Thursday, July 9, 2009

Look who came to visit...

Yesterday I was out in the garden...watering, pinching off tomato plant sucker branches, checking new flower buds, moving tomato cages over eggplant bushes so the chickens will stop knocking off the blossoms...when I came across this: a big, beautiful dragon fly.

I was kneeling down, watering the tomato plants, when I look up and there he is, not only very beautiful but also very bold. I hollered for Ian to bring me my camera...and hurry up about it! Uh, please. (I do my best to set good examples around here you know.)
This amazing creature did not budge...no matter how close I got. At first I was taking pictures from a reasonable distance. But as I checked them in my camera I was thinking that, yes, while you could see him, it wasn't real easy and he was really jumbled in with the tomato branches. So, step by step I got closer and closer and closer. And he didn't move. So I just kept snapping away, picture after picture. And NO, he wasn't dead. Because there were a few times that the wind blew and he fluttered his wings to keep his balance. His grip on that tomato branch was strong.

I've always appreciated dragon flies...the way their lacy wings glisten, the way they hover....as far as insects go, they're alright in my book.
I remember once when I was a kid, my friend Jeff and I (remember Jeff? My armpit fart noise making friend? The one who punched me in the stomach? Yeah...him.) were riding our bikes in the cul-de-sac we lived on. We were just riding and riding and riding. I don't know, I may have been pretending that I was a Charlie's Angel, probably Farrah, driving my blue Cobra. I did that now and then. But anyway...suddenly, there were, and I think it's safe to say, hundreds of dragon flies hovering around our cul-de-sac. Maybe it just seemed like hundreds because I was a little girl, around 8 or so. But all I knew was that there were a LOT of dragon flies...and we rode our bikes through them over and over, every once in a while getting hit by one on the cheek or the arm. We made sure to keep our lips shut tight! It was kind of crazy...and really cool...when you're 8 anyway.

5 comments:

WhiteStone said...

Nice photos of the dragonfly. One of God's very cool creatures for sure. My tomatoes are so thick I can't get in them to pinch suckers. I know I should do it but it probably won't get done. LOL

Nancy said...

Love the photos. I love it when you can be so close with nature.

Anonymous said...

those are some amazing pictures.

do you let you chicks in the garden area? do they eat everything?

Wren said...

Fantastic photos!! Such wonderful colors and details on the little guy. How nice he stuck around for you to snap his picture! Eggplant? Really?

Anonymous said...

they ARE unbelievably beautiful. i can't believe he stood that still for you!

i can never get such clear close ups.