaline rush.




The water rush frees,
Frees thoughts imprisoned,
By life’s daily grind.
Gives freedom to think,
Gives freedom to focus.



ONE SINGLE IMPRESSION







SLOWLY


Forcing retreat upon the darkness,
Slowly the dawn glow earlier awakens,
Slowly evening is mere afternoon,
Slowly mid-day shadows shorten,
Slowly flowing sap fills swelling buds,
Slowly the pace quickens, quickens to spring.




Although the worst of winter may yet be,
Lengthening days proclaim inevitable spring.

TODAY'S FLOWERS #27 &CAMERA CRITTERS #45

CAMERA CRITTERS #45

....................................................What are you staring at? Incredulous turkey vulture on a beach in Florida

If you don't stick tour neck out you never accomplish anything.

Painted turtle at work!
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TODAY'S FLOWERS #27

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CLOSE-UP OF COLEUS FLOWER...............................CLOSE-UP OR SWEDISH IVY FLOWER



BOTH ARE MEMBERS OF THE MINT FAMILY BUT REMIND SOME OF ORCHIDS








CAMERA CRITTERS

RIGHT: A FORLORN PRINCE

...........A COY PRAYING MANTIS
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TODAY'S FLOWERS #26
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......................................................... Right : Bearded Iris







........................................................Below: Japanese Iris























Right: Dutch Iris












TODAY'S FLOWERS #25

Close up views

On the left is ivy geranium


Below is perennial bachelor's button






This is the weedy "butter and eggs" flower

Invasive but pretty

In the snapdragon family