Joyfully Green: Nature & Wildlife

Nature & Wildlife

12/10/2013

Five Ways to Find Beauty in Beastly Winter Weather

The past week here on the eastern coast of the U.S. has been a smorgasbord of "bad" weather--fog as thick as pea soup (more like mushroom soup, based on the color), chilly rains, snow flurries, ice storms. It's enough to send a person into hibernation. And yet...it's a photographer's dream! When the weather is a drama queen--a diva to put even Mariah Carey to shame--it's the best time to seize the camera and get out there.

Although I often post-process my photographs (one of the things I'll be teaching in my upcoming photography e-course), the colors in the photo above are unaltered. It was the combination of thick morning fog and a gray sky that gave the ruby red leaves their super-saturated glow. And those shapes! I loved how the tiny leaves of the Barberry bush acted like little spoons for the droplets.

On a sunny day, you simply cannot get a view of a magical world turned upside-down inside a raindrop...

This snapshot of a tree reflected in a raindrop reminded me of a snowglobe. It was one of those happy accidents, discovering the inverted image of the tree inside the raindrop as I was clicking away.

Aside from experiencing winter through a camera lens (that's #1 on my list for finding beauty in beastly weather), here are four other ways to enjoy the season:

Experience winter through the words of a poet. I've always loved Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Seek out more poems about winter (like Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson), or put your own poetic impressions to paper.

Experience winter through music. If you celebrate Christmas, carols are the obvious answer "when the weather outside is frightful." And it's hard to be a grump listening to The Nutcracker Suite or Vivaldi's Winter overture from The Four Seasons, this one set to a montage of famous winter paintings.

Experience winter by reading novels set in the season. Here's a fine list of books with a winter setting, although my first recommendation would be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It contains one of my favorite winter scenes ever, when young Lucy pushes her way through the long fur coats in the wardrobe and is shocked to find the snowy wonderland of Narnia on the other side. Every time it seems like the whole wide world is glittering with ice crystals, my mind drifts back to Narnia.

Experience winter through the eyes of a child. Remember the excitement of a "snow day"? Children are bursting with positive energy in winter. Two mornings ago, after an ice storm during the night--each branch and every blade of grass encased in ice--my daughter ran to me squealing, "Mommy, the whole world is in disguise!" On snowy days, the first things that kids think of are snowmen, snow angels, snow igloos, and snowball fights. Why should there be an age limit attached to any of those things?

So, embrace the season as a child would, or try to see it through an artist's eyes and be inspired to create something beautiful out of it--anything from a snowman to a poem, a wintery song to a photograph of a bright red cardinal in the stark branches, with the backdrop of the crisp, white snow.

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Your turn: What's your favorite winter poem, song, novel, or painting? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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SPECIAL NOTE: Some of the photographs featured in this post are available for sale as high-quality framed or unframed art prints in my web shop at Society6.com/JoyfullyGreen. I hope you'll visit it and treat yourself or somebody you love to a pretty picture! (Added perk: It also keeps this blog advertising-free.)

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Posted at 08:30 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: Barberry bush, famous winter paintings, Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, The Lion, The Nutcracker Suite, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Vivaldi's Four Seasons, Winter-Time by Robert Louis Stevenson

12/03/2013

Overcoming SAD in the Gray Days of Winter

{Sigh} The incredibly vibrant and multi-colored leaves of autumn are gone, which is especially jarring here in the Northeast, where this year's fall foliage was particularly spectacular. Pretty much all of the leaves have fallen from the branches; now, only the brown, dried-out, and crinkled ones linger. Is it any wonder that Seasonal Affective Disorder has the acronym "SAD"? My least favorite weather is gray. Providing I'm not driving, I'd rather have rain, snow, sleet, and even hail, all of which lend a certain drama and interest to the day. But gray? Just no. However, this blog is not called "Joylessly Gray." So, here's a list of what I'm doing to keep my spirits up until the snow arrives. I think most of the following things are not as much fun to do when the weather is sunny, summery, and gorgeous, so why not take advantage of these timely pleasures now?

