Transient Beauty

I am naming this post this because so many of the images I'll be showing have such temporary lifespans. I mentioned in my Liquid Sunshine post last Sunday that I would follow up with some of the plants and animals, I came across as I wandered the yard taking photos of the property and practicing my ability to try for clarity when zooming in on objects or creatures I'm trying to capture. This I've realized will take me a bit more effort to really master with this camera, but will be worth the time it takes to learn I think.

I have been amazed by the mushrooms that look like a group of flowers sprouted in the yard and the variety of shapes and textures they come in.  Here are some I came across:

Then for all the intricacy of their shapes and design, by the time the sun has been up a few hours all that's left of these strange beauties is this:

Nothing more than shriveled dark bits left laying about the grass.

As I wandered about looking at plants, the butterflies and especially the dragonflies seemed to follow me around and hovered close by.  So when I was able to see them land I managed a few pictures of these curious insects.  I especially wanted to see which plants in the yard attracted the butterflies so that I could mark them to stay as we work to clear much of the brush. 

This butterfly kept landing in the grass near me.  It's not as crisp a picture as I would have liked, but you can still see the pretty colors on it's wings.

This large green dragonfly was almost annoying with the way it kept hovering close every time I'd stop to look at a plant or flower.  Love that I actually caught some of the iridescent color on it's wings.

Will have to find the name of this tall bush with it's bright yellow flowers.  It's one the butterflies seemed to really like.  And there are several of these among the trees and brush in the back.

This pretty blue dragonfly was a bit more elusive when I tried to get a photo, though like the green it fluttered around me for quite awhile.

This spider that looks like it has a funny face and is this strange star shape, will build webs that span the branches of a tree or even go between trees.  Kevin has learned to watch out for them when he's had the misfortune of finding them by going face first into a web as he rode the riding mower around cutting the grass.  Not a pleasant experience for him or the spider for that matter : )

You can see this guy is only about a 1/2 inch wide, but makes large webs that cover or span really wide areas. They also make these interesting patterns inside the webs.  You can see areas that it appears thicker.  Some of the webs are really quite decorative in appearance.

This is Labor Day weekend for those of you in the U.S.  Hope you have a nice one.