Nature's Beading [??]

Firstly, I must thank you all so much for your enthusiastic comments regarding the chicken costume.  Your encouragement is very welcome indeed.  I must report that the day went well, with a pirate, a red riding hood, and even bananas in pyjamas, so it seems everyone got into the spirit of the day.  

I haven't much to write about these two photographs, but wanted to share them with everyone.  I noticed this morning that there had been a heavy dew, and thought one or two shots might capture the mood.  It seems to me that some fairies may have been out adding beads during the night.  I'll leave you to imagine what you will.  As I was about to prepare for this blog post I saw the sweetest little 'Inchie' with the title Imagine [check it out - it seems others love to imagine].  The sun shining into these photographs was a delight.  Enjoy.

Looking Down

I'm going to bombard you with nature photos again this morning, and I really did struggle thinking up a post title.  Most of the photographs were taken at ground level, except the one above.  I was gobsmacked this morning to see this leaf and how it had been eaten - the pattern the caterpillar {??} made is so cool, I wanted to share it with everyone.  Is it any wonder those people who are good with design always tell us they get their inspiration from nature.  What a perfect little wavy pattern!!

Another leaf, another design inspiration.  I can see my friend Isabell's mind ticking over full of ideas for transforming this into something of a textile nature.  She is always one to offer her thoughts and inspiration.  I have sent her a number of strange photos during our friendship, and her ideas never cease to excite me.  Many of our eucalypts are suffering from these bumpy imperfections of late, and I hope some readers might find this interesting.

I seem to have been looking down at the ground lately, looking further into the weird and wonderful world of survival.  These strange little puff ball things have been appearing a lot lately because of the rain we've been having this summer.  I didn't realize they opened up, and formed a little flower on maturity.  They are only a dull colour, but the shapes in here are exciting.





 This seems to be a more mature specimen, a perfect little brown flower!!








Last week I was trying to use my new camera in the Macro mode, mainly taking shots of seed heads.  On closer inspection I noticed this little creature feeding on some of the seeds.  I suppose this is some type of miniature field snail.  It is not much longer than my thumb nail. 










After discovering the little guy in the above photograph, I found lots more of his mates, well, the little vacated shells that once housed his mates.  Here is a shot showing the one from above, and a vacated dwelling............












I hope my quite colourless nature shots are of interest to some.  I have severely trimmed and cut back the size of my photographs, as it was taking me forever to upload the original files, just ridiculous.  Hopefully, if you click onto the images you will be able to see enough detail to share my enthusiasm for all things great and small.


Thank you again for the encouraging comments from my last post.  I am still stitching away on my blue hardanger and will post a progress shot next week.  I had the pleasure of judging at one of our local shows yesterday.  My job {?} was to judge the sewing, needlework, knitting/crochet.  I had a great day, with so much patchwork to enjoy. 

Oddities in Nature

I've been having a great time taking photographs of late, as we seem to have been doing nothing else but riding around the paddocks watching water rise, fall, and now rise again.  I thought some readers might like to see some of the odd things that are happening here, which I feel are a direct result of our most unusual summer rainfall.  Of course, I know for me, seeing kangaroos is not anything out of the ordinary, and quite honestly I'm not their number one fan.  But to see them sit up and look at you [almost pose in fact], in a field of lovely green grass is something I don't see all that often, so thought it worth sharing.

As you know, I'm totally obsessed with our pair of Tawny Frogmouths that come back to our houseyard to breed each season.  They hatched a pair of young chicks in late October, set about teaching them how to survive, and we thought that was that.  We then began to receive some more rain [you think!!], which appears to have triggered a second hatching for the season.  This photograph was taken yesterday, but it's not an overly good one I might add.  You can make out one tiny fluff-ball and one ever watchful parent.  We assume there is another little one, and will keep a watchful eye in the coming days.  The parents have had to endure some driving rain as they've struggled to hatch this lot.

These photographs were taken just as the flood waters were rising the first time.    When I saw this I was intrigued.  I can only assume this was an escape mechanism by the spider population.  It appears as though the top of the grass supported a mat of web.  I've taken a closeup shot so you can see it a little more clearly.  All of this webbing appeared around the perimeter of the rising water.  In 'real life' it looked like tulle had been thrown across the grass!!

The bird life has been prolific of course in and around the water line, we've even seen pelicans!! I've noticed the plovers have been in a sort of daze, appearing to not understand what was/is happening.  I did think that perhaps they were in nesting mode and at a loss to find a suitable 'venue'.  Well, I now think I must have been correct.  This morning my husband came back to get me, and show me that the plovers have indeed laid, and in a most inappropriate place, the gravel road where we drive.  They've gathered a few small sticks and simply laid the egg right on the gravel!!!!!