Curl up under a warm throw in a cozy corner with a good book. Need ideas for a good read? I'm always ripe with suggestions, so here are three of my all-time (and very different) favorites: Waiting by Ha Jin; Roman Fever and Other Stories by Edith Wharton; and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13 3/4 by Sue Townsend.

Take extended cuddling breaks with a velvety-eared dog. Don't have a pet? Now might be a good time to open up your heart and home to a furry friend from a local shelter. (Try Petfinder.com for starters.) Is a pet a lot of work? Yep. Is it worth it? YEP!!!

Make homemade bread, a hearty soup, mulled cider, cookies--anything that will fill the house with a scrumptious and irresistible scent. (And the more helping hands in the kitchen, the merrier!)

Schedule time with friends. Don't just shop for them, be with them!
Hit the theaters. There's something so delightful about sitting in a warm, cozy, crowded theater when it's blustery and bleak outside.
Seek out the fireplaces. If you don't have a fireplace of your own, visit a restaurant, pub, hotel, or even a library that has a crackling fire and nestle beside it. (The public libraries in Chester, NJ and Mendham, NJ both have lovely fireplaces. Yet another reason to love the library!)
Appreciate the stark beauty of the bare branches--the delicate articulation of the limbs, each branch reaching for its own view of the sun.
Read Fletcher and the Falling Leaves to the kids, a heart-melting reminder that although we've lost the leaves, the glittering snowflakes aren't far off.

Here's to making it beyond "the gray times" by creating happiness, warmth, and hopefulness within.

Your turn: Do the gray days of winter affect you? What are you doing to ward off the wintertime blues and raise your spirits this season? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

For high-quality photographic prints from this blog (framed or unframed), please visit my web shop at Society6.com/JoyfullyGreen.

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Posted at 08:54 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: Edith Wharton, fall foliage in the Northeast, Ha Jin, homemade bread recipe, Roman Fever, S.A.D., Seasonal Affective Disorder, Waiting

11/26/2013

In the Season of Giving, a Giveaway!

With Thanksgiving just two days away as I write this, I think it's appropriate for me to give thanks to you for reading Joyfully Green and to let you know how much I appreciate your kind support, encouraging comments, and in many cases, your friendship. I've gotten to "know" many of you through this blog, which is a lovely fringe benefit of blogging that I never expected. (Whoever said the internet is a cold and unfriendly place obviously never traveled to this warm and cozy corner of it!)

I also want to thank you for guiding this blog in a new direction: nature and wildlife photography. The overwhelming majority of the feedback I receive (so sweet--you're such a friendly bunch!) is about my photographs, so you've literally guided me to the next steps. Specifically, this week, I'm launching my own shop of photographic art prints (framed and unframed) on Society6, a company that produces and mails out the prints for me (which is quite a bonus for me, as I have an almost allergic reaction to waiting in line at the post office!).

To kick off this launch, I'm giving away one unframed photographic print, and I'd love for it to go to YOU! (Yes, YOU!) To enter, take a look at the 30 choices of prints in my Society6 shop (make sure you check out both pages for the choices), linked below, and let me know in the Comments section below the title of your favorite one. If you're the winner (picked via Random.org, a random number generator), that's the print I'll have Society6 send to you. Sound like a good deal? Okay, then, have a peek at your choices and make your pick before this Monday, December 2, when I'll pick a random winner at 12:00 noon EST. One entry per person, please.

In the spirit of sharing, I hope you'll pass on this link to your own friends and family--in case they want to enter the giveaway, or are panicking for holiday gift ideas, or are just looking for a pretty picture (or two, or three!) to adorn their walls. (Please note that stretched canvases are not available for my work, despite Society6 telling you that they are--it's a glitch in their system. I'm selling framed and unframed art prints only.)

