Dew Drop Time
Everything, the I in it I am, cycles through predictable change over time. Predictable to the objective observer. Most of it is no change at all, just the same old changing, changing the same old way. It’s a kind of change, or it is change itself. Really, the only change that matters is no change at all. Only nothing doesn’t change. And changes everything.
Dewdrops have a special place in the great scheme of change. They only occur at a certain time of day, a certain time of year, of life, when the circumstances are right. The most important of which is that I be there to see.
That makes sense. If I’m not there it doesn’t happen in my experience. And what else is there but my experience? Imagination? So it could be said I make dewdrops, by being there to sense them. Sense makes sense.
I make dewdrops.
*
At dewdrop time the bugs are still asleep, for the most part. So it’s fairly easy to sneak up on them though they don’t sleep just anywhere. I have found a place where Dragons sleep, a field of long grass next to the creek-side growth of trees and bushes.
So far it hasn’t been easy getting a good shot with all the grass moving so easily but like anything it takes time to realise the optimal. And in the end that is what is allowed, or given, by a greater power than I. Being, of the well, what else.
My own true nature.
*
No dewdrops today so it’s visitors to the marigold.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
The Lookout
Bugs are bugs. They are born and die just like people. And in between they eat, defecate, grow, kill, run, sweat and reproduce, just like people – mostly. They don’t think about any of it, unlike people – mostly.
I’ve never seen an unhappy bug – ever.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
I’ve never seen an unhappy bug.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Assassin at Work
I spy an Assassin.
Wandering about in the forest.
Tracked ‘im up the grass plant to panic in the hive.
Stabbed a wasp and carried her away.
And away.
And just when Assassin thought it was safe to stop the ants joined in the kill.
So off Assassin went again and didn’t stop till ants were way behind and wasp was drained of life.
This way and that, a little lost at times it seemed.
But never let go the precious hard won meal.
Skewered Wasp.
And the Assassin lived happily ever after. Until …
But that’s another story.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Nothing
It’s not a feeling, more an absence. A state that can easily be read as negative though even that can’t be sustained, since there is nothing. This nothing has no will in it and so it is a peculiarity, a singularity. Nothing is undivided.
We’ll see. Nothing?
*
I tracked this ant around for a bit and was given a few decent shots. I say given because it keeps me in my place, there is a greater power in charge. Just look at the next creature that appears, it’s mere existence is a miracle – never mind that ‘Take up Thy bed and walk’ stuff.
Just look to see, if you can. And there it is, the miracle of sense. No religion required.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
That Time of Year (Life?) …
… when it could as easily rain as shine. Not good news for the market business, but then there is no good news for the market business except it is actually covering costs, though not technically. Chandler is not the right market for my product but it’s the wrong time of year for making enquiries of the right market, everyone’s busy, too busy. Early new year I’ll try get on the Riverside market where people sell my kind of stuff, original works, prints and paintings, etc.
Maybe. The other point is there is not a lot of money about, or being spent. There is a world recession on after all, a lack of confidence in the future – who can blame them.
Then again it might just be time to pack it in. Can’t tell what’s next from where I am.
*
The red fly is from the rainforest, a particular spot where there were a few more of his kind. The red Hibiscus Harlequin Bug on the underside of a flower, also from the rainforest. The Squash? Bug chipping away at some hardened white bird droppings along with a posse of ants, must be the nourishment, also in the rainforest nearby. A Lady bug of some kind, hard to keep from blowing highlights with these fellows. Another bug I caught as it ran along a nearby branch, just one shot. And a humble fly, magnificent creatures.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
A Few Creatures …
… lest I forget. These are some of the wonderful variety of the forms of life to be found at the places I go in the Redlands. The first is a young Nomad Bee, I believe, foraging.
A queen Ant looking to start a colony perhaps? Only one wing left so her options are determined.
A stilt fly on the orange peel out in the back yard.
