How photography is like meditation

 Photography makes me SLOW DOWN...

focus on one thing,

and then I see things I wouldn't have otherwise (same dahlia),

like a VERY tiny spider,

building a very tiny orb web,

 floating in a sea of dahlia hues.

Found this new ootheca (mantid egg case, on the support for the cardinal climber)

which I hope is from this summer's green mantid rockstar. 

Here she is giving mouth-to-mouth to a honeybee.

Which is what I tell myself so I can gaze at it.

Also, in the photo you can't see the bee's leg twitch.

I had to walk away.

However, notice she's also doing the splits. Woah.

A blue-lipped goddess whom, like Pele (the volcano goddess),

you don't mess with.

Old ootheca on old manzanita branch in garden.

 Those things are AMAZINGLY hard. Like fossil-hard.

 So hopeful: dahlia bud soaking up the sun.

Teensy white crab spider on morning glory, behind scarlet runner bean.

pink-ola dahlia

Honeybee & her adorable shadow on pink zinnia.

Tiny harvest, plus Moby chick.

Another small yet beautiful harvest.

And back to mediation,

was taking photo of this,

Noticed tiny white dust speck on the lower right,

which is this amazingly tiny animal.

And makes me love biology and photography

all over again.

=)

xooxoxbb

Mumday photo parade

xoxobb

Heads or tails?

Which way do YOU eat a tiny fly

(or, say, chocolate bunny, if that's more your style)?

Heads (i.e. ears, if you're in chocolate bunny-land)?

(Just occurred to me this is one entry point used to embalm mummies...)

 Or tails?

Found this carcass beneath the dahlias which host many crab spiders.

They catch a lot of flower-visiting flies & bees.

On the same day I found a similar bug being eaten

by a crab spider in a dahlia.

Seemed like when spider saw me, it immediately passed the fly over its head.

I wonder if that's a ninja move:

hold victim #1 out of the way w/1 arm,

then prepare to attack again with other 7.

Good move.

Lots of beautiful spiders in this group:

check out bugguide.net's section about them.

Lastly, a free, helpful hint to anyone trying to run a web site

 about crab spiders and hoping people will use/trust it:

Don't say "bees and insects."

Bees are insects.

So, there's that...

I'm willing to bet bugguide.net has never said that.

'Cause they're awesome like that. =)

So, heads or tails?

I was an eat-the-chocolate-bunny-ears-first kinda kid.

You?

xoxobb

Friday Foto Fling

and Happy Flehmen Response Friday!*

Ridiculously beautiful day at Mono Lake. Kinda stormy.

Driving home. Road trips are ROUGH when there's nothing to look at... =)

View during (brief) traffic stop at Yosemite. Again, hard to bear. =)

Note debris on road at right. Brief, intense rainstorm washed stuff onto the road, hence road work.

Finally landed on a term for dahlias: absurdly beautiful.

iPhoto plot: it opened onto May 22, 2014 & I saw this guy. HAD to re-post. Cute little hopper!

 LOVE those eyes...

I added mulch one day and I SWEAR the NEXT DAY everyone looked happier.

Gaillardia infront of chrysanthemum. 

Perusing lovely images of gardens (& listening to gardening podcasts)

it occurs to me that many people don't have the

gophers, rabbits, deer, bears, etc. that we have.

Their plants are just OUT THERE, and all's well.

Can't. Even. Imagine.

Here's the deer's eye view of our dahlias:

Looks like flower prison. For the criminally gorgeous. And tasty.

Moby trying to figure out how to GET to those tomato plants.

Nevertheless, I still enjoy gardening; miracles abound.

Soaked these pups 1.5 days, and they had ALREADY started to germinate.

Which may be why this happened 5 days later:

=) Hard to see, as I MUST disguise baby bean plants so birds don't get them all. 

Next day:

SO amazingly fast. SUPER gratifying.

They're scarlet runner beans, so when they mature,

not only will they be beautiful and shade-making,

but also I'll finally have something for the hummingbirds. Hooray!

K. THASSIT!

Have a fabulous weekend, cherished peeps.

xoxobb

*To perk up your Friday, just google image search Flehmen response.

It's PG rated, a real biological thing, and SUPER entertaining. =) Plus, tapirs!

An embarrassment of riches

 I was SUPER excited to find this ambush bug (possibly Pacific ambush bug, Phymata pacifica)
in my mint this week. 

Actually, the above photo should be rotated 180 degrees

to indicate its actual position ...

Ambushed.

Looks like its beak is going straight for the neck. Look elsewhere for mercy.

Common buckeye. LOVE these guys.

So beautiful, but subtle, so from a distance they just look brown.

This dahlia makes me think about math: fractals, specifically.

Wee moth sipping mint plant nectar; I bet it's extra refreshing. =)

According to Dan Rubinoff, my mothy friend, it's in the pyralid family

which bugguide.net succinctly describes as "cosmopolitan." =)

Ridiculously glorious dahlia bloom: but wait, there's more!

If you look very closely, the petals have cinnamon sparkles in them (near the lower edge).

An embarrassment of riches, to be sure.

This tachinid fly (tribe Cylindromyiini?) worked this flower

moving its buns in swoopy circles,

very much like how phalaropes feed.

Trying to figure out what this wasp is (still not sure, maybe a sand wasp?),

I kept repeating, while flipping through field guides,

"smiley-face-between-the-wings."

Because, I'm a professional biologist. =) 

Dahlia bunk bed for bumblebees (Bombus sp.).

Close up of how top bee has feet hooked onto petal edge.

Delightful.

While I enjoy all of these flowers & animals,

and I have more to ID and post later, 

 I'm EXTRA stoked my garden has an ambush bug--that was a first! =)

xoxobb