“Discovering this idyllic place, we find ourselves filled with a yearning to linger here, where time stands still and beauty overwhelms.” ~Unknown
Swallowtail on a butterfly bush
insect
Wild Pink Rose
A wild pink rose with a tiny green grasshopper growing along the side of our country road.
“Some people complain because God put thorns on roses, while others praise Him for putting roses among thorns. ~Unknown
November butterfly
A butterfly lights beside us, like a sunbeam …
and for a brief moment it’s glory
and beauty belong to our world …
But then it flies on again, and although
we wish it could have stayed,
we are so thankful to have seen it at all.
~Unknown
Watch out for the Spider!
“Seeing a spider isn’t a problem. It becomes a problem when it disappears.” ~Unknown
Observing
North American millipede
Thread waisted wasp
Ladybug
Katydid
Grasshopper
Wheel bug
Praying mantis
“An observant child should be put in the way of things worth observing.” ~Charlotte Mason
Common Buckeye
I am always thrilled when I come upon a Buckeye. It is my favorite among the butterflies. I like the colors and the bold pattern of the eyespots which are thought to frighten or distract predators.
“I opened two gifts this morning. They were my eyes.” ~Unknown
Living among the duckweed
Some of the flora and fauna living around the duckweed at Reelfoot National Wildlife Refuge
“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement; the greatest source of visual beauty; the greatest source of intellectual interest. It is the greatest source of so much in life that makes life worth living.” ~David Attenborough
Grasshoppers
“We are by nature observers, and thereby learners. That is our permanent state.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Beauty
“He has made everything beautiful in its time …” Ecclesiastes 3:11
Insects
Music is in all growing things;
And underneath the silky wings
Of smallest insects there is stirred
A pulse of air that must be heard;
Earth’s silence lives, and throbs, and sings.
~George Parsons Lathrop
walking on a country road 