Slippers for M'Lady

Pink Lady's Slipper

The pink lady's slipper is the State's official wild flower. As a kid, I learned to look and not touch. I'm pretty sure they put you in the big house if you were caught picking one. They've become far more prevalent in these parts and been downgraded to the "special concerns" list. Being of special concern gives landholders recourse if someone digs up plants without the landowner’s permission.

This one was growing alongside my mother's butt-ugly carport, hence my inept use of some crazy papyrus texture.

My mom told me there were more slippers out in the woods. Instead of finding another pink, I found one of this Great State's rare and endangered small yellow lady's slipper. BOOYAH!

Small Yellow Lady's Slipper

I wish I'd started a must-see life list just so I could put a neat little check mark next to this sucker's name. I sure hope I remember to make one of those lists the next time around.

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The Final Gateway

Both in thought and in feeling, even though time be real, to realise the unimportance of time is the gate of wisdom.

~ Bertrand Russell

I was playing around with this photo in PicMonkey and decided to try one of the free-for-now oddball effects.

This is what happened when I pushed the Invert button.

I feel as though I could walk into eternity.

FMTSO: Gate

A Day Without Rain: Full Flower Moon

Weekly Top Shot
Sunday Best

Graphic Content ~ Proceed at Your Own Risk

Bumble making a bee-line {groan} into the Scotch Broom.

Bumbling into the rain-soaked blossoms.

How much does a fully pollen-laden bumble bee weigh?

Looks like a mirror image but it's not. Honey bees are back!

Hind legs coated with pollen and still it goes back for more.

Weekly Top Shot
Sunday Best
Floral Friday Fotos

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Close-ups of Bees: Not for Wimps.

Go ahead: enlarge it. You know you want to.

Look Ma! I'm dangling from one leg!

Which part freaks you out the most?

30 Plus 1 Days of Photographs II: Seriously????

Monday afternoon I hopped over to MikeWJ's final post of the challenge and here's what I read:

We know you’ve all taken tons of photos and, if you’re anything like us, you have about a million of them you never used because you followed the rules and posted only one photo a day. Some of those rejected photos might even be good. We’d like to invite you to take a final look through your photos, and, if you like, post a few of the outtakes tomorrow to give them the attention they deserve.

WHA???

Then I hopped over to Ziva's final post and read the same thing.

Since MikeWJ and Ziva refuse to let this thing die a natural death would like to see even more photos, I'm just deranged enough to oblige. While I don't have a million, I do have about 100,000 left-overs. Because I'm completely anal-retentive I've posted them in the order the prompts originally appeared.

Forty-two

Each light fixture has seven glass panes. I shot six different lights and created one big picture with 42 panes of glass.

Time

A fedora from a time when the words style and class were meaningful.

Fire

This is the photo I posted for fire after I goofed around with it in the now-defunct Picnik.

White

Bird

This is the same Herring Gull I posted for Bird photographed an hour earlier turned golden by the lowering sun.

I love that distinctive red dot on its beak which is not blood from pecking out MikeWJ's eyes.

Moon

Fish Tales

Lines

This is my favorite type of line—a bee line. Why yes, I am a weirdo who likes honey bees and bumble bees.

I know some of the other dearly demented are posting today while others will be wrapping up later this week. I'm fairly certain a few may be smart enough to quit before they go stark-raving mad.

MikeWJ, Ziva, 00dozo, Bryan, Elizabeth A., Katherine, LaughingMom, Malisa, Mariann, Meleah, Mo, Nicky & Mike, nonamedufus, Nora, and Tanya.