Warning - not a pretty sight

I know this isn't the prettiest of images, but I did want to include it in my post.  I snapped these caterpillars in a feeding frenzy [yes they were all moving at the time].  I could not believe my eyes when I passed one of the smaller trees the other day.  They had all but stripped the tree bare.  Thankfully, this morning I saw new shoots on it, and the larger ones look to have thickened up slightly, so hopefully, all's well with them.  I'm sorry if these photographs aren't to everyone's liking, but I did find them an interesting additon to the post.  I've included another image to show how these creatures fold themselves into the leaves, and eat their way out.

I am always amazed at what the natural world has to offer.  It's been a long time since we've had a summer like this, so I thought I'd share my findings with those who read my blog.   We've also seen a few snakes, but nothing to be alarmed about.  I daresay it would be rather confronting to encounter one inside your house as you try to clean up the mess left from the flood waters.

Springtime in the Bush

I haven't posted for a few days because I've been outdoors enjoying what is probably the best Spring I can remember.  There are signs of new life everywhere, and I can't help but feel enthusiastic about it.  One of my greatest joys of course, are the birds that we see breeding in close proximity to our house.  At last count we notched up six different species, with a possible one to come yet.  The magpies seem to have babies already, the noisy minors are still waiting, as are the butcher birds, mudlarks, crested pigeons and plovers.  Yesterday I was so pleased to see the Tawny Frogmouth sitting quietly in one of the trees in our houseyard.  We haven't seen them for quite some time, and hoped they'd return for their nesting/breeding time.  Here she is trying to be 'invisible'.

The bottlebrush is flowering well, and being enjoyed by numerous birds and butterflies.  It won't be long and it will be literally covered in red.  It's almost impossible to get a good photo of the butterflies, they just keep flitting here, there and everywhere.  This one sat for a little while, the sun almost shining through it's wings.

After the most recent fall of rain, we spotted this little guy sauntering quietly across our backyard.  Echidnas are such cute little creatures, and I never tire of watching them waddling along minding their own business.  I also managed quite a good shot of this lizard making his way up one of the trees in the houseyard.  He didn't seem to mind me at all.

We've also noticed a spur-winged plover has a nest not much more than 60 metres from our house, just out in the open paddock.  It's really strange to see her sitting out there in the open, not an ounce of protection whatsoever.  I must confess to having to disturb her for this photo, but she was back in no time at all.  For some reason she doesn't seem to dive-bomb us, perhaps because she's so used the movement around the houses.

And, now, last but not least, more new life.  This little fellow was born over a week ago but I didn't have a moment to post his photo.  He will be a stable mate for little Zara, and is her half brother.  His stable name will be Zac. 




It is such a privilege to live in a place where we can see and appreciate all that Nature has to offer.  I am constantly reminded of life's pleasures here, and thankful that my life is relatively safe.  As the world remembers Sept 11, and lives are lost in today's conflicts, what better place is there to be thankful for life.

Nature's Inspiration

I can't help but marvel at the unusual and interesting forms we see in nature.  As each of us strive to make that perfect bullion rose, or evenly stitched leaf or tree trunk, I wonder why.  Sometimes beauty in nature is not always because of perfection, and sometimes it's there when you least expect it.  I have this photograph to share showing 'beauty'.  I had never really LOOKED at this rose much.  It blooms well, has no perfume, and I don't know it's name, but a few days ago I was searching for something to 'snap', which gave the opportunity to LOOK at it more closely.   The morning was quite foggy which always yields something interesting.  On close inspection I could see that the centre of this lovely rose seemed to have the petals forming a spiral.  Thinking this might be something interesting to work with on my photo altering gig, I zoomed in on the rose, and then zoomed in again.  The very fine droplets of moisture took on a life of their own in the zoom mode, reminiscent of pictures I've seen where violets have been brushed with egg white and sprinkled with castor sugar.  Perhaps you may see something different in them.

 








I also found another interesting object with great potential.  This piece is probably more in tune with the not so perfect or beautiful.  The cactus plant abounds here, taking some time to be destroyed by the cochineal bug.  When you see the sick and dying plants, you notice the fibrous tissue that makes up the inside of the plant.  I picked up this small piece and photographed it because it seemed a great source of inspiration for some machine lace stitching on water soluble fabric.  I can't wait to hopefully stitch something as interesting and delicate as nature has produced!!!

Out & About

This morning on rising, we were greeted with one of the thickest fogs I've seen for a long time.  It took hours to disperse, after which I thought I'd look for something interesting to 'snap'.  Many of the webs were high in the trees, but I managed a shot of this one.  The second photo shows the droplets of moisture clinging to the web.

I could hear 'the boss' working at the shed, so thought I might see some interesting 'shapes' to photograph in readiness for some Photoshoping in the future.  There are many interesting bits and pieces in and around the workplace.  I was fortunate to find him welding, and this shot didn't look too bad.

I hope readers will enjoy these few old things that took my eye.  I'd love to do some fabric 'rusting', but haven't quite worked out what to do yet, nor done any real research on the subject.




Now, hopefully this post will look the way I hope it does, and thanks to a fellow blogger for her patience and explanations on 'how-to get it right' [we hope].  At the moment we are enjoying a glorious autumn day, although we really would like some rain.