The Joker
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Outlandish looking thing, perfectly camouflaged on the spent butterfly bush flowers.
However odd the appearance nature has another form for every space.
And occupies every need for one purpose, reflection.
Unerringly – it only looks messy.
Odd is natural.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Painted Dancer
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Robotic, staccato movement of tiny feet across the flowers. Behind her a trail of silk to anchor.
Big eyed beauty sees all in her world, strangers above a certain size reveal themselves at their peril.
Such confidence she has, or lack of self consciousness – unaware of the sharp eyed crow overhead.
Pure instinctive being, untouchable by discursive thought or emotion – as we know it.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Pictures …
Smiley … Gecko, hunting in the garden at night.
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Weevil on a rope, strung up to train the passion fruit vine along.
Night-time cockroach eating a dried black plum staked in the garden. Ever hunting antennae.
Another resin bee recovered from the watering can. It takes a while before they can fly again.
Longhorn weevil at sunset on the sunflower stalk. Not yet dark enough to be active.
Small katydid untangling its antennae on the crocus.
Orb weaver spider casting a thread into the night to begin making its web.
Fly on the butterfly bush, enjoying a nectar laced diet.
Longhorn under the light at night. Within range of a prowling gecko.
… of a few creatures from the garden.
Wandering at ease in the nature, see what happens there.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Shielded …
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See how simple space is, clarifying the thing it surrounds, shaping the form.
See the space, from there sense the form appearing.
Every little thing has its place in the tapestry.
Nothing is disposable, or all of it is.
Feeling the sense of it.
In the space of it.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Flying Visit
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The fiddler beetle was zooming round the flowers in the garden, frisky little thing.
So when it stopped a moment I was prepared for some fast action on its part.
As soon as I touched the flower head it was on it dropped off.
Survival strategy at times demands a creature plays dead.
It would have unfolded its wings and taken flight …
… but there was my hand to catch it.
Then it dropped from my hand …
… and took to the skies.
Gracefully.
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It is easy to be grateful in this space.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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The Wilds …
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Looking to see …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Friends …
… of a kind.
Phew … made it.
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Wink …
Recycling some old potting mix in a bucket in the garden that became a trap for a lizard. It fell in.
Don’t know how long it was in there, it wasn’t exhausted yet but it was glad to see me. Clear as day.
Well, don’t know about ‘glad’ but as I lowered a stick carefully in to assist it climb out it clearly took advantage.
I drew the stick up the inside of the bucket and the lizard leaned into it, hooking one leg over it so as not to fall back down.
It worked. As it turned out the lizard was quite tired after its experience and it took a while for it to recover, allowing me a few shots.
These lizards, skinks, are everywhere in the garden, often seen scuttling into some shade or shelter, from preying birds mostly.
Since then I have come across a few of these little lizards active in the open, seeing me but unconcerned
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Longhorn …
*Click on pictures for bigger version – and click 1st one again.
Long-horn … after their long antennae, a sense organ they use to detect their world.
It stopped long enough for a few shots, maneuverable for different backgrounds.
A kind of beetle rarely seen in the garden, with its unusual colour.
Then, without warning, it took to the air and was gone.
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Looking in the garden is suggestive of looking inside, when still enough to see.
Down in the pit something moves until focussed, its nature examined.
Eventually it is gone and something else emerges.
Until it doesn’t … if it does, complete.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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See No Weevil
Sheltering from the rain. Possibly recovering from a fight.
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You can see the right mandible has been severed – click on it, maybe by another’s stronger mandible.
A different kind of weevil, a different aura too.
Proud thing …
With a ‘little’ rain some of the gardens inhabitants, legged creatures, climb up the other inhabitants, plants.
It’s a way of surviving, it avoids drowning and other dangers and probably makes for some unlikely encounters.
The first weevil looks ok at first glance. Then you might notice its drooping antennae, and its broken mandible.
It’s clearly been in a battle with something, probably a bigger one of its kind, for mating rights I suspect, and looks all done in.
The second one is a beauty, well groomed and completely intact, looking proud too. Maybe the winner of that battle.
That’s living, both the good and the not so, and they take it in stride, instinctively. What else could they do … and remain viable.
With our capacity for reflection we can choose what we acknowledge, beyond good and bad, when we can.
Everything in its time …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Nature's Place 
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