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

Chickadee on Frosty Thorns

There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

--Unknown

About the Image: Taken early in the morning on 01-08-12. With temps at 27 degrees things were quite frosty. It was one of those amazing mornings that even though it's cold on the outside - you are warm on the inside. The pounding in my chest was not from the exercise, but from this consuming emotion that seemed to take over my body ..... Thankfulness.

Linking up with the Creative Exchange - 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

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!

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

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.

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

Eastern Newt aka Red-spotted Newt

Keep close to Nature's heart...and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.

~John Muir

My first encounter with a Newt on land Seen 09-04-11

Gateway Trail, Blacksburg Virginia

More info on this Newt found on Wikipedia - Here

Red-winged Blackbird - On His Way

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination. ~Don Williams, Jr.

Jewelry of Nature

Innumerable as the stars of night,

Or stars of morning, dewdrops which the sun

Impearls on every leaf and every flower.

~John Milton

Tree Swallows - "Feed Me!" - Friday Feathers

The living moment is everything. ~D.H. Lawrence

Layers of Lace

Flowers... are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Goldfinch Flyaway - Friday Feathers

The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer. ~Unknown

This little flyaway goldfinch was seen on the same day as the one I posted yesterday. Some have asked how often I see these little ones .... I see them quite often. Sweet little yellows hanging out in the fields and chowing down on the seeds. Click HERE to hear the variety of songs they sing. (I had to click it twice so you may need to do that.)

Goldfinch in the Field

Life is mostly froth and bubble,

Two things stand like stone,

Kindness in another's trouble,

Courage in your own.

~Adam Lindsay Gordon

Goldfinch seen on my walk 07-03-11 - Gateway Trail - Blacksburg, VA

Green Bee Loaded with Pollen

Amazement awaits us at every corner.

~James Broughton

Green Bee (I think) loaded down with pollen.

Wildflower Dreams

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life.

~ John Burroughs

One of my favorite quotes that I've used often on this blog. It is quite thrilling to me to hear the birds sing, to see flowers in a field or a butterfly in flight. What wonderful entertainment and beauty there is in just going for a walk. This was taken on my walk yesterday. I believe it is Queen Anne's Lace and the blue in the background is Chicory

From My Early Morning Walk

I used to love night best but the older I get the more treasures and hope and joy I find in mornings. ~Terri Guillemets

Robin In Flight - Friday Feathers

Hear how the birds, on ev'ry blooming spray, With joyous music wake the dawning day. ~Alexander Pope

Robin in flight - 04-23-11 - Gateway Trail - Blacksburg, Virginia

Movement is Life

Walking gets the feet moving, the blood moving, the mind moving. And movement is life. ~Carrie Latet

Field Sparrow - seen on my walk yesterday 04-23-11 - Gateway Trail, Blacksburg, VA