Excelsior

*soaks up the love*

How do you feel about birds, Genericko?

Beautiful bee, [Glyph]. I like its white coat! I've only ever seen them in yellow,




It's like trying to watch a dog scratch its own belly. It tries a variety of moves but only a few drop off. I saw it begin,



It was both funny and frustrating to watch - I wanted to help brush it off, not stand there gaping while it struggled. I felt strangely guilty of the lottery win life has provided me, as a human, in contrast, that I can easily brush myself off or bathe. I've witnessed many of these bees harvest this hibiscus and never seen one come out like that before. There is so much more to the ballet of the bee than just their fabulous aerial cartography.

Those bees only come out for that bush. I mostly just see these little honey bees,



because I mostly just hang out in the marigolds,



with these little butterflies,



see the resemblance?



I'm gathering seeds. It's the closest I get to hunting. More like a seek-n-find. The thick smell of the flowers fills my nose; the color intoxicates me. Words dissipate, thoughts cease. Zen.



Hey that's new, what is that!



This next fly, though, is not new. It comes out every summer to hunt Eos. It reminds me of a quote from the Dalai Llama, "if you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito."



Retreat! Retreat! I run directly over into the neighbor's bare plot. It belongs to an old vet that just buys plots monopoly style. He shows up every other week to mow it. There's a passionflower vine growing in the danger zone,



To me it is sacred fruit of the gods, to him, a weed to hack. I am hoping these two ripen before the grim reaper's next appearance,



In July I harvested some of his other "weeds", like these blackberries,



or now in September, wild persimmons,



What kinds of wild edibles grow where you live? Do you have man-eating bugs too?

Overout!

You have got some mad photo skillz!

The resemblance is uncanny. I can almost SEE your wings and antennae.

Today I bring you... a spider! But first... how I found said Spider:

This summer, the flea market across the street expanded their popular world tele destination to include a small farmer's market.



I swear I've been here before,



but Larry, the Gypsy King, swears he's never heard of Heartwood. He just visits the Amish village northwest of Britain, where he gets organic produce on the cheap. ("But, why would they share the fruits of their labor with us? What do they need money for?" "Well, I don't know fully, but sometimes I seen toilet paper in their carriages when they's ridin' back in from town." "Isn't that cheating?" "I reckon they's thinkin' God would make an exception for toilet paper, Miss Eos.")



This was $17.



So I'm walking back from the market, when I turn back for one last glance at the marigold field,
and see YYYYYEaaaUUUAAHH!!
Hello Halloween!
It's huge!!
That naughty Spider!!



I spied it building a few days prior, but wasn't expecting it to claim domain over the entire garden!!



Where is it? Ah, I see. I come around the front side for a look. Waaay up there. Man that must be fun:



I can't help but admire its life and respect its philosophy. Hanging by a thread, surrounded by limitless space, blowing about at the mercy of the wind. Why hunt when you can air-surf from anywhere on a silken net? I stand there transfixed long enough to feel confident the spider isn't going to leap on me. After all, where I am from, spiders are man-eatingly huge:



I come in closer:



So hairy! It seems to be hanging on by the ends... and I suddenly imagine Spidi-ana Jones swinging right at me! I... slowly... back... away...

That spider's been busy. A few days prior, its web was lower and considerably smaller, when I braved these captures:



Fascinating, how it holds and shifts the threads. Undercarriage angles of spiders remind me of Stephen King's movie, It. I can handle its belly, face, fangs, legs, all that is fine. It's something about where the legs join to the chest that makes me shudder. This picture to anyone, is a spider. This picture to me, is facing my fear. Observing it until I can appreciate it, at least. Revealing what is beautiful about it, at most.



Particularly challenging to do when it's not remaining nearly as still as I am!



It's like watching a craftsman at work. Mesmerizing, thought-stopping. An octopus coiling silver over tightrope.

Did you notice Ess Ohm En Sec Tia, or swarm of insects, by the lower left window in the first spiderweb shot above? Woolly aphids. They move in huge dustdevil flurries chasing patches of sunlight. This one is on my finger; tiny, fuzzy:



When the aphid flew off, a flash of red stole my gaze,



Not all webs are sticky...
...and some are offering to give life to you, rather than take it from you...



like sunlight in a bowl of silk,
at the crown of perfect posture,



I hope you enjoyed this post! Have a wonderful adventure!

Just wanted to say how much I have enjoyed your photographs. It's always a treat when I see "Garden of Eos" in the list of recent posts. Such thick, lush colors... and that array of perfect produce made me hungry. Amazing you got that for such a great price. I like that you saved that rose for the last. What a treat!

Hijack.



The wisteria, she exploded

WOW! I've never seen anything like that! Dreamed of it maybe, but never actually seen it!

*wants a wisteria* *googles it*

...15 years to flower?! D; Lucky you!!
...can it be transplanted, perhaps?
*ebay* *ITCAN!* *wishlist*



Today I am raving morning-glories!



This summer I was hoping to also have Hanging-Gardens-of-Babylon on my front porch, and went with this previously successful monster, nasturtium. A reckless beauty, it swallows its host:



That mailbox's had a crook in its neck since. Nasturtium is so red my camera could never render it. It's practically glowing:



It was so successful there, that I was very surprised this season when only one sprouted, and itself never got beyond a foot tall. Luckily, I back-up planned by planting some other vines as well. Moonflower:



which did sprout!



But only blooms at night. By 8am, the earliest I normally play Ansel Eos, they're all closed. That's it, a one day showing:



The giant morning glory



show until about



noon



and again just one or two at a time. If I want to see many at once, I have to venture down



to where it grows wild. I find it every summer beside this hay field,



growing around the posts, where it's always a pleasure,



until the fall baling... ...where it's always a stunned pause...



Maybe the farmer came late in the day and couldn't see it, when the flower was closed,



It's fall. It's an annual. This is part of their story. They come back... Hey, a survivor!!



I was so bummed about those wasted glories, that on the return I followed an impulse to head up an alternate path along the main road, a highway, and avoid another confrontation with the field. I had forgotten how distressingly loud it is to walk beside mounts charging past one tile away. When one rang its holiday bell, a ZONNNNK, in passing, I immediately turned onto an even less traveled path. It was instantly quieter, almost on auto-pilot, until a concerned cu sidhe on the approach, possibly unleashed, politely warned me I had 10 steps to change my destiny. So, I strayed again, for the third time, into the alley of an old commerce district. I nearly never, ever go this way...



HA!! I wandered right to the one thing I wanted to see most, and didn't realize I was asking for,
those wasted glories - alive! I stand there stunned. I can't believe something that looks like this,



is surrounded by discards and not loveliness. It's humbling. It's like coming upon Venus, dethroned, but undaunted. Nature can rock a dress made out of anything.

Unlike the white and blue siblings, the violet variety seems to handle sunlight well. The centers glow, like eyes. It's hard not to get enchanted once the gaze is caught. I imagine what it's like to be a bug in the city, hovering in the doldrums of everyday grey; dirt, stone, monotone with an eye set on roam...

...Wham! Like a porthole:



I come back a month later, hopeful it remained,



to gather the seeds,



I wonder if anyone is at a window watching, wondering what I am up to tiptoeing around the trash again,



stuffing my pockets with bits of nothing,
as if a catburglar looting gold from a church.

Between this violet survivor and those exploding wisteria, next season is SO ON!

I get back home, pockets full, and notice a wiggling black hole in that one white eye... OH! A BEE! I rush over:



Hmm. Its behavior seems... odd? Each time it escapes, it turns back in for more... like... it is drunk? Its footwork becomes a scramble...



Oh no! It just... fell?! Bees don't fall! What! That was a 5ft drop! I hope it's ok! *I drop down*



It rubs its head, wobbles, then saunters down the branch. It rolls off onto the grass, does a few flips, gives up and tries climbing, no, walking, possibly hovering, definitely dazed, probably irritated. I slowed this down:



Each time it tries to take off it loses power, like a helicopter piloted by a monkey. I spend a lot of time with carpenter bees in the marigolds. They don't act this way... o.O



After THAT somersault I decide it might not be a good idea to be around when it snaps out of it. Sure is strange... wonder why it's acting like --- OH NO! Morningglories are NIGHTSHADES! What have I done! I wanted this big not-indigenous-at-that-size flower, and personally introduced a vampire on my little unknowing friend!



Another web, it seems, those glowing eyes of October. It enchants with this high contrast seemingly pure glowing white center, like a siren of sight, and then intoxicates the willing victim with a gift it can't refuse, and can only want more of. Each time that bee escaped, it went right back in, its limbs twitching spasmically like Pooh bear in a honey hutch. Would those effects be temporary, or permanent? If it survives, would it rush in again?



I head to the back to scatter the new glory seed. I know just the tree. Base of the hill gets the most moisture, west edge of treeline has the longest morning shadow, plenty of afternoon sunlight and no competition. I get there...



and it's already here! Haha xD Instantaneous gratification! I love this planet,



every pixel of it! I hope you enjoyed Eos' longest post ever, and plant morning glories!

,'- Thank you, Timthree! ❂