Good luck--and have a delicious and joyful Thanksgiving!

http://society6.com/JoyfullyGreen

(If the link isn't clickable here, please copy and enter it in your browser.)

P.S. Early in the new year, I'll be offering an online photography course, so you can learn how to take lovely photos of your own (even if you can't shoot straight!)--but more on that another time!

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Your turn: Enter the title of your favorite photo from the Society6 link above for your chance to win it! CONTEST NOW CLOSED: The winner is Katie--congratulations! Thanks, all, for your sweet comments on the photographs.

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Posted at 08:42 AM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: holiday gift ideas, holiday giveaway, nature and wildlife photography, Society6

11/12/2013

Embracing the In-Between Season

We awoke this morning to the first real flurries of fall-into-winter time, the children wishing the flakes were bigger and icier to bring on a Snow Day, a respite from school (no such luck!). There was a thin coating of powdered sugar on all the rooftops, crunchy crystals on the fallen leaves, a stillness in the air that comes only on certain gray days when winter is slyly peeking around the corner. But within a couple of hours, not a trace of white flakes--all melted, despite the chill. We are perched right on that crisp, familiar edge between the seasons. For me, the true excitement in life is all about the edges, the new territories we enter, the things we leave behind to make room for growth.

This blog is right on the cusp of new things as well. When I began Joyfully Green in July 2012 (has it really been that long?!), I was writing it as a "green blog." Rather organically (pun intended), it has altered its course. Why? Without a doubt, the thing I hear about first and foremost (in the comments section and in "real life") is the photography. And perhaps not coincidentally, that's the part of blogging I now enjoy the most--finding the "perfect picture" to bring to a post. Yesterday, I was invited by a fellow blogger/new friend in Austria to be a part of her upcoming e-book on iPhone photography. Seven out of the ten posts at the bottom of this page are about photographing nature. More and more, I'm finding my footing and hitting my stride among photographers--mostly people I've never met "in real life"--because we share the same favorite space: behind a lens, looking out into the world.

Is this still a "green blog"? At its heart, yes. I follow the school of Richard Louv, who believes that in order to encourage people to "save the world", first you've got to give them an appreciation of nature. They need to see (and love) what there is to protect (or lose). So, although I will be concentrating mainly on nature and wildlife photography, there still will be the occasional post on purely "green" topics of conservation, minimalism, non-consumerism, unplugging, simplifying, and substituting more eco-friendly options into our homes and lives. Too often, unfortunately, I think "being green" in these times has a political fight written all over it, and this is not a political blog. Yet I hope everyone can agree that there is heart-stopping, skin-tingling beauty to be found out-of-doors, if we care enough to look for it.

A few posts ago, I said there would be some big photography news ahead. This isn't it. But you will hear it soon here, I promise! For now, since you know my course is veering a bit and I'm entering a new territory of what this blog will focus on (quite literally), I hope you will welcome the changes and join me for the journey ahead. Because I'm so grateful that you're here with me, right now.

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Your turn: What photography sites and blogs do you enjoy? If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device and would like to leave a comment (please do!), click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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Posted at 12:13 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: appreciating nature, green issues, nature and wildlife photography, Richard Louv

11/04/2013

Autumn Wonderland

In case you haven't had the pleasure of noticing, this year is particularly spectacular for fall foliage. Every walk with the dog is a sense-heightening snap-crackle-and-POP! I feel like I've stepped right into an oil painting at a museum. Really, like the city of Prague, it's a photographer's dream--everywhere I look, another gorgeous view.

We have good friends visiting this coming weekend from the city, so I'm crossing my fingers that the windy weather stays in check and keeps a lion's share of leaves on the trees for them to oooooh and aaaaaah over. They will be in swarming company. Just like my little hometown in Connecticut attracted (and still attracts) "summer people" to its beaches like ants to a picnic, this area of northeastern New Jersey is able to lure even the most jaded of city citizens over the bridges and through the tunnels, on an autumnal mission for pumpkins and freshly picked apples. Usually, we can spot the out-of-towners: They're the ones with grumpy guys holding up their girlfriends who are hobbling around the cornfield mazes and pumpkin patches in their stilettos, complaining about the mud stuck to their good shoes. News flash: Jimmy Choos and hayrides don't mix.

