Summer 2013- insects

Of course I took lots of photos of insects and other animals wherever I met them.
This little bat unfortunately fell and died from its nest.

 And I kept it in a jar!Bad idea!

 Spiders are everywhere at the hedge between me and the neighbour!

 This fellow walked everywhere even upsidedown!

 Ladybirds were everywhere too.

 This baby lizard hid at my deck chair. This one I freed of course after taking pictures.

 Butterflies are my favourite but too difficult to catch in a picture!

August -nature

Something I really love while at the beach house is watching birds, the clouds, the colours of the sky, the movements of the sea, and spotting insects, fish , whatever nature wants to show me.
Here is a butterfly.

 My pet lizard. Well he/she is not mine but is here all the time.

 dew on grass

 there's the lizard again

 a rainbow over the lawn

 ash from a faraway fire

 through the binoculars

 I love Greece

 a tiny crab

 the crab next to a little sea glass piece

 stones

 a type of starfish (half eaten by fish)

 Doesn't the starfish look like the pattern on the stone?

 zenias blooming at a side street

 a cocoon of a slug or caterpillar

 And a not so small toy on the beach to spot! Can you spot the paraglider in the distance?

My little lizard.

Every morning while I was taking my coffee and breakfast and was reading my book on the grass lawn I was paid a visit by my little friend the lizard.
Not always was I able to take pictures of her/him!

 Ooops a mushroom.

 And a sparrow.

 Spot a helicopter....

 ...while reading The thread.

I quote Hislop:"I can't remember most of the names of the people....but stitches I remember almost every one I've done."
The cardinal almost ready.

 People playing on the sand. Althoug the colourful straws look beautiful they definitely are littering.

Five days at the beach house.

I really don't know how fast the days passed. How fast time flies! I think I will go to sleep and schools will be open again.
Anyway it was great at our summer/beach house. Mainly for two reasons. I didn't have chores to do and secondly because we were almost all alone as all of the rest of our neighbours except the pensioners are still working. That added to the silence and the relaxation of the place.
So here is what I did...
... I relaxed spotting angles to take interesting pictures...
(like this plant seen in a paddle of water on my just washed table)

(or this plant in a nearby field)

..... I found the right place for my sailing boat, a gift by a friend from the Drama club at my nameday party.

...I looked for insects and butterflies to take pictures of....

....I admired all the different colours of flowers that are around in the neighbourhood...

....I collected sea glass before and after swimming and was quite lucky this time as I found some beautiful pieces...

 (I love seeing feathers on the beach,too)

 (That was my best find for a long time and unfortunately all the photos I took do not do justice to its real colour)

 (The shells were fantastic too)

 (Plastic can also be very beautiful sometimes!)

 (I grabbed this little fellow alive and then released him, that reminded me of my childhood when we used to find so many crabs at the beach!)

 (nice lot after the night's storm!)

...The only chore I did was some ironing and I did it this way, isn't it the most enjoyable way to do the ironing?

....I admired the skies before and after the storm...

... I enjoyed my coffee while reading and finishing this book Jeffrey Archer's First among equals...It is a fantastic book. So there goes one down from the pile of seventeen books I brought to read at the beach house.

...I enjoyed the sunsets....

...I did some cross stitch which I will show you in the next blogpost and  last but not least I had this encounter....

 (She/He was sunbathing on my lawn and allowed me a couple of close ups!Isn't she/he gorgeous?)