Spread Your Wings

About the image: Taken 01/21/12 - Hethwood Pond - Blacksburg, VA

Mockingbird - Grabbing a Bite

Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will feed every corner of your life.

~Rumi

Damselfly Close-up - Macro Monday

If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere.

~Vincent Van Gogh

About the image: Taken 08-13-11- Gateway Trail - Blacksburg, Virginia with a Nikon D7000 - Nikkor 105mm lens, Aperture Priority, F7.1 - 800 ISO

Check out MACRO Monday hosted by Lisa - HERE

Summer Softness

Life is soft and smooth when lived gently.

- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

About the image: Taken 09-24-11 - Gateway Trail - Blacksburg, Virginia

Posting a bit of summer on a cold winter's day

Blue Skies in December

The sky is the daily bread of the eyes.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

About the Image: Taken 12-30-11 (from the car) on my iPhone.

Mallard At the Duck Pond

Just let awareness have its way with you completely.

~Scott Morrison
About the image: Taken on Christmas Day 2011 at the Virginia Tech Duck Pond. The Duck Pond is part of the Virginia Birding and Wildlife Trail. More info on the VBWT found - HERE

It is a great resource!

Hearts In Nature - Tree Bark Heart

Cultivate a heart of love that knows no anger.

~Unknown

About the image: Taken 12-02-11 - Deerfield Trail - Blacksburg, Virginia

I love finding hearts in nature!

Monarch Caterpillar - Focus on Potential

Focus on your potential instead of your limitations.

Alan Loy McGinnis

About this shot: This was taken on a foggy morning early in September. My sister was visiting and we found this little guy on a morning walk. With little sunshine, I had to shoot this on a high ISO - 1600. I hope he survived and lived up to his potential to become a beautiful Monarch butterfly.

Tree Lined Path in Autumn

Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege.

Use it. Dwell in possibility.

~Oprah Winfrey

Black Vulture - Caught in Mid Flap

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.

-James Thurber

Many times I hear these creatures before I see them. Their wings make a type of "woosh, woosh" sound as they fly overhead. Quite a thrill to hear!

Autumn in the Forest

The clearest way into the universe is through a forest wilderness.

~ John Muir

Tree Branches - Bending and Reflecting

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.

~ John Muir

Song Sparrow - Pass Your Days In Song

You must pass your days in song. Let your whole life be a song.

~ Sai Baba

The Morning Dew of Wonder

Tomorrow the sun will also rise to the occasion of another day with equal grandeur. Such is the nature of that morrow which today has already seen, yet it greets us each time afresh with the morning dew of wonder in its eyes.

~ Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Male Cardinal and Autumn Bokeh

Just before the death of flowers,

And before they are buried in snow,

There comes a festival season

When nature is all aglow.

- Author Unknown

Male Cardinal - 09-25-11- Deerfield Trail - Blacksburg, VA

Squirrel on a Branch - Happiness on Your Heels

Everyone chases after happiness, not noticing that happiness is right at their heels.

~ Bertolt Brecht

Squirrel from my walk - 09-24-11 - Deerfield Trail - Blacksburg, VA

My happiest moments are spent outside - breathing deeply of nature.

And A Big SHOUT OUT to SNAPPY DI - Click HERE to see the wonderful gift I won.

Thanks Snappy Di! I LOVE it!

Butterfly Chrysalis - Macro Monday

Kiss your life. Accept it, just as it is. Today. Now. So that those moments of happiness you're waiting for don't pass you by.

~Unknown

What a thrilling find! Seen on my walk 09-24-11 - Gateway Trail - Blacksburg, VA

Click HERE to Visit Lisa's Chaos and see more captures for Macro Monday.

Ladybug - Strolling Along The Lace

If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things,

This is the best season of your life.

- Wu-Men

Ladybug strolling along the aging Queen Anne's Lace

One Great Brotherhood

Above all things let us never forget that mankind constitutes one great brotherhood; all born to encounter suffering and sorrow, and therefore bound to sympathize with each other

~Albert Pike

Autumn Leaf found on my walk - 09-04-11- Pandapas Pond - Blacksburg Virginia

Monarch Caterpillar - Seen through the Leaf

Monarch Caterpillar seen through the Leaf - Munching on the Milkweed

~ A Closer Look ~

The greatest quest in life is to reach one's potential. ~Mychal Wynn