At the edge

It feels like so long since I had a good stomp about.  I was afraid that I wouldn’t get a chance to do much today either, since the day has been full of doing a little of this and a little of that, all in very civilized places.  Then my daughter wanted to go to Home Depot, so I drove her down there and realized that there is a nature preserve bordering the parking lot.  I sent her on in (you have no idea how hard that part was, since I love that store and its wonderful smells), and stayed out stomping around the edges of the preserve.  I’m quite sure there were people who thought I was a little insane, but how else are you going to get the shots?

Of course, the mosquitoes showed up to party on my blood, but they weren’t too bad.  What really showed up were the dragon flies.  I’m not sure why I like those weird-looking things so much, but I do.  This green one wouldn’t stay still for long, so I was really happy to capture him.  A few seconds later, the blue one alit in almost the same spot that the green one just vacated.

There were a few others that I chased around some, including some green and blue iridescent ones that flitted around way too much for me to capture.  While I was trying to capture those, I found these beautiful pink flowers next to tiny red blossoms.  Near the retention pond, the dandelion-like flowers were all going to cotton.  Then there were these tiny sprays of white flowers that curve beautifully.  The flowers were about 1/4″ across.

After chasing the other dragonflies around and not capturing them, I was thrilled with the one who just stayed still no matter what I did.  He sat on some dried flowers and let me take shots of him from all angles.  It really is pretty awesome to live in a place where there are so many pockets of nature.

Tags: dragonflies, dragonfly, dried flowers, Florida, flowers, Gainesville FL, Home Depot, nature, nature preserve, photography, photos, postaday

• July 17, 2012
• Flowers, Nature
• 10 Comments