Eyes Everywhere

Blue Dashers are one of my favorite dragonflies - not only are they beautiful, but they are also extremely accommodating when it comes to being photographed.  It was just a little on the cool side this morning so this female allowed me to creep to within 10 inches to grab some shots.  If you want to see what she looks like from the side, have a look in Extra.  And have a look at this in Large to see her lovely compound eyes and her shiny blue nose.

I've had a relaxing day with a bit of pottering outside, some reading (something by Sue Monk Kidd whose books I really enjoy), a nice long chat with one of my besties.  

The swallows hatched sometime yesterday so I watched them both trading spots on the nest and bringing food.  The babies are naked and unable to regulate their temperatures so the female broods them until they start to grow some downy feathers. It seems that the male also does some of the brooding.  At one point, while I was sitting on the front porch, about 10 feet from the box, both parents were swooping all over the lawn catching insects before shooting unerringly into the nest box hole.  They are a joy to watch.

We have watched one crummy movie and one mediocre movie in the last several days.  The bad one was "Greater" - a wonderful story but both the script and the acting were awful. A shame, really.  The mediocre one was "The Catcher was a Spy" - interesting story but it kind of fell flat for both of us.  Hey ho.

Okay, time to play with Jax - he is being relentless!

xo
Debbi