Clown Spider? From Eprapah, under a leaf next to the red beetles.
An unusual fly.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Summer Time …
… and the livin’s easy. Well, livin’s never that but there are many different small creatures about for me to investigate with the camera. And that’s a pleasure, if not easy.
I went down the old Mt Cotton scout camp today for a wander around a few known trails. By the pleasantly aged buildings there is a garden planted by the young boys, I don’t know when. There are many flowers there at the moment and they attract the tiny native bees.
And where one insect goes there are usually more who follow, or just make their own way there. One doesn’t necessarily follow the other, or does it? Anyway, it wasn’t long before I had to give up on the little black bees, they just move too fast. Zip, zip, zip, in and out. I must have got two keepers out of about one hundred shots, not good.
Then I noticed a little black cricket, I think it is. Ninja cricket, I call it, with a short yellow saddle on its back. It was very interested in the small black bees and was slowly making its way towards one on a flower but they were just too fast for it, and not nearly numerous enough to be caught.
I was looking around for what else may be in the vicinity and there was one of the little brown frogs from early spring, only now it was turning green though not much bigger. It was also in position to catch some black bees, up on the leaf about the flower, but after a few shots it jumped away down the plant.
And there was a golden ant taking some of the honey I left out for the bees, which they never touched. Enjoying a long sup of a most wonderful food not often experienced in the world of ant. Food of the gods ant, making the most of it.
A few other creatures came and went. Like the green eyed fly. She landed on my booted foot and slowly made her way up my ankle where I got a few shots. Then she was off to the garden where I got a few more. She had a lazy way about her and at one time she was determined to examine my camera.
She rose up from the greenery and came slowly towards me. At first I thought she was after landing on me and I moved away but she went straight to the camera and walked around it tasting, as flies do. After a while I shooed her away and she landed in the garden again and we both went about our business. She grooming herself and me taking her picture.
As I left the garden for the wilder trails I met a small grey kangaroo, no picture. We have met before and I called out to her and she was hesitant, not knowing whether to run or not. In the end she opted to keep a safe distance of about ten yards but she is getting used to me now. I must remember to bring her some good food next time.
Down towards the water I went to see the wasps at a nest I know of, native wasps. They are small dark hued creatures and like all wasps are alert to any intrusion. I am always careful when in the bush but particularly around wasps as they are very active in defense of their nest. It’s a good idea to give them no cause to interpret any action as aggressive, as they will attack. David and Goliath style.
But their sting is not at all bad, not like the European wasp or paper wasp. It’s like a small electric current that rapidly diminishes, but uncomfortable all the same.
Another fly landed at my feet on the boardwalk around the dam, just two shots of this one. Magnificent creature, colours and form. It is extraordinary the beauty of these creatures up close, that is so easily overlooked by the unaided eye.
A dragonfly also presented himself, lovely young yellow thing. Sat on his perch for me to get a few good shots and away he went. Nothing stays the same for long in the bush. Everything is always moving, staying alive if it can. 
Dying if it can’t. Without complaint.
My beautiful nature.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Breakdown
It’s what happens to things. And everything’s a thing so everything breaks down some time.
What makes it time a thing breaks down? It’s time; it’s time to break down. It’s time in the order of things.
All things are ordered. The earth, the solar system, the universe, the whole of existence is ordered. You didn’t think it was disordered, did you?
Being ordered it all breaks down to order, right on time.
It’s bloody perfect. Perfectly ordered.
Perfect breakdown. :)
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Masked Paramour
Sitting in the flower tops, waiting for her love.
Surrounded by the colour blue, and mauve.
Round and round she went to see.
Arms outstretched, but not to me.
Once a beckoning, it seems.
Then strikes a pose, of themes?
I don’t wonder that she would feel.
And along comes a meal.
Not so easy, the meal.
One finds there little appeal.
The other, oh well, away on the wind.
Love returns, eventually, in kind.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Nature's Place 
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