Revisitng the Queen

A few weeks back, I did a post about Queen Anne's Lace. It was earlier in the summer and the lovely blossoms were just emerging. Now, most have closed up shop for the season. Their dried out flower heads will remain through winter, catching frost and snow and I'm sure I'll snap a few of those images in the months to come. But for now, I'd just like to show a few photos of this lovely, simple flower during its last weeks of summer.



Early in July, the bloom is fresh and bright white. A tiny red bug can be seen exploring the ribs of the flower, seen from behind.





It's like a perfect little parasol, offering shelter from the sun.





Each evening, I got into the habit of snapping photos of the lacy blooms.





They're often seen sharing space with wild chicory - another favourite of mine.





This is how they appear when they're first unfolding.





But as the season progresses, some of them begin to close up shop. Their seeds deepen in colour to a lovely shade of pink.





You can see the tiny spikes which surround each of them. I suppose they eventually fall off and scatter, and they need to cling to something to take hold again for next year's growth.





Sunset, during one of the earlier summer nights. I used my flash to illuminate this one and was surprised to see an insect clinging to the top of one of the stems.





Side by side, Queen Anne's Lace and the closed buds of the Wild Chicory, make proud silhouettes against the colourful evening sky.

Thanks for revisiting the queen with me. Bows and curtsies are not required.

A Summer's Day

Yesterday's "Once in a Blue Moon" was one of my rare posts which was only up at the top of the heap for one day before moving on to this, the next post. If you didn't happen to catch it and would like to see it, you can click on "previous post" at the end of this page.

I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be posting summer photos well into autumn. I have a lot of them and my posting schedule has been lagging recently. I'll do my best to keep up - starting with the images below.

Although I've titled this post A Summer's Day, the photos were not snapped within the same 24 hour period. Some are not even from the same week. Or month. Still, they depict a summer's day and that's all I'm going to say about that.




There's a volunteer-attended butterfly garden at my nearby park. This lovely orange flower greeted the morning sun through much of the summer.





A pair of purple thistles strut their colourful stuff.






The colour on this one is just emerging but it's enough to attract this cabbage white butterfly.






Yet another prickly plant catching a few shaded rays.






This squirrel found something interesting to munch on. He scarcely looked up when I snapped this shot.






I don't know about you, but when I lean in toward this photo, I feel like the spikes of this flower are actually moving - 3D-style.






And while you probably already think I'm a bit nuts, do you see a hag's face in the blooms of this Queen Anne's Lace? That gap near the bottom would be her mouth and the protrusion in the middle, her nose? No? Okay, never mind. ;)





A Green Heron takes flight. You can't see much green in this fellow but some of his feathers have a definite teal green sheen to them in certain light.





Well how about that! I do have a shot of him in just that right light. You can see the green in his wing, tail and a bit in his face.


 


As the day and summer progressed, I enjoyed watching the groups of ducklings grow. This was taken in early July but by now, I can no longer tell the young from their parents. I wonder if this guy is dreaming of the day when he too, will have feathers as large as the one floating beside him.





A wander at dusk at the early part of the season. I looked up just in time to see a Great Blue Heron fly off into the the twilight-painted sky.





A robin watches the night fall from atop the branches of a pine tree.

More photos in a few days.