Saturday brought us to Hacklebarney Cider Mill for their homemade cinnamon donuts and fresh-pressed cider ($8.00 a gallon--!!!--but worth every expensive drop), followed by free "forest bathing" at Hacklebarney State Park. Forest bathing (or Shinrin-Yoku, as it's known in Japan) does not usually involve water, although my daughter did take an accidental slip off a leaf-covered stone into the stream. I swear, it's not a complete trip to Hacklebarney Park if one or both of my children doesn't take an unplanned dip!

On Sunday, my son and I picked out brand-new birdhouses to host our feathered friends through the winter. Most of our birdhouses didn't make it through last year (thanks a lot, Hurricane Sandy!). If I were a bird, I'd hope that my real estate agent would show me one of these fine properties...

I also cleared out the last of our summer greenhouse plants and moved a few lucky ones indoors to bask in the warm sunshine of the living room window.

Our scenic trips around the area this weekend reminded me that I really need to put some classical music CDs in the car, because if I were making a soundtrack for this particular fall, it would definitely include some of Bach's cello suites and Chopin's piano pieces--both perfect accompaniments for crisp days of golden leaves gently raining down with each breeze.

I also started reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe to my children, which got me excited for the winter wonderland around the bend (minus that nasty White Witch). But for now, we are reveling in this autumn wonderland, which is lovelier than any words I can write at the moment, so I will end with this picture that perfectly captures our Saturday.

Your turn: What are your favorite ways to celebrate fall? (Football? Hearty soups? Cozy fires?) Please share in the Comments section below, and feel free to link to your own seasonal post. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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Posted at 07:47 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: Bach cello suites, Chopin piano pieces, fall foliage, Hacklebarney State Park, hayrides, northeastern New Jersey, Prague, pumpkin-picking, Shinrin-Yoku

10/30/2013

The Extraordinary "Good Manners" of the Northeastern Seasons

For me, there are very few things more relaxing or rewarding than resting my head upon the soft, warm head of my velvety-eared dog and hearing her deeply exhale. That grateful sigh, that moment of "Ahhhhhh...You've found me...It's my turn again...My life if good!" It's a moment of realignment for me, of tilting the balance back towards the things that truly matter. It's a recalibration, a graceful adjustment, an acknowledgment of the Now.

In the Northeastern United States, this is what the four seasons seem to do--adjust and balance. As soon as one season has reached the tipping point of enjoyment--that point where it's gotten to be just a bit too much for us--presto! It changes. It exits stage left, politely making way for the grand entrance of the next season. It's the perfect balancing act. Certainly, there have been the anomalies, the rare years when one of the seasons has forgetten its cue--a blizzard in October, a shivery-shiver day in August--but for the most part, they behave accordingly, thank you very much!

So, while we may talk (crazy-talk) of moving to a tropical island, or California, or New Zealand, or any place that isn't this place, I know in my heart that I cannot leave this respectful balance of the seasons and what each one heralds: The changing leaves, the falling snow, the bursting blossoms, and the balmy beach--each one, delicious and dramatic. I am so grateful that the seasons take their turns in my neck of the woods--like the most well-behaved of children, or like patient dogs resting in the corners of a cozy room--each giving the other its equal time to shine.

