Photo Challenge: Nature

It’s the end of September and time again for PJ’s photo challenge. This month’s prompt was Nature. Normally, this would not present too great a challenge for me.  And I would not have had any issue had this been June or July. However……the past month has been, in and of itself, a challenge in my world. Any photos taken in the past 30 days have been mainly quick snaps with the cameraphone, or done without a lot of time or effort put into them. Certainly nothing as stunning as some of those in the link up.

But here goes.

Nature #1
While cleaning out a flower bed at the new house our daughter and husband bought, I came across this little fella. Or, I could say big fella since he was about 3 inches long when he took flight. I don’t come across a praying mantis often and am always excited to see one.

Nature #2
A storm was a brewin’ in the east as I watched these clouds build from our backyard. The sunset in the west cast a lovely pinkish purple color on the clouds. And, true to nature, five minutes later they looked completely different.

Nature #3
Sometimes I’m up to see a sunrise, though not often. Again, from our backyard. And, again, five minutes later and I would have completely missed this color.

Nature #4
Peanut and I took a day trip to Mansfield, Missouri, to visit the homestead of Little House on the Prairie author, Laura Ingalls Wilder. It’s recorded that Laura, Almanzo and their daughter, Rose, moved here in 1894. They bought land just outside of town and worked for almost twenty years to transform the 200 acres of farmland (aka: nature) into their homestead. Eventually the family built a one room log cabin on the farm and lived in it  until 1913, when they finished building the farmhouse. We don’t know if this oak tree was around when Laura and her family lived here, but it certainly looks like it could be more than 100 years old.

Nature #5
I’m sure Laura and her daughter, Rose, sat on the porch of their farmhouse looking out over their land. Here, a century later, Peanut gets to sit in probably the same place they hung out in the early 1900s.

That’s about it for what could pass for nature shots this month. I hope you’ll visit others over at PJ’s for more stunning captures of our beautiful planet.