Flora and Fauna around the grounds

Perhaps my subtitle to this post should be "Rich discovers the macro feature on his long lens". Life is in the details, so here are some things that perhaps you wouldn't ordinarily see...or find interesting.

Let me state for the record: I hate yellow jackets. I know that God made them to have purpose in the world (read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_jacket if you don't believe me), but that doesn't change my general loathing of their hard little yellow and black bodies, not to mention their unfailing, terminally ornery dispositions. Ergh.

However. Look at this and tell me it's not beautiful:


My little sister once made the mistake of taking pity on a wet bumble bee. "Poor bumble! . . . . . . OW! Momeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" She was younger then than she is now, but I'm sure she remembers that Ms. Bumble did not take kindly to being picked up.



This one caught my eye because of the contrast in colors. I have no idea what he/she is, but interesting looking anyways:

OK, maybe I could have left this one out.... Man, thing looks like an alien. I wonder what it will be when it grows up? Anyone know? Suzie my bug-ologist cousin?


We managed to abscond with most of the Asian lillies we had planted in Ann Arbor. Man are these awesome flowers! Powerful visually, powerful olfactorily (is that a word?)



And here endeth the lesson on macro photography. Heheh.

One of the views from the Arbor...see the hummingbird?


Ah, just kidding. There's no hummingbird there. How long did you spend looking? :-)

And here are our Deer Friends. Just like Bambi...or something.

They sure are cute, though.