Your turn: Do the four seasons take turns in your neck of the woods, or do some hog the stage more than others? Which is your favorite season and why? Please share in the Comments section below, and feel free to link to your own seasonal post. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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Posted at 01:33 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: appreciating the seasons, favorite season, Northeastern United States, seasonal changes

10/24/2013

Boundaries and the Edges That Define Us

As a photographer, I've always been visually interested in borders and boundaries--the fences we build, the stone walls dividing land, the doors between rooms, the horizon line separating the sea and sky. Of course, borders define our homes and our towns--two entities that we probably feel we know pretty well. So, I was pleasantly surprised last weekend to take a historical tour of my town with my family and discover twenty-six nationally registered landmarks within its twenty-one square miles. Twenty-six landmarks! Before the tour, I would have been hard-pressed to name four of them, but there they were, all with their plaques and dates, proving their hard-won histories.

My favorite was a Quaker meeting house dating back to 1758. Although I've lived in this New Jersey town for just over seven years and felt like I really knew my way around it, I never even knew this meeting house existed until three weeks ago, when my son wrote a social studies report on it. I had never been down this particular road before, and it made me wonder what else I could discover within these seemingly familiar boundaries.

A few months back, I read a beautifully written novel about discovery (especially self-discovery) and pushing physical and emotional limits, called The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. The main character, without any planning or even proper footwear, just starts walking across the whole of England because he learns an old friend is dying at the northernmost point of the country. His feet just sort of propel him forward, toward his friend. I'm a big book-underliner, and by the time I reached the last page, this book was thoroughly marked-up with passages I loved, including this one:

"The sun pressed warm on the back of his head and shoulders as he strolled down the avenues of new housing. Harold glanced in at people's windows, and sometimes they were empty, and sometimes people were staring right back at him and he felt obliged to rush on. Sometimes, though, there was an object that he didn't expect; a porcelain figure, or a vase, and even a tuba. The tender pieces of themselves that people staked as boundaries against the outside world."

The book is all about Harold taking notice of things large and small, expanding where he thought he could go emotionally and physically, seeing familiar things in a different light, and seeing new things altogether. (I devoured it.)

I had the good fortune (and great timing!) last week to turn on the TV for a quick check on the weather and instead find one of my favorite musicians, Yo-Yo Ma, speaking on "CBS This Morning" about his new CD, A Playlist Without Borders. I could listen to Yo-Yo Ma all day long, and I don't just mean his recent masterpieces or those YouTube videos of him as a child prodigy. But here's what he said that really struck a chord with me (oh, dear--horrible pun unintended!):

"In terms of our borders, we determine our borders. Some of them are political, some of them are demographic-economic borders, but then there's the border of the imagination. And that one, we have the most control over. We can control where our own edges are, and that's where the growth happens."

I loved his sentiment of exploring the boundaries of imagination within ourselves. Because we don't always need a guided tour for everything. Sometimes, even if we stay in one place, quietly looking inward, we can stretch our boundaries in ways we never thought were possible.

Your turn: Are there things in your town or city that you've only just discovered? Have you ever pushed the limits of your physical or mental strength to try something new? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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Posted at 03:35 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: A Playlist Without Borders, New Jersey historical landmarks, Quaker Meeting House, self-discovery, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Yo-Yo Ma

10/15/2013

"Stop That Car!" (What Scenery Are You Overlooking Today?)

No, this is not a ranting post against gas-guzzlers. I've already admitted that I'm driving a minivan at this juncture of my life, but will gladly trade it in for a hybrid when my children age out of the single digits. This is a post that expands "Carpe Diem" to "Carpe Diem Visu Capere", or "Seize the Day to Capture the View." (In case you can't tell, I faked the last two words, taking a little Google stab at some Latin. Don't hold me to it!)

This morning, after dropping off the kids at the bus stop, I was on my way in the aforementioned minivan to pick up the delightful Delilah from a weekend boarding at The Woof & Purr Inn. (Is that not the cutest name ever for a pet kennel?) I was driving along the familiar, winding road from our town to the next, a road I've traveled perhaps a hundred times in the last few years. It struck me how often I've thought to myself, "I need to come back here sometime and take some photographs along this road." Well, when exactly is "sometime" when I'm always on the road between two places, rushing from here to there and back again? So, even though I was quite eager to hug my velvety-eared dog, I finally--finally!--pulled the car over and got out with my iCamera iPhone, back-tracking on foot up the road and snapping random shots of the gorgeousness I had just driven past. (It seems as good a time as any to remind you that these are photos of the real New Jersey, a far cry from Snooki and the Housewives.)

