More Ants and Okra--

Because there is something penultimately satisfying about Nature running Her course...






Slainte, Folks.

Cygnus

Ain't S/He A Beaut?!?

A Real Aphroditic Specimen

A beautiful deep purple base...

Long, labialesque, pale yellowing folds underneath. A tip with crinkles to make the glans the envy of any turtle...

Way too inviting with it's tight wrap; "Unwind me; make me vocal as Bete Midler in Down And Out In Beverly Hills it seems to beckon...

But...

Look closer...
This shoot is not about the flower's overt sexuality. It's about ants.

A bit tough to see them in these two photos-- look closely at the purple base, and on the unopened budding flora-- more will likely follow as I get used to the image-capturing device and get range etc. down...

None the less, I have always fascinated at the ants' penchant for the okra plant-- they are ubiquitous as bees on clover (or Cygnus on flowers, for that matter...).
This year I have watched intently. And I've discovered...

Pollen. The ants are enamored of the okra's sweet yellow pollen droplets...

They'll carry it off in droves... to wherever off is to.

Makes one wonder-- I never seen a bee on an okra flower.
Are ANTS the great okra pollinators? Is THAT why we have such good okry croppage here south, along with a healthy fire-ant populace? lol!

It do make me go "Hmm..."

Slainte.

Cygnus

Pagan Swan's

Impractical Move of the Week...

Here's what I needed:

• Sheet metal hammer
• scratch awl
• right/left-hand snips
• (sheet metal) tongs

Sears had naught in the sheet metal hammers dept. The pair of right/left snips [straight and curve-cutting capabilities] was $US 25.00

Saw neither hide nor hair-- if I may be so bold as to mix natural elements for writer effect-- of the other sheet metals tools. Company has a payroll deduction option for required stuffs (FYI-- I needs all these for the Sheet Metals Apprentice Program I'll begin 21 hrs 21 minutes real-time...2039 local typing NOW).

SO...

I had a $25 card from the above-mentioned store left from post-Winter Solstice's christ-mess exchange.
I have a creative streak.
My gift money should not be spent on work when I canna feed my creative bent as worthy pursuit of Adult Leisure Time.

Sears had not my tools, which Company shall provide, against my trading time for the need for said tools to earn green papers to barter for my freedom to move to Missouri and grow my own food instead of...


AHEM!

So... I now have nice image-taking and video-making capabilities...

As soon as I have the video-download thingamagig figgered out, you'll all be the first two or three to know...

Until then, folks...

Slainte!

Cygnus

...Poetry...

A Welling Hope

So many high rises reach up to block the
smog-choked sky that they cannot be
counted from this vantage.

The pall of gray stretches on as far as do the buildings.
An occasional charcoal-yellow light bleeds feebly from
slate windows.

Cement and asphalt, weather-worn, blend,
barely discernible; only a chipped curb
it's rise minuscule by the surrounding edificae
provides a formless division. Cracks scurry along the sidewalk like
asymmetrical spider webs.

And here, in brilliant defiance of
the oppressive environmental pallor
from a broken-legged arachnid-looking weed in
a tiny crack on a bleak sidewalk
springs forth a flower...

jMc aka Cygnus

Slailnte, folks.

C.

Honest to Goddess!

My fortune cookie printout last nite read, in blotter-acid blue, only these five words:

LOVE IS IN THE AIR

Hmm...



But, they got pills can cure, I imagine...

Slainte!

Cygnus

Y' Wan' Some More Rain?!?

We're not getting it today in the nation's fourth largest city, but we have the past three or so afternoons-- enough for me not to have to water Eden since monday afternoon. (I may needs tonight... One of Five ain't bad, resource-taxing wise...)

AND...

The rains this weekend proved sufficient Muse for at least one more poem.
[Well, okay-- the caffeine manifested itself as Muse and we went a-writing! Hee!]

Enjoy, folks. Rains is always nice. Even depressin' ones... and especially the sensual ones.

