Dark Jewels
*Click the pictures for a better view.
One jewel from last year and one from this, so far.
The rain has begun and it looks like we will get our normal wet weather season this year, monsoon.
It’s already showing in the phenomenal growth in the garden, everything is just reaching for the sky and it’s a pleasure to see and be in it.
Lovely weather too, cool breeze in the warm morning sunshine. Refreshing rain at intervals, not too far apart or too much at once.
Nice and steady … as steady can be in an ever moving world.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Emergence …
*Click on pictures for a better view.
Then it quickly found it’s legs and ran up the tree towards the light, away from the shadow of my lens, born again again.
Walking the edge of the water treatment plant, that borders the local wilds, I saw a strange – even to these experienced eyes – thing.
I couldn’t make it out at first, it looked so oddly shaped, but after a few shots – so I could see closer – it became apparent it was a form of Shield-bug, in the midst of a rarely observed transition.
They outgrow their shell, exoskeleton actually, and periodically have to moult – usually there is a split along the back through which the new form pushes out. A very dangerous time for them, being immobile for the duration and soft, vulnerable – to some degree held back by the tight fit of the old skin.
Springtime is here again and small creatures are emerging everywhere. At first in smaller size, visible by their increasing numbers. With spiders hatching in the hundreds, a feasting of expendable form, everything is living off something else.
A cascade of life and death begins, by which another emergence takes place, those relative few that live to maturity, who make up the cast of earthy characters.
… and I’ll probably get a few pictures of this burgeoning operatic show.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Morning Queen
*Click pictures for better view …
First light of the day is a good time to catch the wildlife unawares. They haven’t quite woken up yet, aren’t so active as when it warms up.
And first thing today there was an ant. A queen of her kind, Green Head kind. She must have taken flight at first light, I’d guess.
Her wings took her to an old lemon on a stake, where I couldn’t get a shot, so I helped her to the butterfly bush.
I thought she might slow down there and even take some nourishment from the little yellow cups.
And so she did, before some preening, then wandering off round the nearest leaves.
So I present to you, a queen of the morning …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Self Portrait
No, not that kind …
This kind, that has no problem in it.
*Click the pictures for closer view.
See, inside, where this image resonates, everything is in or is my ‘self’. There is no problem t/here.
Now, see inside, where the ‘news’ resonates, problems … endlessly.
Careful what you give your attention, your life, to.
It takes a long time for the bud to form and mature.
Then the flowering can begin …
Everything flowers.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Keeping It Simple …
*Click pictures for a better view
Still …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Bee – Blue Banded Beauty
Keeping it simple …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click the picture for a closer lookk Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
A Blast …
… from the past.
A few pictures from earlier this year, since there has been so few to shoot lately with the advanced cold of our winter.
*Click the pictures for a closer view.
The way to view these pictures is not to name but to sense, then go do it in the garden, if you want a sense of peace.
These images are representative of something else that, when duly attended, echoes colourfully in the mind.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Introducing …
… variations in form, of one life.
Wild, instinctive little biological robots at work and play, or just being what they are.
Jumping Spider sitting on bamboo stake, overseeing …
*Click the pictures for a better view.
Chafer – Flower – Beetle, belatedly found the one piece of banana in the garden.
Weevil on the orange, on a bamboo stake.
Tiny female Fly laying into the ageing lemon on a stake.
Daisies, a popular roost for flies at night. This one preening after a good poo, like people do.
Tiny Bee roosting on the aromatic dried out Basil.
Injured or deformed Hopper, same spot for a week. The one on the left is how they look normally.
And not one problem between them … evidently.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Travelling Ant
Out on my wandering in the local byways I often come across something unique, that I only ever see once.
As I was crossing this fallen – with a little help – fence I noticed there was an occupant of unusual character.
The ant, a kind I haven’t seen before, was using the fence line as a highway across the otherwise difficult terrain and appeared in no hurry.
It had been dry for a few days so I wet the line where the ant would pass and when they met it stopped to take a sip. Free moisture can be a rarity in the wild.
An ant might travel the equivalent of many miles for a drink, but not today. Manna from the sky, and it clearly enjoyed it, stopping to sip a while before resuming its journey.
I could wonder where that ant was going but I know already. It’s going home, if it’s not already there.
Small, instinctive, non self reflective mind.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
*
*
Nature's Place 
18 comments