From Insect Alley....

These images should enlarge when clicked...still have a few problems with that intermittently. I have been having some issues with noise in my photos and been trying to solve that mystery. Although most were taken at high ISOs which would cause it, I have a few that were taken at the lowest ISO. Anyway, due to messing with that I have not visited and commented on any blogs, but will get back to that shortly. I have decided to try to sit back and see how the next few shooting sessions pan out. I really think if there was something wrong with my camera/equipment that I would not have got the good photos that I did today.

I went on a mission this morn to take more photos and came home after taken 107 in about 2 hours. I ended up heading to one of my two favorite places to skywatch; I almost did not make it to those places...the road pictured could have been name Butterfly Boulevard just as easily as Insect Alley...or even Bee Street. I chose Insect Alley to cover them all. Today was one of the best shooting days I have ever had for butterflies...I did see a Buckeye that I could not get to capture. However, I did get lots of monarchs and another that I do not know the name of...as well as this one little one I will show you sometime in the next week that I have never seen before.

I do plan to do Sky Watch so it will probably be Saturday when I start back with the butterflies. I hope you enjoy this little preview.

FYI: I have to tell this on myself: I know how to spell mystery...have known how since childhood. But I did spell check and in that first paragraph I had spelled it mistery! What is more I had to click on it because I could not think how to spell it. I am tired...I need to go get a snack and sit down and watch some mindless television.

A stroll through the orchard

I had opportunity to go through the orchard that I spent so many years at; so many happy hours. I was asked to give my former boss's spouse a ride to the doctor, so soon as we got back to the orchard, I took off to see what I could see.

The first thing I saw was a deer taking off at the other end of a row of trees. So quick I did not see if it had antlers or not. And when I got to that end of the orchard, I saw a flock of turkeys. I actually wondered was it a mom and her almost grown babies. I was too far away to take good pictures, and by the time I got closer, they were long gone.

It was the middle of the day--sure not a good time for taking pictures but I snapped a few anyway. The orchard has been sprayed not too long back--you can see it clearly on the apples. I hope I can make it out there at a more opportune time before the fall is over.

Visiting out there sure made me miss the good old days. The original boss I had was so much fun to work for and with. The song that I have playing sure makes me think of when I first worked there. We didn't eat out under a maple, but we did sit around the dinner table and he would tell us tales of their childhood. As well as tales of when he was an insurance man.

I bet it is one of the only jobs where anyone would ever come home sick from laughing so hard. When I first started working there is when his youngest son got married. The girl he married and I have been friends from the moment we seen each other. Even though they lived in another state, she used to come home in the fall and spend it helping them grade apples. And later it got till she would come for different periods of time at different times of the year.

Well, he would have us as an audience when we were working around the grading room, or greenhouse, etc....jobs where you could carry on a conversation. And he would get us laughing till we could not do much work...and there was a time or two where I became physically sick from laughing so hard: headache and stomach ache. And yes I remember the stories but I just cannot tell them the way he could. And his wife would add comments to the tales to elaborate on some of the details.

This is just part of what I miss...he is gone now. Passed away after I quit, but he had had a stroke in 2001 and not been able to talk since. There are times though that I can just hear him making one of his witty comments...he would always say, "You could be more like me if you tried" or some such nonsense. Oh, and if I or anyone mentioned having a headache he would always tell us that if he had a head like ours his would hurt, too.

I will close now...the song that is playing just always makes me think of him and his wife....and the old John Deere tractor.

Better days

I also got this fellow last night...my husband spotted him. Looks like he has had a pretty rough life.