moonbows

a full moon, and the eerie sight of a moonbow from light refracted from ice crystals in the clouds. Why are moon shadows so much sharper than normal shadows?

not for the faint hearted

no martins or swallows now, but plenty of garden spiders pretending to be much bigger fiercer animals from above.

relief

the martins have left the nest. I hope they make it to Africa.

No, not another boring skyscape. The little black dots that look like grains of dirt on the lens are dozens of martins gathering for the return south. But they can't leave yet because there are STILL fledglings in the nest.

or fearful symmetry

just making sure we leave the area, and quickly

on the forest floor

this pretty little flower is trailing St John's wort, one of 13 different species of this perennial (hypericum) which range in size from the very small as here to the Rose of Sharon. On close up you can see the little black glands along the edge of the petal which contain various oily compounds including the compounds responsible for its antidepressant properties.