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?

How many tags/awards are there? And why do most of them get awarded for no particular reason? This one is called the Infinity Dreams Award but what does it have to do with dreams? I cannot answer these questions.

 Well, as you may be able to guess I was awarded another award thanks to (you would not have guessed) Lydia from C'est La Vie, so thank you Lydia. And this award has rules which I have kinda broken as I often do.

Here are those rules: 
Use the Infinity Dreams Award picture
Thank the blogger who tagged you
Tell us 11 facts about yourself
Answer the 11 questions
Tag 11 bloggers

Eleven Facts About Myself:

• I like using my own pictures for things. So I googled Infinity Dreams Award trying to find if the original picture was any better. Which is the original though? As you can see I found lots.
• I have a pet peeve about photos that are not clear or are pixelated or even just almost pixelated. Hence I could not while staying in my right mind use the "Infinity Dreams Award" picture which is probably not the original anyway. SO I used six...aaannd made my own.
• Anyway I spent hours on Friday making the picture at the beginning of this post. And this is a perfect excuse to show it off because is it cool.
• I made the picture out of seven separate images

• I am currently wearing a dark purple cloak for no reason whatsoever and also a purple and white check shirt and jeans.
• I now have my own computer which is so convenient.
• The person in the photo is me and that me has almost published 500 posts on her blog! And want's ideas for what she should do for the 500th post. (I have a few draft posts which make it look like there are already 500)

• I can really walk on spiderwebs...... oh okay, but I can.... they are just squished and trampled in real life.
• I did not take any of the photos deliberately for the picture, I just decided I wanted to make one and looked back through my photos to see what I had.
• I am currently reading: The Roots of Endurance by John Piper
• I can sew shirts, well I have made two (tunic shirt things) one of which I am wearing in the photo. Obviously it would be difficult to wear two at the same time. (and now that is eleven or I can't count)

Lydia's Questions for me to answer:

1. What is your biggest hobby?
Photography, it is a lot bigger than a hobby now and yet it still is that too.

2.Who is your biggest inspiration?
Ah...God and his creation, and his everything.

3. What is your favourite piece of music (can be either classical or modern)?
Whatever I want to listen to at the time... I do rather like the song "I Still Call Australia Home"  I am not musical in a lot of ways but I can sing I don't know how I do I just do and according to musical people I sounds really good, and they are the musical ones, so I believe them.

4. What is something you wish you knew more about?
A Time To Rise..... I want to know what happens but it is not published yet and so I wait. Other than that I just wish I could remember stuff I already know.

5. What is your favourite quote?
My favourite! I have no favourite, too many, but here are the ones I have added to my goodreads quotes place most recently.

6. What is something you look forward to doing each day?  
Eating breakfast .

7. What is your favourite way to get exercise?
Um....walking... playing badminton...neither of which I do often enough.

8. Describe yourself in three sentences:
I am thoughtful, and like to know things, but I am good a keeping secrets, probably because I forget them. I stand and watch and don't like large groups, but I really like talking in small groups or one on one; I am better at listening than talking unless you get me onto a subject that I am passionate about. If you wanted to know what I look like then use your eyes and look at the photo of me. back near the beginning of this post, or the one on the sidebar.

9. What has been your biggest life achievement so far?
Having my own photography business.

10. What is something you learned recently?
Sometimes things are not worth doing if they are not worth dying for. "If it is not worth dying for it is not worth doing" If you know it is right and biblical you should be doing it even if you may 'die' (or be heavily persecuted) for it. I was struck by this one because it has come up in my lectures on world view things, and on a video we watched and possibly some other place too.

11. Where is the most interesting place you have ever gone?
Well there was this time I walked on spiderwebs, and another when I went to Elsewhere and I found that I could change whatever I wanted, but I also wanted to to be believable so everything has to happen so that people would still have enough suspension of disbelief  (Elsewhere is the world my novel is set in). I don't know which was the most interesting, but recently I was just sitting on a lounge babysitting and I drifted off to a far place or cyborgs, princes and Luna queens. So I suppose I have been many kinds of interesting places. 

