the mark haley holler: Can You Really Call That A Nature Walk?

When you take two kids, a grandma, and a camera for a stroll down a country road, can you really call that a nature walk? We identified critters and flowers and enough Poison Ivy to set an elephant back for a month. We walked in the creek/run-off ditch and even found a Crayfish (Crawdad?) claw. So that's a nature walk, right?

This Golden-backed Snipe Fly was happy to pose for me. Kudos to Mom for spotting him. I bet you never thought you'd find a fly pretty.

I'm told this is called a Painted Lady butterfly. It, along with several Zebra Swallowtails, Black Swallowtails, and something else orange were enjoying the sunshine and Japanese Honeysuckle at the side of the road. To the left is a toadstool that was clearly happy about all the rain we've been having in the last few weeks.

In a hillside field, we found about a hundred of these daisies, each with a shiny little black beetle basking on top. It must've been our day for picturesque bugs.

This is a new May flower for Mark Haley. I haven't positively identified it yet, but it may be "Purple Rocket." It looked a lot more purple than my camera gave it credit for.

I know, I take pictures of weird things. But this tiny, fuzzy leaf was just so... dare I say it? Cute!

And at the end of the road, we messed about in the creek.

Charlie. I think he was River-dancing. Oh, come on, that was funny.

Grandma and Abraham up on the bridge where the sensible people stay.

Grandma spotted this cool rock. Yes, it really is a rock and not a slab of concrete that had been poured over roots. Yes, I did take it home to put in my flower bed. Yes, the person waiting to turn onto the road while I was parked at the end of it retrieving a rock thought I was 'round the twist.

This is the view from where the... well, not the sidewalk, because there isn't one... ends.

Down the road apiece...

Charlie watching the rainwater flow to the creek.

Dame's Rocket and Multiflora Rose by Richland Creek.

Brown butterfly on the Wild Blackberry at Butch's pond.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly spotted by Butch's pond. I didn't take this picture, though. Picture courtesy of Ferd on What's That Bug? I think that the dragonfly to the right who was hanging out on my trealise is a female of this species.

Left: I'm still not sure what this flower is. Some kind of Lobellia is my best guess, but in all the books, Lobellia's flowers point up, and these hang down... Right: Virginia Waterleaf picture taken along the drive back to the farm at the absolute end of the road. They have the coolest wildflowers!

This has got to be from the Pea family, but I can't find it in any book. Bueller? Bueller?

How can anything this pretty be called Philadelphia Fleabane?

In and around the Holler...

Every Year, this Eastern Phoebe (or her offspring?) comes to nest on our track lighting. If it weren't for the fire hazard, I'd have no objection. She's very polite about not poo-ing everywhere, even when we make her nervous by loitering under her babies trying to take pictures. I believe I can categorically say that in the baby world, nothing is as ugly as a baby bird. Evolutionarily speaking (as if I believed such things), aren't all babies supposed to be cute in such a way as to provoke the protective instincts of their parents to the strongest degree? Hey, Darwin, something went seriously wrong! Poor Darwin... he didn't actually believe in modern evolutionary theory, and yet he gets hammered with it all the time.

Proof that God loves us: He put hearts all over the place for childlike souls to find.The heart shaped leaves here are Wild Ginger happily growing in the woods along what we call the river cliff. Under the leaves, at the joint of two stems, there is a hairy, red-brown triangular flower hiding. I wonder what pollenates this: Beetles?

Box turtles must have terrible lives. They are constantly trying to off themselves on the road. I moved this one off to the side where he could sun himself safely, but don't expect him to be happy about it.