As the title says, here are a few little bits of beauty I have noticed and photographed in the last few weeks. Sometimes we can get so much from just stopping and enjoying the beautiful things around us instead of always rushing past to wherever we are going. 

Of course I write this to myself just as much as anyone. This though is one good thing about photography, you have to stop and look around and sometimes even seek out the beautiful things God has here for us to enjoy. Look around and make sure you don't miss out the beautiful things he sends you each day, because you forget to look and really see.

 What lovely things have happened in your life recently?

When did you last notice and thank God for the flowers he sends you?

Starting today on the 15th of November and until the 22nd a Wild Pollinator Count is happening, Australia Wide. This is the official site, visit it for more details. The idea is that everyone can help collect data so we can learn more about our pollinators and not just the bees, but any bug that crawls on flowers. Although bees are my favourite..... butterflies are pretty, but then they are not such a challenge to photograph! And they don't make honey.

 Green and gold light speckling the grass. Vibrantly green buffalo grass, a lawn. Birds call, ever so softly from every side. The grass is soft against your back, for a while. Your checked, long sleeve shirt and jeans stop the grass from itching its way to your skin. Trees block out the suns glare. The leaves above rattle and click in the slight wind. Secrets are whispered from air to tree that travel down into the earth. 

Past the branches and leaves fluffy, white clouds float in the blue sky. The leaves shake with gladness. Soft music plays. All is beautiful.

Eventually you realize your head is lower than your feet because of the slight incline of the lawn. The grass has found a way through your shirt to itch your back. So you shift over and lean against a rock, it is rough and cool, but comfortable. Where you lie is actually a tamed ridge line. Rocks, like the one you lean against poke  up like breaching wales from the green lawn. Rocks of a volcanic sort. The one you lean against sucks warmth from your back. The breeze is almost cold. 

Insects are on the move around you. Ants trail up a tree, bees fly around and around a mosquito hums. Which in the end destroys it all because in this life nothing is quite perfect, not for long. But we have assurance, that one day, we will be brought home. To a perfect home, the perfect home, the perfect place, perfect for eternity.

The other day Ann appeared dressed as a bee. Naturally that called for an impromptu photo shoot. She was not in the best mood but we did get some smiles. Such a cutie!

For Christmas I got some macro filters. They screw onto the end of my camera lens. I haven't used them much yet, but so far when ever I have, I like the result. Apparently the filters are almost as good as a macro lens but cost way less! 

I just really like the photos I took of the candle and rose!

 The Blue Banded Bees are pretty cool too. They fly around so fast and only land for a very short amount of time so I had to use a flash to capture them there. The flash is so I can use a short exposure, so the bee is not blurry.

Well I hope you like the photos, I'm rather distracted today since I'm in charge of the house, and with mummy's baby coming today and all that.

The scent of fresh clean air is so nice. We had two mills (millilitres) of rain last night! It has been a month since we have had any at all and not much then and not much before that. All the grass and flowers and leaves were covered in tiny dew drops. The cool air breezed around. I had to go out there and enjoy it. 

Psalm 57:8

Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!

Job 38:12

“Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,

Psalm 30:5b

Joy comes with the morning.

I stood near one of our bird feeders for a while and two King Parrots flew down. King Parrots are difficult to get photos of but these two didn't notice me! They then hopped down of the fence near the bird feeder, onto the ground. Along the bottom of the fence are two rows of sandstone blocks so the birds didn't see as I knelt down and crept along. Luckily I had my camera not the one I am borrowing so I could hold it out and poke it around the corner of the blocks. I got four photos of the male King Parrot walking towards me before he got too close and realized that a person was crouched behind the funny black thing. Then he and the other flew quickly away.