I get out late in the afternoon to try and learn more about using my camera. Early morning and late afternoon are the best times because of the light. Well, I’m not an early morning girl, so the afternoon has it. One thing I’ve noticed when I bring my camera in and download my photos is that Squirt can usually be found in many of my shots. It reminds me of “Where’s Waldo?” I think he might eventually learn to be a camera ham, but now he acts like he hates to have his picture made and will rarely look at the camera. I have to be quick or find him very distracted to get a good face shot.
You can see by his nose that he’s been doing his chores. He is so hot and tired that he didn’t get up and run when he saw me pointing the camera at him, but he wouldn’t look at me either. The only place you see mole tunnels around here is way out by the road and he has been taught not to go anywhere near that road.
The shrubs separating us from our cotton crop are Abelia and I love them. I suppose I am correct when I refer to this plant as a shrub. It is a member of the honeysuckle family, which I also love, although folks around here rarely plant honeysuckle in their yards.
Honeysuckle grows wild and I love this photo I took of some honeysuckle in a fence row. I have many fond memories of honeysuckle from my childhood. We always pulled out the stamens and sucked the sweet nectar from them. That was before there were so many insecticides and pesticides sprayed on the crops. I’d be very afraid of it now so I never taught my children or grandchildren about this trick with the honeysuckle.
The cotton is growing and this is the sight I see just beyond the line of shrubs and trees behind my house. In fact, this is pretty much what you can see on 3 sides of my house. Cotton is my favorite crop. Oh, and these white, featureless skies that you see in my photos? Unless you photoshop them, that is just what you often get in the hot, hot summertime. The heat index here is between 105 and 110 this week. You can almost tell how hot it is by looking at this sky. When the cotton starts blooming, I promise to send you some flowers.
6 comments:
Ahhh, honeysuckle nectar! Such a sweet memory from my childhood, too. I was thinking about it just the other day when I saw a neighbor's vines blooming. I also miss the fireflies of my youth. Maybe the insecticides did them in, too? Hope you and Squirt survive the heat!
The fireflies are alive and well. It seems like there are millions out here in the country every single night. We called them lightnin' bugs when I was growing up and would catch them every night. Poor things went into fruit jars with holes punched in the lids just before we went off to bed, and we were just sure they'd live, which of course they never did.
Squirt are I are staying in most of the time. It is just too hot for man or beast unless you've got to be out in it. Maybe it will cool off today.
It has been soooo hot for soooooo long. I keep wishing a cool front of some kind would blow in, but so far nothing has. The heat doesn't seem to bother our lightnin bugs though. Our yard is full of them after the sun goes down. You must tell us how Squirt gets along with them! He is SUCH a cool dog. I just finished telling my husband the story of Squirt falling between the walls of the pool house and how he was rescued.
Squirt used to try to snap at the lightning bugs, but he's given up on it. He is getting older now and I know the bird population around here is relieved. We have at least a couple of bird nests in every tree and he used to pick the babies off as soon as their mothers started teaching them to fly. We hated it, but it is his instinct. We have many funny stories about him, and he is a cool dog if I do say so myself. I'll soon tell about one of the skunk incidents. God was watching over us that day!
It rained in town today so it cooled off some, but the mosquitoes are killing us!
I am so happy to know that fireflies -- or lightening bugs as we also used to call them -- are still alive and well somewhere! My husband and I are both surprised that we just never see them here anymore.
Maybe the lightning bugs just like country life and are not city dwellers anymore. I grew up in town but don't know if people in town still see them or not.
I have observed that children in town don't play outside at night (or in the daytime) like we used to and I am sorry about that. They just don't know what they are missing.
Post a Comment