Okay now I need to tag/award other people if you don't want to do it that is fine, but if you do have fun:

Sarah @ Novus Papilio
The other Sarah @ Trusting in the Lord
Emily @ Amity
Jessica @ Dreams Really do Come True
Julia @ The Barefoot Gal
Sophie @ The Techno Maid
Zach @ Zach's Abode
Rosie @ Rosie's Treehouse I will tag you just so see if you are still alive there, I have't heard from you for so long.
Hannah,Anna,and Emma @ The 3 Musketeers That actually makes 11 if I count each of you as one :D

Here are your questions:

1. Do you often dream when you sleep?
2. What is the scariest dream you have ever had?
3. What is one of your dreams for yourself for the future?
4. What is one for your dreams for the world?
5. How many tags/awards have you done?
6. What is a question you want to answer?
7. Can you answer it for me now?
8. What is your favourite dreamy/relaxing music or soundtrack?
9. What is infinity times eleven?
10. What is a dream of yours that had been fulfilled?
11. What place have you been where the scenery seems to go on for an infinite distance?

Have fun!

A photo post! I don't seem to often do posts that are just photos nowadays, but this one shall be. Saying that, if you don't like bugs or at least photos of them then there is not much point in looking further because that is all there is here. I took these photos while observing flowers and pollinators for the Wild Pollinator count. I don't own a macro lens, so these are taken with an everyday kit lens with a filter which is kinda like a magnifying glass screwed onto it.

I also saw a cool looking leaf cutter bee, but I just could not get a clear photo of it..... or any for that matter she just flew to fast. All of these critters are quite small.

  

Here is another post of photos for those who wanted to see more photos of the pocket watch. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

When winter was forgotten

Autumn spun straight to spring

The drying leaves had not yet dropped

Yet out, burst a flowery thing

Rosy leaves remain on branches

On trees to which leaves should not cling

Not in the winter season anyway but

Already to them have come, the blossoms of spring

Where did winter go? Spring seems to be starting even though, 

it is winter still, though here snow never covers any hill.

The new leaves of spring are here, though September is not at all near. The Autumn leaves have yet to fall, already though spring comes to call!

There are no photos of it because it could cause my Dad too much pain. Like the pain that one of the other hikers..walkers... got when they sat on a leaf of a stinging tree... you may be able to see some of the poison filled spines in the photo. 

I drove my dad and Alice and Jane up the nice, narrow, dirty, pot holed, tracks to get to the start of the guided walk we were going on. The road... if you can call it a road, was surprisingly good in a few places, but there was one particular pair of pot holes... I saw the car in front bounce as it went through and I asked my dad what I should do and of course he said "Just drive straight through it and don't stop." I did. The car went down, the mud and water went up all over the car and the middle of the car scraped on the mud in the middle of the two pot holes...

We also had to pass a few other cars... Passing a car on a one lane dirt track is not the most un-nerve-racking thing to do. Sometimes there is enough room but other times... there is not enough to be in the least bit comfortable. We got there and surprisingly the driver of the car behind me was impressed with my driving and not at all bothered with my sensible speed of driving.

Then we went a-walking through trees and stinging plants. I managed not to get got until the very end, then I got an entire stinging nettle leaf on my arm... we occasionally got a sight of mountains through the trees.

According to this sign there were....could have been surveillance cameras in use....in this area...why I have no idea... 

We walked quite briskly....especially for taking photos, so mostly I waited until the way back. The track got quite muddy and slippery at times, I found I had to look where I put my feet to avoid falling in the mud. One time we heard what sounded first like a baby crying then we thought it sounded more like a cat. It was apparently a Catbird. 

Fungi, especially the little red ones, were everywhere beside the trail... and poor little squished ones on it. Some trees were really huge and one had fallen across the path so we had to walk under it. Fungi grew on nearly all the logs.

On the way back I ended up in the middle of two groups of people so I had time to get photos without being in peoples way, and I also got glimpses of some birds and heard many more.

It got rather dark by the time we got back. I used a flash for all the macro shots I took of fungi and strange spiky plants. I had to. The sun was on the other side of the hill we were walking around and there was so much rain forest everywhere that even if the sun had been out, I don't think the light would be so good.

In the mud splattered car on the way home I had a bit of fun playing with exposure and the reflector lights beside the road. I also took the original photo of the stars...which is not this one either... this is it without words on it when we stopped for a while to call home.

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.