Hello there and happy Wednesday (or Thursday depending on where you live in the world!)! I hope everyone is keeping safe and warm out there. It's been unseasonably frigid here and my morning walks up and down the driveway are now in near-freezing temps, yikes!

I am having a hard time getting around to working on my state park writing project so I guess you'll have to put up with more pictures around our property! :D Thankfully there are zillions of pictures I haven't posted yet and of course…there are always new pictures that I've just taken!

Walking up and down the driveway each day, there's no way to deny the beauty of everything around me. The sun shining through colorful fall leaves, the lovely gold and yellows of the dried grasses, and even though it's nearly November, there are still a few flowers blooming! I loved the idea of taking a few pictures, and so I popped out a couple of days ago and wandered around!

Today's Pictures
As I was drifting around beside our road, looking up into the trees for pretty leaves, down near the ground to look for "caught" leaves stuck on grass or stems before they hit the ground, I noticed something fluttering. Glancing up, I saw a butterfly! Better yet, it actually landed right near by! I simply could not believe my good fortune! From July through October, Steve and I travelled from one state park to the next and not once did I find myself graced with a single butterfly that I could take a picture of. And here, on our property, when the insects were almost all dead for the season or burrowed away to wait for spring, I find the one butterfly of the season for me to photograph! HOORAY!!!

My main picture and one inset show a Common Buckeye Butterfly, which is a species found all over the United States. I was surprised to see that though I may have photographed one before (I probably have something unprocessed, who knows!), I've never posted a picture and I'm so delighted to share this pretty butterfly with all of you! The inset shows just how plain and camouflaged they become when their wings are closed.

I've also included a picture of a silvery-looking Oak Gall, or "Oak Apple", which is another kind of wasp gall like the one I shared the other day. This one caught my eye with it's "cracked mud" surface that gleamed with a metallic silver sheen. Magnificent! And also included today are two views of a kind of stink bug that I found sitting on a manzanita berry. Super cool, no?! What a trove of neat subjects to share, and I'll have more to show you when I post my next set! :D (By the way, if you're interested in learning more about Stinkbugs, I found a wonderful pdf that shows many species in all of their growth stages! )

Thank you very much for all of your comments and favorites--I've been having a great time visiting your streams and seeing what you're all up to! :D STAY SAFE!!

Explored on 10/28/20; highest placement #1.