Hungry

My first photo taken this year.  And it's with the iPhone.  But I just had to turn around and get this.  Too bad that fence post is right in the center.  Seems there is always a car behind me and I rush.

Summer Summary

I'm still kickin'.  Well, maybe not kickin' exactly, but getting by.

Here is the extent of summer action around the place.

(I did spare you from photos of grass mowing and all the things that have bit the dust here in the last three months.  Oh, and all the appointments, phone calls, forms, signature guarantees, etc., which one has to deal with following a death.  So complicated.

Hopefully, I am about done with all that bother.

Some patriotic harvest, thanks to a volunteer little white pumpkin/squash.

Wheat field with some color.

Green wheat . . . 

Golden wheat . . . 

Rain . . . 

A visit to a friend's beautiful shady garden oasis. . . 

Some bathers . . .

Some eaters . . . 

Some bunnies . . . lots of bunnies . . . 

A couple of hunters . . . .  one stayed close enough to get a few shots - with the camera, of course.

Icky batches of insects all over the crape myrtles. . . 

And a great 50th birthday party for a good friend.

Hope everyone had a good summer.

All my spidey friends

Thought this still appropriate for the day after Halloween.
Some of my human friends are saying "I thought she hated spiders . . . .?"
Sharing with Saturday's Critters

And BTW, no one correctly identified what my re-purposed jack-o-lantern was from a couple days ago.  It was the sand filter from our swimming pool pump which had to be replaced this year.

Garden spider

An enormous garden spider at my in-laws' a couple of weeks ago.

Huge.

About two inches at least.

Two's company

Photo ops still few and far between, and mostly limited to the home grounds.

I'm grateful we have a good sized property and no neighbors to amuse with my squatting, bending, and sitting on the ground.

I did a little Googling and I'm calling these "blue-winged wasps".  They have a scientific name, but that's much to hard for my retired, keep-it-simple mind.  They feed on grubs and do not usually sting.

Sharing with:
Good Fences @ The*Run*Around*Ranch

Hi

This little fellow jumped on my wrist while I was working in some potted flowers the other evening.

Cold and wet.  At first I thought a bird had pooped on me, but was happy to see that it was a tiny, tiny frog.

He would fit nicely on a quarter.

Handheld, ISO 6400, 1/2000 sec, f2.8, Canon 100mm 2.8L Macro lens

Morning Strategy Meeting

Oh, the country life . . .

"Hey, watch it!"

King of the hill

Lucy, a sweet Beagle, reigning over her subjects at my in-laws farm.

You can see Lucy's sweet face here.

Sharing with:

Saturday's Critters with Eileen
and
Weekly Top Shot with Madge

Look down

What, no food?

A friend of mine and one of her father's goats.

They call me Tater Chip

A tree rat after my own heart.

Have you ever had a squirrel climb on your back to get chips?

This one tried.  And he got chips.

Drab cuties

Turtle cuties in drab green.

This is far from my usual colorful shots, but I couldn't resist with their perfect little reflections.

This was as close as I dared get with the camera, 270 mm zoom, and as close as I dared crop the photo.

(Not sure about that tire.  I suppose it is someone's trash.)

Flutter By

Nature buffs, please correct me if I'm wrong.  I believe this is a Zebra Longwing.

Wish I could have caught this guy in something other than bright sunlight.

In the eye of a spider

Canon 100mm f2.8L lens, hand held no flash, f10, 1/40, ISO 2500, cropped a lot

 See me?  There in the eyes?

Canon 100mm f2.8L lens, hand held, with flash, f4.0, 1/60, ISO 400, cropped a lot

Canon 100mm f2.8L lens, hand held, f4.0, 1/50, ISO 320 no flash, cropped a lot

The end.

Update:  The last photo earned a 1st Place ribbon in the "insect category" at the
2013 Middle Tennessee District Fair, Lawrenceburg, Tennessee