RAINSONNET

THEN I SHALL DANCE FOR YOU AMID THE DROPS
OF HEAVEN'S TEARY NECTAR BEADING DOWN
AND FEAR THE FORKED BOLTS OF LIGHTNING NOT
THE WATER BE MY SHIELD, MY DANCE, MY CALL

AND AFTERWARD WITH SUN-DRENCHED SHOULDERS STAND
NAKED MIDST THE RESPLENDENT-WATERED PLOT
OF FLOWERS, MELONS, VEGETABLES AND FRUITS
AND BEG MORE RAIN POUR DOWN TO SLAKE MY THIRST

I LIGHT IN SOUL-FILLED BLISSFUL PASSION WHEN
BOTH SUN AND RAIN TOGETHER FREELY FALL

AND MANIFEST IN DROPLETS ON MY SKIN
THE LIGHTBEAMS COLOR THROUGH THE CLEAR, WET DOMES;

PRISMATIC, BEAMING BACK UNTO THE SKY
THEY, TOO, SEEKING THEIR SOURCE AMONGST THE STARS

jMc aka Cygnus



Slainte, folks!

Cygnus

Echoes from the Weekend Rain

Destination

sweet, steady and
soft coming down
your warm embrace
this summer sound

with even swish
you wash across
the Earth like lif-
ted albatross

and heavier still
you stream down now--
a chilling thrill
a seeping plow

into the Earth
to find all Root
and add your Girth
to Leaf and Fruit

jMc aka Cygnus

Slainte

Here Come The Thunder...

And a chance for rain looks promising-- a sweet glimpse at Momma Nature's more temperamental sides from the humanoid perspective.

I've always liked the sound... the light first, sometimes... sometimes (most exciting!) simultaneous and accenting a bone-resonating soundwave...

I've always liked the rain-- the ocean, wellwater, breath condensation... how many myriad other forms of collected moisture bound together until their need for the release of the fall outweighs the current sustaining them aloft...

There's the still before the torrent-- actually HERE, litelally this minute as I type, riding a distant thunder-wave in, is the Silent, the Still... the coming, the impending, the potential...

The sky grows deceptively lighter, giving away future intent by it's orange eye looking mischievously down and askance...

I've always enjoyed the closed-in feel when the sheets of grey curtain all existence outside somewhere... nothing to penetrate my mind's eye, free to roam the universes that open up when we are locked blissfully with naught but our thought...

Then there's the cool, the cleansing...
The Earthen-loam smell after the rains... the sounds returning-- birds, locusts. Kids.

Bid Welcome, for here come the Rain...

Slainte, folks.

Cygnus

Instant

Wanting it too much
aching so severely
fearing I might
drive away the actuality
a hungry look
superseding the calm confidence needed
to captivate

Hope lies only in the chance that
certainty be simultaneous,
leave no room for,
and push into the past
any doubt

jim aka Cygnus

Slainte, folks.

Cygnus

Dragonflies In Eden

Thus I call my Garden, because the name is pretty.

And venturing along the rock path leading thus, I spied a Dragonfly...


S/he was perched sunning at the tip of the fallen limb-cum-cucumber-trellis.

I greeted, and said "I'm coming in to the garden..."
Thought again, and asked for permission to enter the Garden...

Then asked was my garden being enjoyed! ha!

I thought of a friend whose spirit animal (one of) is dragonflies, and I greeted her by name through her cousin...

And the little creature darted up into the air, hovered for a few dragonfly seconds (which seemed to me like sixty-six percent of one of mine) and gently alighted back on the twigtip.

Thus greeted, I passed slowly within eighteen inches of the branch without disturbing this fauna-- nor, I see now, the other of like color [sienna with some of the most azure tails I've ever seen, and evanescent-cloud wings]. And this one proceeds right fast-- as dragonflies are wont to do-- into a tomato vine and cometh back with a tasty snack.

No, not the tomato! Ha! Dragonflies hunt the other little fauna of flies, gnats, small non-stinging bees who like to hover about...

As do I for a few moments, kind of taking it all in:
Morning heat beginning to edge towards afternoon inferno...
The large bumblebee-esque one pollinating the purple wisteria...
The red asp hunting in the grass...
The black one not sure what to make of the other in the wisteria...
The oak-camo'ed beetles who particularly love basking/hunting on the glowing faces of the seed-producing sunflowers...


Wind...Sun...Earth...

Breathing easier now, I head back down the Cinder path...

Slainte...

Cygnus