If I waited until my return trip, I would have missed the morning mist at 8:17, the rising sun at that particular point in the sky, these turning trees, this twisting path, that splendid horse munching its hay for breakfast, all in their perfect places at this exact point in time. Because it's always changing--the light, the leaves, our lives. So often at moments like these, I remember a passage that deeply affected me from The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles: "...we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."

Life is not a drive-by experience. Now and then, you've got to stop the car, get out, and admire the view. Even better, take a few pictures. Better still, take a walk with your camera, because lately, driving strikes me as a cascading series of missed photo opportunities.Very rarely do we park at the Scenic Overlook; instead, we entirely overlook (fail to notice) the scenery from Point A to Point B. And then we'll never find out how the scene just might bend and change to welcome us. Take, for example, this fellow who trotted over to say hello to me this morning...

On my walk back to the van, I picked up about a dozen discarded plastic bottles for the recycling bin. I'll never quite understand the absent-minded callousness of driving through the countryside (or anywhere, really) and tossing trash out the window. But, I don't want to dwell on the negative. I spoke soft words to a gentle horse on this fine morning, and that will be my mental snapshot to carry with me through the years. Luckily, I also have an actual photograph this time around.

Your turn: Do you make time to stop and smell the roses, or more to this point, time to snap the photos? Do you take advantage of Scenic Overlooks or do you overlook the scenery? Have any books made you notice more beauty in your daily life? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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Posted at 02:47 PM in Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: countryside photos, fall foliage, horse images, littering, nature photography, New Jersey farms, Paul Bowles, recycling, the real New Jersey, The Sheltering Sky

10/09/2013

Turning Over a New Leaf in Autumn

Isn't it amazing (and downright merciful) how many opportunities Mother Nature gives us to start a new chapter? Winter with its blank slate of fresh, white snow and New Year's resolutions; spring with its hopeful blooms and closet clean-outs; summer with its slower pace and leisurely vacations; and now autumn--all bursting with vibrant leaves, crisp apples and comical pumpkins, new teachers and sharpened pencils, cooler air scented with cozy fireplaces, and the clearest blue skies. With each season, it seems like we're perpetually beginning.

In keeping with this theme, I'm working on exciting new projects for this blog, which I'll unveil within the next couple of months. Here's a clue: Two of them have to do with photography, which is becoming more and more my favorite passion. (I don't want to call it a "hobby"--for me, the word "hobby" always conjures up messing around in basements, creating a lot of sawdust and glued-on rickrack, and doesn't convey any deep or lasting sense of interest.)

Continuing in the spirit of Grand Beginnings for fall, I went to a wedding in Montauk last weekend. Montauk is at the very end of the Hamptons, and is completely "un-Hamptons-ish", which is to say that it doesn't put on any airs. The groom, an effortlessly charming fellow whom I've long-called "one of the last of the great New York bachelors", said it was fitting that he would have a beginning that started at "The End." In perfect harmony with the evening, two swans glided past the ceremony on a mirror of water, as if on cue, modeling pure grace and supreme elegance in the way that only swans can. You cannot buy better wedding decorations than these...

I have one more beginning for fall, but this one is for you to try. It's an easy, inexpensive switch that will make a big impact for years to come. This season, perhaps as an homage to the lovely trees, switch from paper napkins to cloth napkins. We haven't bought paper napkins in years and we don't miss them at all. (I guess you could call me a "woman of the cloth.") If you buy a good stash of cloth napkins (or sew them yourself, if that's your hobby passion), you will be set for years of use (or more specifically, re-use). They generally can pass through more than one (unmessy) meal for your family if you keep them in their settings at the table, so you don't need to fret about the ever-growing Laundry Mountain. Buy a big enough supply and use them for parties, too--they are so much more elegant (and much more economical). There's really no need for paper napkins, and the trees--with their beautiful leaves most resplendent in fall--will thank you.

