Say hello to my dragonfly buddy.

Well, I first “met” this guy in early June. He’s a blue dasher (or Pachydiplax longipennis [please tell me I'm not the only immature one who snickered at that]) dragonfly. There are bugs that I hate- cockroaches, mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, giant tarantulas (IN this house- if they’re outside spiders don’t bother me) and lubbers.

Dragonflies are not among them. They’re the best weapon against mosquitoes, for one. They’re colorful and friendly- so pretty easy to photograph. The real reason I’m so fond of them, though? They look like they’re smiling! I honestly think they’re downright cute!

Anyway, this guy’s been around for a while- I’m fond of him. While taking these pictures, though, I noticed something- he had a BUG attached to him! Gross! Ugh! I wanted to flick that little dragonfly bloodsucker off, but, there’s no way I’m fast enough! I hope it doesn’t hurt him.

I mean, look at this face! I would miss him!

Be thankful that I didn’t post the close-ups of his hitchhiker (I think it’s a water mite). Blech.

Day 102

I love how downright hairy plants look when you get good and close.

Day 80

Well, hell-oh there, big guy! Mr. Chompers, one of the alligators we encounter from time to time at one of our favorite county parks. And this wasn’t shot with a zoom. He gets pretty close to the walkway. Lucky us, he’s well fed on the fish and birds from the St. John’s River- the park backs up to it.

Day 49

Weeds. The only thing that’s still growing. At least this one is a tiny bit pretty. Come soon, spring.

Day 29

This is a red shouldered hawk. We have several that like to hang around. We keep hoping that the rumors about hawks taking off with chihuahuas are true (we have a particularly annoying 24/7 yelper next door). Our weenies can hold their own, though.

Day 23

The main pool at Green Springs Park, a beautiful nature park right around the corner from us. We’ve nicknamed it “stinky springs”, because the sulfur that makes the water that crazy color, also makes it smell… not so good… only if you’re really up close to it, though. So, the rest of the park is enjoyable.

Gabe did some time at the playground and we did some walking along the trails, while Gwen slept in the stroller (a first for her!).

On our way home, we missed a turn. If we hadn’t, we never would have encountered THIS guy:

“Wait- WTH was THAT?!” Luckily, our toddler decided to skip picking that phrase up, and picked up on “That’s a flipping turkey!” instead (and just as fortuitously, I happened to choose “flipping” instead of another word ). Apparently, wild turkeys are found in FL year ’round, but, this was the first time I’ve come across one. Turkeys are a lot taller than you’d think. Google taught me that this is a juvenile male- spurs, long beard, and nekkid head and all. Poor creature.

Day 21

A green anole- the FL native. And yes, s/he’s brown in the picture, but, they could turn bright green in an instant. Unfortunately, after the freeze last week, there’s not much green to be had- so, s/he’ll probably be hanging out in brown skin for awhile.