Exploring moss

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Rachael

Today we had sun! I celebrated by photographing backlit moss with my Raynox DCR250 macro conversion lens attached to my 100mm macro lens to get really close.

Moss really is surprisingly beautiful and interesting when you get close to it.
Like a forest of tiny trees casting long shadows in the afternoon sun.

A single strand of gossamer was caught in the moss.

And I found the tiniest of baby snails on one of the stems. The only way to see it was on the screen at native resolution.

I haven’t been blogging much recently. I need to concentrate on my degree for the next few months and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to blog and keep up with everyone else’s blogs, and take images, process them, study, be a mum and wife, keep house, etc etc. So I am going to blog once a week for a little while now and hopefully do better at reading the blogs I follow.

‘A rolling stone gathers no moss, but it gains a certain polish.’ Oliver Herford

Small White

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Rachael

I would dearly love to photograph butterflies in flight but this is no easy task. Their flight path is ridiculously erratic and their wings flap right over their heads making focus on the eyes almost impossible.

It’s teasing me

I tried to capture this one for a long time one day last summer. I can almost imagine it’s looking at me thinking: shall I, shan’t I?

Seriously dodgy, but it’s a start

This is the best shot I got that day. Yes, it’s not terribly good, but at least you can tell it’s a butterfly 😉 I will try again this year. Although I have planted for insects, my garden sees very few butterflies, but a wildflower park has recently been planted not too far away and it will hopefully be open to the public for the first time this spring. Come on Spring, hurry up!

Living dangerously

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Rachael

The secret of gathering in the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment from existence is living dangerously!

Nietzsche

Leaf hopper

Posted on November 8, 2012 by Rachael

It’s been a while since I posted something buggy, so here’s a little leaf hopper hanging out on a blade of grass. I liked the way the background has the same two colours as the grass blade only the other way up.

Tiny spiders on Autumn leaves

Posted on October 23, 2012 by Rachael

Autumn is spider time. The monster house spiders invade our homes and scare us arachnophobes silly. But in the garden, their smaller and far less intimidating brethren hang out on and even in Autumn leaves. The green orb spider didn’t stay long enough for me to get its legs in focus, but I like the shot anyway, for the colour.

This next one, sitting in a hole in a cherry leaf, is probably the smallest spider I have ever photographed.

The last shot is an old one but it fitted the post, so I thought I could get away with repeating it.

We are away on holiday at present so I am not doing a very good job of keeping in touch with everyone’s blogs. I will catch up on our return.

Flowers in the Rain

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Rachael

Woke up one morning half asleep
With all my blankets in a heap
And yellow roses scattered all around
The time was still approaching
For I couldn’t stand it anymore
Some marigolds upon my eiderdown

I’m just sitting watching flowers in the rain
Feel the power of the rain making the garden grow
I’m just sitting watching flowers in the rain
Feel the power of the rain keeping me good

So I lay upon my side
With all the windows open wide
Couldn’t pressurize my head from speaking
Hoping not to make a sound
I pushed my bed into the ground
In time to catch the sight that I was seeking

I’m just sitting watching flowers in the rain
Feel the power of the rain making the garden grow
I’m just sitting watching flowers in the rain
Feel the power of the rain keeping me good

If this perfect pleasure has to be
Then this is paradise to me
If my pillow’s getting wet
I can’t see that it matters much to me
I heard the flowers in the trees
Make conversation with the trees
Relieved to leave reality behind me
With my commitments in a mess
My sleep is not a way of rest
In a world of fantasy you’ll find me

I’m just sitting watching flowers in the rain
Feel the power of the rain making the garden grow
I’m just sitting watching flowers in the rain
Feel the power of the rain keeping me good

Watching flowers in the rain
Flower in the rain
Power flowers in the rain
Flower power in the rain

Roy Wood Flowers In The Rain (1967)

Pretty in yellow

Posted on October 14, 2012 by Rachael

Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But to me this little yellow psocid, hanging out against a complimentary background, is a thing of beauty.

Its common name is rather less attractive – it is a bark louse.

Unlike its relatives who live as pests in the home, this critter eats organic matter in the garden and really isn’t interested in coming indoors. It is very small indeed, about the size of a garden ant.

Psocids in the garden are often mistaken for aphids, but they can be distinguished by their large jaws, resembling those of crickets, and long antennae. If you can squint closely enough. Really, these details can only be noticed with the aid of a macro lens, or a magnifying glass.

I took far too many shots of this little critter. I need just one for a panel I am working on. Which do you like best?

Autumn fire

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Rachael

Continuing the Autumn theme, this post features images of my sumach tree. The leaves turn the most gorgeous shades of orange, red and even pink at this time of year. As the tree catches the last rays of sun to leave my garden, it is a popular spot with the garden’s minibeasts too.

A few days ago, I featured a tiny green spider which I misidentified as the cucumber green orb spider. I really should stop trying to identify minibeasts because I get it wrong oftener than I get it right! I now think that little critter was nigma walckenaeri. Oh well. I am, therefore not even going to try to identify this little gem of a spider crouching under a sumach leaf. Any spider experts out there, by all means chip in! Suffice it to say it’s a pretty little thing, for a spider.

Here it is again, toning in rather nicely with its colourful surroundings. I was trying to get under the tree to photograph the little fellow when an altogether more conventionally beautiful surprise visitor alighted on another leaf.
This delight is a ‘small copper’. I have never seen one of these in my garden before. It rested for a few seconds, just time for me to get a couple of hasty grab-shots.

What a beauty, its colours perfect for Autumn! Seeing it quite made my day.

I was planning to fell this tree as it is in the wrong place for all sorts of reasons. It has made tons of small sumachs which I can plant in a better place. But, after all this colour and buggy action, to fell it seems rather ungrateful, doesn’t it?

Autumn’s winged messengers

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Rachael

As Autumn sets in, leggy crane flies start to blunder into homes, mimicking moths in their attraction to light. They are not the most stylish of Nature’s creatures but this one manages to look almost elegant hanging under the pastel Autumn leaves of my sumach tree.
This is probably a female specimen of the UK’s most common variety, tipula paludosa. Not a thing of beauty, but an important part of the ecosystem. Its grubs, known as leatherjackets, feed on the roots of grass, which does not please those who love their lawns. However, they are a valuable source of food for many birds. I enjoy watching the green woodpeckers drilling for them. The crows quarter my lawn systematically, voracious terminators of leatherjackets. In the process, they incidentally save me the job of aerating the lawn and lifting the moss.

Needless to say, there are several varieties of crane fly in the UK. The best place I have found for identification is Nature Spot. I think this little crane fly resting on sedum flowers may be tipula confusa. And yes, I am confused.

This one is a little more impressive. It could be nephrotoma appendiculata, the spotted crane fly. Or it could be nephrotoma flavescens.

But I think it is, in fact, nephrotoma flavipalpis. This is the first time I have noticed one of these in my garden.

Tomorrow’s Autumn post will be prettier, I promise.

Autumn suspended

Posted on October 4, 2012 by Rachael

I am typing this sitting at college with the sun blazing through azure skies that one would normally expect to see in Summer, on a less contrary island. On mornings like this it seems as if Autumn has been suspended. The leaves tell a different story, however.
The first of a series of Autumnal images.

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