Your turn: What new leaf are you turning over for fall? Any big changes in the air? Have you made the switch to cloth napkins at your house? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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Posted at 09:30 AM in Green House, Nature & Wildlife | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Technorati Tags: autumn leaves, fall foliage images, Montauk wedding, seasonal changes, switching from paper napkins to cloth napkins

10/02/2013

My Predicament with a Posing Praying Mantis

Oh, dear reader! This was indeed a vexing predicament for me. As much as I've gone off the deep end with photographing bugs lately, I do not (I repeat, do not) want this blog to become "The Bug Blog: All Bugs, All the Time!" Having already written four posts that (literally) focus on bugs within the last three months (but who's counting?), I had other post ideas for this week, featuring lovely photographs (if I do say so myself) of autumn leaves and their exuberant palette, chrysanthemums bursting into vibrant bloom, crisp-blue fall skies with feathery, fair-weather clouds. And then--THEN!--look who dropped in for a visit!

How am I supposed to turn down a critter with that face, a face that clearly says, "I mean business!"? He (or she?) looked like one of the alien-villains from the bar scene in the original "Star Wars." This was the largest bug (about five inches long) that I've ever encountered at close distance--and by close, I mean within three inches of my face, because you know I am a total nut with my macro lens. (My iPhone's Olloclip, however, was useless on a bug that clearly shops in the XXL department.)

I spent an hour or so with this serious-looking fellow (or dame?), snapping away from every possible angle, and learning more about praying mantises within that hour than I've learned in the last four decades and change. For example:

The praying mantis can turn its head 180 degrees (the only insect who can do it). I witnessed it for myself, as everytime I neared it with my camera, it turned my way to pose. (To be honest, it freaked me out a bit. Did I mention this was a very large bug?)
I didn't witness it for myself (phew!), but I learned that the notorious mating behavior of praying mantises is not as common as you'd think. Only a small percentage of the lovers end up Murderer and Murdered. One theory is that human observers exacerbate the cannibalistic mating behavior. (In other words, mind your own business, looky-loos!)
The praying mantis has five eyes--the largest set (which can change colors) has wide-angle vision and helps it judge the distance to an enemy before striking. The three small eyes between the large ones (see the head shot above) are for light detection. It's pretty hard to sneak up on a praying mantis. They're a bit like parents of teenagers, with "eyes on the back of their heads."
Even though they've got more than their fair share of eyes, they've got only one ear--on the belly, of all places!
Females are slightly chubbier than males and are usually too heavy to fly. Even though I didn't see this one flying, I'm guessing it was a male due to its svelte figure. Don't put money on it, though.

When it came time for me to release the model from the photo shoot, I have to say it had lost some of its scary-alien factor. From some angles, it looked kinda cute--like this one below, peering off the "Tray of Freedom" to the Great Beyond. When I look back over the photos, the first one now reminds me of a dignified, elderly gentleman with a cane.

My leggy visitor inspired me in one unexpected way: To take out "E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial" from the library. It's about time that the kids saw the movie, and I have this critter to thank for the reminder.

Am I the only one who can see the resemblance to E.T.? Try picturing it riding a tiny bicycle.

We now return you to your regular bug-free programming. See you next week, sans bugs, I promise!

Your turn: Has wildlife or nature ever gotten in the way of what you had planned? Can you forgive me for yet another bug post, or are you grossed out beyond belief? Please share in the Comments section below. If you are reading this post via email subscription or mobile device, click on the title or go to www.JoyfullyGreen.com from a computer to see the comments and leave one of your own. (Don't forget to click the box for subscribing to comments so you can follow the conversation.)

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