Leave-taking and beauty in the wilds

Leave-taking is always bittersweet when it is a long-time friend who is often more family than actual family. I’ve spent a lovely nine days in the Midwest in marvelous company, been fed delicious food, gone out and about, and now am sitting in the airport waiting to return home via Chicago. The trip in was amazingly beautiful – plains sunrises are gorgeous and relatively unobstructed. The sky was scattered with the dazzling diamond star light as I tossed my bags in the back and we had good coffee and conversation on the drive to the airport, musing on the unfolding delights that the sky was presenting us en route.  With the scent of Pumpkin Latte in the air, I snapped this back-lit grassy sunrise with my cell phone outside of the Barista’s purview 🙂

Grass and air

One of the best features of my trip was the opportunity to sit in her garden and watch the amazing activity present, and that often included the circle of life and death.  I muse on why we get sad when a butterfly bites the dust, but not a locust 🙂  While the majority of my hundreds of photos are riding in the belly of the plane inside my Nikon, my dear friend pandered to my immediate gratification need and loaned me her point and shoot so I could garner some posting photos to share.  Sweet camera, I really liked it once I got the hang of no viewfinder.  We don’t have this genus of butterfly in my neck of the woods, so I wore out the card snapping this one and its buddy.

The underside of this Buckeye beauty

 

So here is a sneak peek of some of the beautiful garden photo opportunities that came along.  It wasn’t ever a lack of things to photograph, but rather a decision of what to snap first!

I am thankful for the opportunity to visit, to embrace actual Fall (which hasn’t arrived at my home place yet), and break bread and share silences with people who love me and whom I love.

Todah T & K, one of my homes away from home.

~SE (making useful time of waiting in Concourse B)