: Thursday : Nature :

This week has been a week of a lot of movement, especially for my 2-year-old. He made it difficult to stop and take clear pictures as we walked through our neighborhood, but here are a few shots anyway.

~Around the Neighborhood~

California Poppies are so rich with color and life.

I am trying to figure out what this bell-shaped orange flower is. I have never noticed it before. If anyone knows, please let me know.

Lovely Lupine, quite common to our region.

This flower stood alone. It beckoned to be noticed.

~Around the House~

Fields of Summer that approaches.

I truly love these beautiful friends of mine and my garden.

Always accompanied by little friends on our drying laundry.

I am always seeing new species of spiders, especially in the garden and on hanging linens.

This web sparkling in the sun with the sky and trees in the background is fantastic.

Jays are really quick, so I was lucky to get this shot of the back of his head through the screen. Lately we have been putting out homemade suet for the birds. The blue jays have been dominating the delicious treat, but I never seem to have my camera on hand when I need it.

The great thing about nature is that it is always changing. There is nothing permanent about it...day to day, season to season, year to year.

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar:

I love not man the less, but Nature more.

~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage