Zoom, Zoom!

Sometimes when I shoot photos of small objects I can see detail on my computer that’s difficult to see on a Web page. Here are a couple of examples.

French marigolds: These flowers were first cultivated in France but the species is not native to the country. They are of the genus Tagetes – which includes about sixty species of the daisy family (Asteraceae). For a zoomed look, click on the image.


Blue Salvia also Blue Sage (Salvia azurea)

Salvia is a genus in the mint family (Lamiaceae) - which includes shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and annuals. This particular flower is about the size of your index finger – almost three inches tall an half an inch at it’s widest. This Blue Salvia has a secret of a type that I've found on several plant photos. Look at this image closely and then click it to see the flower's secret.

Goat house

This is Robert Wethersby, a male Angora goat. It’s a very dignified name for a goat and he doesn’t deserve it, but his name has a secret meaning. A “wether” is a male goat or sheep that has been castrated. That’s right, Robert can never have kids. In my mind there is really only one word to describe Robert, “nasty.” He is mean in his soul. When we work with him (for example, trimming his hooves) he often speaks to us in tongues. Maureen swears that she heard him once say “I am possessed by the Devil!”

This is the house that Robert lives in, along with his ancient aunt, Felicity, who bullies him. I built it a few years ago – lots of work. It is “cord-wood” construction with cedar shingles. Each of those logs is about five inches thick, so they are really like bricks in mortar.

Angora goats are like sheep - you can shear their wool and spin it. Actually, there are few steps missing there. Wool must be sheared, washed, carded, often made into roving, and then you can spin it.

Osage Orange (Maclura pomifera)

There are several Osage-orange trees on our farm. The tree is part of the mulberry family and has a lot of nicknames, but the one I’ve heard most often is hedge-apple. Native Americans often used the wood of this tree to make bows. The tree's fruit, sometimes known as "monkey-brain" fruit, is sticky and has a pleasant odor, but not edible by most animals. Squirrels sometimes dig into the heart for the seeds, horses love the fruit, and it’s been speculated it may have been a favorite of giant sloths (an extinct animal of North American - related to modern day slots - which reached more than five tons).

Moses (Hailstorm Socks)

Moses is one of our two horses. He was once a champion hunter- jumper, competing in stadium and cross-country events. After that career he became a school-horse, carrying hundreds of young people on his back and, in his own special way, teaching them what horses like and don’t like, and how to ride with grace and skill. He is retired now and at plus 29 years, his overwhelming focus is food. He loves to eat apples, grain, alfalfa cubes, carrots, grass, all in large quantities. This is the way Moses usually waits for his morning meal - head in the barn door, mooching.

Ironweed (Vernonia altissima)

Ironweed is a herbaceous plant that loves moist fields or open woods. This perennial can reach a height of three Meters. We have a fair amount of Ironweed on our farm. You can usually see it from a distance because of its deep purple flowers. The first blooms of Ironweed first appear in mid summer and continue into mid fall. Medical Uses: Native Americans may have used the Ironweed root to relieve pain after childbirth. Some species of Ironweed have been used to treat stomach problems and as a mouth wash to make loose teeth firm.

Giant Swallowtail caterpillar (Papilio cresphontes Cramer) also known as the Orange dog

I shot photos of this caterpillar on Saturday morning and then spent about 20 minutes online identifying it.

Giant Swallowtail caterpillars are generally brown and white (about two and a half inches long) and resemble a bird dropping, although this one reminded me of a snake. The swollen head and two large eye spots give the appearance of ferocious quarry to scare away predators. When disturbed, these catepillars project a pair of horn-like, orange-red glands called osmeteria – looking very much like a forked tongue - which are suppose to give off a foul odor that acts as a strong deterrent to birds (I didn’t smell anything – I was too shocked). The adult butterfly is one of the largest swallowtail species, with a wingspan of up to six inches. Wings are black with yellow markings near wing margins and spots forming a diagonal band across the fore wings.

Life Cycle: Adult females lay yellow-green eggs singly on host plants. Caterpillars hatch and develop through several stages before forming a chrysalis or pupa, which is attached to the host plant by the back end and held in an upright position by a silk thread around the middle.

Habitat and Food Sources: Feeds on leaves of host plants including citrus; gas plant, Dictamnus; prickly ash, Xanthoxylum sp.; and rue, Ruta graveolens.

Barn Spider (Araneus cavaticus)

Female barn spiders have dark brown cephalothorax and legs with a pale yellowish line along their abdomen. They love to spin their webs in barns, cave openings, and overhanging cliffs. This one has set up a web under our back deck. She spins her web as evening falls and then waits for what the night brings her. In the morning she tears down her web and retreats to a safe corner. She will do this for weeks with her abdomen growing a little each day. Then she'll lay her egg mass in some nearby corner. When Meggy was in grade school, one of these spiders took over our back porch. We stopped going in and out the back door at night and watch her for weeks. She was nicknamed Charlotte, of course. Barn Spiders are a widespread species.

A shawl of beaded pearls

I walk into the misty morning that engulfs me with cold welcome and elusive gray white nebulas of streaming smoke.

In among the purple top there are witch’s brooms that only show themselves on these morning hours, when their magic is most potent.

The fox tail has gone white with the hunt of the night, and there is a thip, thip, thip, as droplets of dew tumble from leaf to leaf of a nearby ash.

The cold on my cheek reminds me that fall is at summer’s heels, and that this mist will soon transform into frost.

This mist, which now reveals a shawl of beaded pearls draped between two towering stalks of grease grass.

How can I describe this wonder of the weaver and the morning, hanging there as if tossed by a fisherman upon the waters.

There is one strand strung in perfect measure, dipping in splendor as if laid on the neck of some beautiful young girl.

Each bead along the strand, a faultless sphere that reflects the sky, the earth, myself.

How can I describe this perfect strand, among a hundred perfect strands.

And there in the corner of the shawl rest the weaver, waiting for the morning sun to find her.

How is it my lady, that you weave this shawl in the first dark of evening, and then string it with pearls in the passing of such a night?

How is it that these pearls, of such value to my heart, slip from your shawl in the morning’s light, as surely and illusively as the mist that made them?

How is it that we go about our lives every day among the machines, and miss the elegance of this miracle that you and your sisters have made a million times over?

I wrote this poem several years ago after a morning walk on the farm. I took the photo at the same time.

Pluto (Greek: Πλούτων)

Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet today. How is it that the planet named for the Greek god Hades goes from mingling with titans like Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Neptune (god of the seas), and Uranus (god of night)to a ... dwarf planet? Well, it's not the first time. Ceres (now rated as an asteroid) was classified as the eight planet when it was first discovered in 1801 by Giovanni Piazzi and retained that status for nearly half a century. So maybe there's a reason. Maybe it's because Pluto is smaller than seven of the solar system's moons (the Moon, Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto, Titan and Triton). Maybe it's because Pluto's only moon, Charon, doesn't really even orbit it - Pluto and Charon orbit each other. Maybe, just maybe, since it's only 2274 km (1413 miles) in diameter, it doesn't deserv the same standing as a planet like Jupiter, which is 342,273 times larger than Pluto. Maybe, it's just a large rock, far, far, away.