For a smile as wide as a country sunrise

Hello everyone on this very mild Saturday in December! Christmas is almost here. The weather will be nice for Christmas this year. These milder temps are supposed to stick around until the end of the year which is quite amazing. It does happen sometimes though so not exactly unusual. More often than not it’s cold however. But it is winter. It was so dark yesterday with those thick clouds, had to have lights on all day. Being milder made it nicer yesterday for standing outside to get pictures of the birds. But it was so dull that it was hard to get good pictures. Sigh. Maybe today will be better.
While we wait to find out, let’s look at some bright summer sunshine…

Here we see the silver lined fritillary in among some bright white astilbe enjoying a nice hot sunny summer afternoon.
We saw this red hollyhock once before but this time it has a nice bee enjoying some fresh nectar on a sunny summer morning.
I will be starting with some of our nice wildflowers tomorrow, and a few other special flowers as well. I hope you all have a wonderful Saturday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
© 2019 Steve McLeod.

Hello once again everyone! It’s the last Friday before Christmas, Muffin and I are not stirring but the mouse sure is. Whoever came up with the phrase “quiet as a mouse” obviously never had a mouse in the house. Mice are noisy critters. Running through the walls. And ceiling. Constantly chewing. One likes to chew on the ceiling above my bed. One of these days he is going to make it through and fall on my bed, probably while I am sleeping. Though I won’t be for long if it happens. Because Muffin will be after it so fast, trampling me in the process. As long as the mouse doesn’t go under the blankets with me. That would be too much. I don’t mind Muffin under the blankets, but not a mouse. No way. No mice allowed. Sigh.
Here is today’s art in nature…

We’ll start with a beautifully veined maple leaf getting dressed in it’s autumn colors. With some nice green balsam branches in the background.
Here is another one of those fantastic seed heads, but this time it’s the much smaller Canada hawkweed. These are about the size of dandelions.
And there we have Friday’s selection of art from nature. I hope you all have a fantastic Friday and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
© 2019 Steve McLeod.