Flower Flies

They're also called Hover Flies or  syrphid flies and this is a good year for them. They are teeny, about the size of a grain of rice, and I'm just about obsessed with them this year. Their patterns are lovely and the iridescent wings mesmerize me. They don't sit still long, so I've spent countless hours bending over my shrubs and iris waiting for one to chill out long enough to snap a photo. They're the reason I'm going out shopping for a new camera because my little Canon point and shoot is just about done. I've rolled the counter on the poor thing over three times so it deserves to retire. I need some more macro mojo, some more pixels and a battery that lasts more than half an hour. Anyway, here's a few of dozens I took that were almost in focus. 

I caught a few having a romantic moment. I'm not sure how long it lasts, but they flew around attached like this while I watched.

Speaking of bee-like creatures, I found a site called beetracker through a twitter science link, and they're asking people to send in photos of bees they see in Illinois, as there appears to be a significant decline this year. I've been looking for the last three days, and I'm hoping the wind and recent monsoon rains are the reason I've only seen three. In past years, my siberian iris were bumble bee favorites, and I loved to watch them crawl inside for the pollen. This year I have seen one bumblebee, struggling in the May March weather we enjoyed this Spring. This rollercoaster has flung us from ridiculously late frost warnings to 90 degree muggy hell within days. It's now a June August windfest, so I should pull out the kites and make the best of it, and just be glad the mosquitoes are getting blown around too much to bite. They're going to be insufferable after the last wet spell.

Cue the Monty Python song:

Always look on the bright side of life.....

The plants keep growing no matter what insane weather we have, and maybe the honey bees are missing, but the little flower flies are pollinating and mating in droves. And - my lovely neighbors put up a bluebird house, and the proud parents are frequent visitors to my yard. Bluebirds are a first for me here, and I smile inside everytime I see them. Maybe when I get that new camera I can even take a picture worth posting. That's all for now, I have to go play outside, maybe even go fly a kite.

American Pie

After a Newsweek article listed Grand Rapids, Michigan as one of America's Dying Cities, the town responded with this privately funded and amazing video. It gave me goosebumps. Hope you like it too.




Remembering all who have sacrificed their lives for their country on this Memorial Day.

Blogger sucks - Again...

I can't comment on most of your posts. Once in a while I get through, maybe 1 out of 20 tries.. I click on any blog I follow and I'm logged out. I have logged in to blogger probably 50 times in the last three days. I am tired of trying. I am still reading all my favorite blogs and would comment if I could.

Blogger should be ashamed. They have issued a one sentence update indicating  a "known issue with login errors" since May 24, or as I like to call it, 5 freaking days ago, with no fix in sight. After the complete outage earlier this month and the permanent loss of comments from so many sites I frequent, I can't help but wonder what is next, because from where I sit, it looks like the wheels are falling off.

I used to blog on the ning, and I've dabbled in Wordpress, and there are so many other options for blogging that I wonder how much longer I'll put up with a faulty product before I just move on.  The only thing that's keeping me tethered here is the community and the friends I've come to know and love, and the sheer headache involved with starting over.

Thanks, Blogger, for giving me a voice and an incredible network of great blogs, and then hitting the mute button so I can only watch, silent and furious from the sidelines, while you give no indication you are even working on this problem, or a clue when it might be fixed. 

There you have it. Blogger sucks, again.

In the blink of an eye...

I wish I could slow down Spring and watch it in slow motion, rewind, pause, and make it last longer. I am greedy that way. I've been doing what I do every May - taking an insane amount of pictures, fighting with my digital point and shoot camera, trying to catch what I'm seeing so I can look at it some more. I keep all my pictures archived on my hard drive by date, partly so I can compare variations in bloom time over the years.I used to keep one of those garden journals, but photos are my shorthand these days. I guess this is what retired lab geeks must do with their spare brain capacity, so I can know that the lovely yellow-green narcissus bud from my last post bloomed in all it's glory last week, May 1st to be exact.

Last year, April 15th:

2009, April 30:

2008, May 1st:

And so on. I think there might be a trend with the two week back and forth thing, but I didn't look back any farther. I've lived here 14 years and I never cease to be amazed and surprised by what will and won't grow here, and how different and yet the same each year can be.

Anyhow, I've been wallowing in this Spring, begging it to slow down, just like every year. I can take all the pictures I want, nature doesn't care. She just marches on in her mysterious ways.

Here are a few more pretty things that had made me happy since my last post, some wild or native, some cultivated, all loved.

It's almost too much isn't it?

Every time I snap pictures like this, I hear a voice in my head, from the finale of one of my favorite shows, Six Feet Under, where Nate's ghost tells his sister Claire who takes one last photo of her family before she leaves home to start her life:  You can't take a picture of this, it's already gone. 

Maybe so. But still we try to, don't we?

Finally, here are two things I love most, my babies all grown up on Mother's Day.

Now I really, really wish I had a pause and rewind button for my life!

Hope something lovely is growing and blooming where ever you are.

p.s.

If you want to hear the wisdom of Nate, it's on the video link at the bottom of the page, 2:16.
I miss that show.

Faithful Flower Friends

I love a warm, sunny blue sky April day filled with flowers. I wish I had nothing to do but lounge outside and visit with them. They feel like old friends, and I don't deserve them, as I never take enough good care, but they show up anyway, faithfully, every year, just like my human friends.

Some I planted, some volunteered, some have been here long before me and probably will be here long after me, given just a little warmth, sunshine and rain. Sorry so long between posts, but I've been busy with life, and spending my spare time outside with my camera. April's photo file is 500 plus, and I must learn to be a better editor. But deleting some of their pictures feels like unfriending a friend, so it is a slow and difficult process. I used to delete all the out of focus ones, but lately, their Monet quality appeals to me, especially as my own eyesight continues to worsen, and most of my world is out of focus in one way or another anyway.

Maybe I'll post some Monets soon, but for now, these are as crisp and fresh as an April morning.

Hope it's mostly sunshine and lovely wherever you are, and hope you take some time

to make friends with the flowers too.