I had a hard time finding time for exercise this summer, so I started taking a break in the day that I called my “blackberry walk.” First, I’d check to see if any more blackberries had ripened overnight. There never were very many. It was a weak excuse for a walk, to be sure, but at least it got me outside. After checking the blackberries, I’d tour the rest of the yard, perhaps swing on the swing for a few minutes. Sometimes I brought my camera with me. Here are some of the photos I snapped during my blackberry walks.
I’m always amazed at the details my camera can pick up. Snap a picture and find that there’s another whole world in miniature!
I love watching the dragonflies swooping around the yard, snacking on mosquitoes. At this time of the year, they get slow and lazy, and it’s easy to catch one resting on a leaf.
The coolest (and grossest) thing about this beastie, the tomato hornworm, is that it often gets infected by parasitic wasps. Somehow the mama wasp injects her eggs into the caterpillar and then, as the eggs hatch, the larvae eat their way out of the hornworm. You can tell this has happened if the hornworm is covered with tiny little cocoons. It’s sad to see any animal, even a destructive bug, in such a state, which is why I showed you a healthy (or at least not obviously sick) specimen.
I’m not a big fan of hostas except that I like to pop the buds (snap!), but I like the way this photo came out.
I love to bring bouquets of flowers into the house, and this picture is another reminder to myself to always check the blooms for spiders first!