Countless tiny worlds are under our feet and vehicles as we go about our daily ramblings.  We are at times oblivious to the idea that there are other living things underfoot.  In our fast world it can be hard to slow down and experience time slow, to look not just around you, but below your feet for the small worlds of the (from our on high) seemingly "invisibles."  They are only invisibles until one stops, looks down, and makes an effort to get closer to a patch of earth...   Perhaps a spot in your yard, or along a quiet trail... bring your camera or camera phone, spend time next to the earth, and see what small things you see pass under your gaze... a new world of beauty and intrigue will open up and you may find it a relaxing inquisitive experience.  Visit my website at   AstronomyGal.com

I am appalled and angered by the views of the expanse of hard, hot pavement that sits largely empty if not for the circling, calling Killdeer which probably uses the West end of this parking lot the most. Killdeer like to nest in open area like fields and now, parking lots or medians where ever they can niche.

I don't know if people will ever learn that you cannot pave over every grass without affecting their water supply. I mean really, where do you think the water goes? it runs off it goes downhill to the lowest point until it reaches the Gulf. You pave the aquifers, you cut out the ability of our natural systems - marshes, swamps, green areas to clean the water as it percolates down through the earth, through Gaia.

Just because we've located new earth like planets a few light years away doesn't mean we can trash, or finish trashing this one and move on to the next. We have a horrible habit of trashing lands and indigenous cultures of those lands... for the pursuit of riches be they mineral or space to grow.

Some of us worry about alien cultures coming here to our planet and taking it over, strip mining it for its natural deposits and other materials. I don't think it's an issue, I don't think enough people have turned around and looked or they would see that WE are those aliens and we are doing already to the sky, to the land and to the wildlife, to ourselves, what we fear others far away might do.

"I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." ~John Muir, 1913.  The Unpublished Journals of John Muir, 1938

Day and night may find me out on our half acre, among the flowers, vines and trees looking for and exploring "the secrets of nature." 

I had never wondered prior, where the butterflies go at dusk.  I just never thought about it.  It hadn't registered as a question with me.  Until one day I was out in the yard watching the big yellow Sulphur butterflies flit around the bushes and the trees and I saw one, resting up in a tree.  

If you go out at dusk and are careful, looking around your trees and bushes, you too might find a butterfly resting for the evening as this one is  (Notice the little green fly in the second image)   Click on the images to make them larger.

Orange-barred Sulphur - Phoebis philea.  
Look for the yellow among the green of the tree.

 If you want to keep butterflies around your yard, plant bushes they can feed on.  These include native firebush, blue butterfly bushes and native milkweed.  For more information, contact me here.

It's taken me two years to decompress and relax, go slow, to experience slow time, to learn to read books again and even color.. It's amazing what the Corporate world can do to us which only makes it more important to stop, get out and look around at Nature.

This morning on the Labyrinth has been a beautiful experience, the tiny yellow flowers raining down on the cement pads, the buzzing of the bees and the brightly colored flowers surrounding the Labyrinth.. it's very peaceful, very centering.

If you need to decompress and relax or find your center again, the Labyrinth is a wonderful tool. To come walk, contact me through this site.

Now is a perfect time go out on the Nature Trails at CREW to see wildflowers in bloom!   The trails are lined with delicate, native Petunias as well as other species of flower in many color ranges.  I was particularly taken by the small purple color Peas, called the "Purple Butterfly Pea."  These viney, climbing little Pea plants are all along the trails. At one point I noticed a little Bouquet of native flowers all entwined in one annother.  

My image below shows a Purple Butterfly Pea running up a wild Sensitive Plant, on it's own a delicate looking plant with dainty alternating leaflets and small yellow flowers.  The Sensitive Plant flowers Spring, Summer, Fall and into early Winter.  The Butterfly Pea flowers Spring and Summer - I've seen quite a few Peas in bloom here in Lehigh, mainly in wild unkept lots where it is dry.

Too many people seem to think, or I should say have been conditioned, via TV, Homeowners and Condo Associations, Media etc.. that  if it's not a green grass, highly manicured, of a certain height, it is to eliminated from existance.  What an absolute shame... a shame for the native species that miss out on homes, and a shame for the amount of water and pesticides it takes for maintaining these little perceived "Oases" of green.   If left to her own devices Mother Nature will provide a beautiful landscape that needs little maintenance, and provide homes for many species.  Everything in Nature is dependant on something else for existance.  

I'm sure everyone has had bread that became stale or hard after a few days...  You know, like Italian bread can get if you don't use it up right away.  I had some Italian bread left over that had become as hard as a rock almost over night.  I took my leftover half and stuck it onto a garden hook, near the Labyrinth.  I watched it for activity, as it sat there in the weather for a full week.  I just noticed this morning the birds beginning to find and eat it.  Bluejays and Woodpeckers...  

You might try the same with your leftovers.  You don't need a fancy hook to stick the bread on, any good upright stake will do out in your yard.  Or, you can do like we kids did growing up and just take the leftover bread, go out and pinch it up in an area for the birds to have access too - be mindful of stray cats though that might hunt the wild birds.  If you have strays, put the bread up on a hook of some kind, high off the ground.  Likewise, if you have any lefover rinds from melons, put them out during the day for the butterflies and the birds to enjoy.   

Garden Hook with Bread.

mornings find me outside, looking for butterflies and other insects, or just out watching as the light plays across the Labyrinth. This morning I found a skipper, or skipper butterfly as they are known, tucked inside a morning glory flower...

Skippers are butterflies of the family Hesperiidae. The trumpet shaped flowers of the morning glory make nice little houses for them. The Hesperides in Greek Mythology are nymphs who together with a dragon, watch over a garden in which golden apples grow. They are the Nymphs of the evening..,