How was your morning? Mine? I spent 87 minutes watching ants work. What can I say? Nature captivates me so much so that it inspired me to invest in a macro lens and focus on small bits of nature. Photographing bees, butterflies and insects as if I were a street photographer, I captured little moments of joy, effort and wonder. I turned that small world into my first book which helped me realized one of life's great lessons: nothing is too small to have an enormous impact on the world.
Alyssum does not love me. I can kill it faster than I can squash a bug. Not that I actually squash bugs. I've tried watering, not watering, full sun, part sun, some shade and a lot of shade. Nadda. It goes from the pot to dead in 3 seconds. I'm not taking it personally. There […]
Thursday's are Ladies' night at the ladybug sex club. The box said, "Release your ladybugs at dawn or dusk. With ample food and moisture they can begin reproducing immediately." And they say there's no truth in advertising. This team doesn't much care about privacy. That's the boy on top, always much smaller than the girl. They hold […]
I may be world's worst vegetable gardener but Bonnie, the hoverfly doesn't care. She enjoys the fruit of my bolted lettuce labor just days before I pulled that inedible useless ball of green and tossed it in the compost pile. Who knew lettuce could flower? Stuff you learn when you kill a plant. At least someone ate […]
Sometimes I don't pick the flowers on my black night basil plant just so I can be the cliché macro photographer. Oh and the bees tend to like them too. Oh yes I did shoot a water droplet! But it was after watering the garden, not on purpose so it's o.k., to be cliché. Who am I kidding? I've got cliche all over […]
I tried vegetable gardening this year. Aside from my tomato plants and most of my herbs, it was less than stellar. All my lettuce bolted. My cucumbers were pathetic. None of my squash fruited. I mean, I have to be a complete doofus not to produce a single zucchini, right? So I ripped it all […]
Ever since the new lizard condominium complex went in (it's a three-tiered orchard built with natural stone & flagstone-- perfect for lizard housing), Lizard Rock has been the hottest spot in town to catch some rays, gossip or hook up. Larry and Mona had many a rendez-vous before Mona got knocked up. Now we have 87 […]
Meet Gertrude, the Garden Spider. I nearly soiled my knickers when I ran into her while harvesting tomatoes one morning. Since Mr. Wild Dingo was traveling, I sent a picture of her to him. "Look who built a home and moved in on the cherry tomato plant," I wrote. "Her name is Gertrude."
Meet Heloise, the adult female hoverfly or flower fly of the family Syrphidae. Hoverflies get their name from how they hover in midair. Known as the helicopter of flying insects, they are able to dart quickly, fly backwards, and come to hover again. Sizes of hoverflies vary from small, long and slender, like Heloise here, […]
White-lined Sphinx Hummingbird Moth (Hyles lineata) of the Sphingidae family. One of the largest flying insects with a wingspan of 2-8 inches and length of 2.5-3.5 inches. They are large enough to scare the bejesus out of you if you didn't know just how harmless these shy guys are! Hummingbird moths emerge at dusk from […]
This is Eddie otherwise known as Red-Eye Eddie. The other night, I was searching for bush crickets in our trees with a flashlight (no camera) just so I could watch them sing with their wings, when Eddie hopped up on a table on our terrace. I don't know what kind of Katydid he is, though […]