Prince of Light
Out of the winter, all furred up, lighting the way of his kind.
Sword and sinew aready, face to the black, work of a season behind.
Out of the darkness, a climbing of heights, glittering sky of his mind.
Into the summer, the plans of the deep, conferring a making to bind.
Raised on Ambrosia, a pain to the Gods, he is the first of his kind.
The season anew, the flight true and through, the Grail it is his to find.
Soar up little one, beloved of mine, ride the mystical wynde.
When battle is done, and death comes to tease, ‘tis a kiss to a warriors rind.
Oops! ‘Tis a female after all, I didn’t know, and I don’t mind. ((:
Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Silence is Golden
I woke from a dream last night. In it I met someone and I said to her; “There isn’t much to say unless we are engaged in something.”
Then, in the dream, I started singing Silence is Golden … Twice. And I woke.
A dream to wonder at.
© 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
Flight Risk
This weevil was wandering around an aquatic plant in the nearby swamp. I got a few shots as it passed this way and that. It looked like it had something attached to its rear end. I couldn’t see very clearly at the time it had a problem with one wing. It seems one wing didn’t fold as the other obviously did. I suppose it could be a genetic defect though the creature looked like it had been alive for some time, though a defect is not necessarily a detriment to survival. It depends on the defect, doesn’t it?
I followed it around the big leaf it was on and it didn’t seem to be able to find a way to move on, explore as it seemed to for a track or trail leading somewhere. Eventually I left it where I found it, still wandering around the leaf. Not unusual behaviour for bugs, they don’t worry about things like, ‘I’ve been here before’, ‘am I lost?’, ‘what am I going to do if nothing to eat comes along?’
No such emotional nonsense for my little bugs. No siree.
I wonder if the weevil flew away ok? But not really, I don’t invite imagining I don’t need to do.
It’s a flight risk. Flight of fancy.
© 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
Rainforest Flower Weevil
I doubt that’s its actual name, though it is a weevil. It was more turquoise to my eye on the day than it appears here. Maybe the flash had an effect, or the sun.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Not Dead Yet :)
But first, one of those astounding creatures I see almost every day for your viewing, sensible, pleasure, and to remind you there is more to what you can see. Even if that more is in reality less. Am I making sense? It matters.
I tracked this fellow for some time and caught some real nice shots so decided to post an unusual number of them.
The more you see is the detail that has an existence rendered sensible through the camera device for a snapshot of the otherwise invisible world of vital life, in the psyche, at a place where all has a coherent – to the senses – order. The less is where the detail ends, at the ‘beginning’ you can see now, inside. On the ‘other’ side of anything.
Where sensible order ends and God, dare I say it, begins. Though, in fact, god is in all things, no exception!!
*
Amazing isn’t it? The resilience of the human body, or any body – see the frog leap 30 times its length – the fly travel at 100kph hitting or avoiding the debris along the way, just bloody amazing. Especially if you didn’t expect to live that long anyway.
But that’s life. The only undeniable prediction is it will not be denied, will always take some form. As long as there is existence, and I can’t see that ending any time soon. Except maybe in the particular, which is really all there is but let’s not complicate the matter. The particular is the whole, where I am, inside.
So the body just keeps bouncing back, from all the pressures of living, and the accumulated past. The physical pressures are not a problem, just a fact the way light or dark is a fact. It’s silly to have a problem with that.
No, the problem is the past that keeps bouncing back. The past as thought and emotion. But there’s a way to deal with that.
*
Do you remember as a kid the way you learnt to bounce the small rubber ball off the ground? At first it was a bit clumsy, bounce and miss, bounce and hit again but off centre and away the ball goes and you have to chase it to bring it under your control again.
But, eventually, you learnt to bounce that ball with ease, even grace. Bounce, bounce, bounce off the floor, off the wall. Wall, floor, wall, floor – bounce, bounce – control. By the practise, as long as there is the capacity. And the exercise is never given to those without the capacity so that’s not an issue, is it?
So you see, it’s just a matter of practise. Right practise!
Practise of the right exercise/s.
*
Is there ever an end to the need for practise? If you come to it there is. If you don’t there isn’t. For you, since only your experience is important, to you. Anything else is someone else’s experience, maybe not even that.
Imagination, the curse to be mastered. Then it might, might, be called a blessing, among others. :)
© 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
Wild Hibiscus Tree – Harlequin and Friends
I’ve been observing the activity and tracking the residents for a while now, down in the forest, on the wild Hibiscus tree. The tree has white flowers with a dark red heart, beautiful clean colour when new. And a contrast that reaches deep inside, in sense.
The leaves have been mostly eaten for a while now, since the tree is also home to a few other creatures besides the Harlequin bug. There are small reddish brown beetles that roam all over the place, including all over the harlequins, who seem to mind quite a bit, getting very agitated when one climbs on their back.
The flower houses a host of squat dark flies that only seem to leave that dark heart when I disturb them, by moving the flower. Lately there has been a burgeoning of other bugs, such as the black and yellow assassins pictured, who seem to transform to the red and yellow beauty by climbing out of their old jacket.
Nothing like a new set of clothes to set you free.
*
The Harlequin is definitely the star of this show though. At first I thought I was lucky to get a few shots of an individual. Then I got a few shots of a few more individuals. That’s when I realised the hibiscus tree is home to these beautiful creatures, they didn’t go away.
Over time I visited the tree and observed the Harlequin bug in the various stages of its development. I watched it mature, eat, commune, grow wings, mate, lay eggs and guard and incubate them. Saw the young hatch and then herd themselves around the tree with the adult looking on for a short while.
It has been an eventful time, Hibiscus Harlequin time.
*
A privilege really, to witness the life of these beautifully coloured creatures. And here you have it in the comfort of your home, no need to go down the bug infested forest, with mozzies and little black biting midges chasing you.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
Nature's Place 
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