Category Archives: nature

Butterflies flutter by

nature, photography, wildlife

Over the years I’ve chased butterflies with my camera. Once in a while, I was successful. More often, I ended up without the image of the butterfly. It had flown far from view.

a swallowtail butterfly

So far this year I haven’t even tried to snap a photo of a butterfly. I have just enjoyed having their beauty in the neighborhood.

Last fall’s migrating monarchs.

As children, we chased the butterflies during the day and fireflies in the evening. For us, the chase was half the fun, even when neither my sister nor I caught anything.

Today, one butterfly seemed to follow us as we rode the cart down our farm lane. My thought was, “Isn’t it nice having such beautiful company.”

I hope more come for a visit in the future. Maybe, if they rest long enough, I’ll be able to capture their beauty with my camera again. I sure hope so.

Along the roadside

gardening, nature

There’s a section of ditch where I have been tossing flower seeds. I’ve always had faith that some would take hold and grow, but none of my seeds have set down roots, at least not in this spot.

Now, without my help, wild roses have appeared and added their pink color to the countryside.

wild roses

Today, I was walking along, my mind on other things, and suddenly I caught the sweet aroma of these wild roses on the breeze.

They are simple, compared to modern, cultivated roses, but their beauty can’t be denied. Even their buds are something to see.

It’s so nice that they have found their way into our neighborhood, and I didn’t even have to ask them to come. Now I can share them with you.

Blooming bush

gardening, nature

I love perennials. They come back every year, well mostly. Some just don’t work for me. I can’t get daisies to grow in my garden, yet they grow wild in our ditches. Daffodils never return to bloom for me no matter what I do, same with alliums. Good thing I do have others that don’t hate me.

It looked like my grandmother had alliums in her flower garden. She never told her neighbors what she grew. Of course, she told me. The big round heads were onions gone to seed.

This week my bridal wreath is blooming. Last year it didn’t do so well. Half of it seemed to be dead. This year it is full–I have to look close to see any of last years deadwood.

Bridal-wreath closeup eliminates any view of weeds.

Too bad it won’t bloom all summer long. Since it won’t, I will appreciate its beauty now.

Oh ‘deer’ me

nature, photography

For the first time this year, Bob and I were able to dive the cart all the way down the lane toward our woods. Because of this, we changed where we set up our critter cam–it’s farther back, tied to a tree, right now.

On the way back to the farmyard, something moved ahead. It was a deer! Walking along the ditch.

Using my cell phone camera, I tried to get a closeup–that works better with my camera which was on my desk at home. Anyway, I did snap a few shots of the deer as it walked along the overgrown ditch.

Sunny, also watched the deer walk. He got all excited and wouldn’t settle onto the seat again.

The deer is hardly visible next to the large tree on the left, but Sunny can’t take his eyes off it.
A closeup (sort of) of the deer on Sunnybook Farm

Such a nice ride into the far reaches of our farm. Hope we don’t get too much rain tomorrow. I’d rather not have mud blocking our path again, at least not too soon.

Bob returned to the back of the farm without me later in the afternoon. He was cutting the tall grass and almost ran over a fawn. Luckily, he saw it in time–no photo of the fawn…darn.

More critters

Bob, nature, photography, wildlife

A second day of having our critter cam out along our farm lane meant more wildlife.

The tom turkey didn’t return to strut his stuff. Instead, two sandhill cranes walked across the field. Two days before we scared one from the overgrown ditch–maybe she was nesting there. We can’t be sure if she is one of this pair. No matter. It’s always nice seeing them on our farm.

The critter cam shows two of the sandhill cranes on Sunnybook Farm

Again, the night photos didn’t show much, only a few distant glowing eyes. Earlier a different kind of wildlife showed up in the afternoon.

Susan and Bob looked at the camera. Sunny had his eyes on a hopping robin.

We reset the camera today, thinking we missed last night’s thunderstorm. Little did we know a half hour later another storm would pop up in our area. Good thing we made it back to the house in time.