Mother nature greets all steemians with a lemon smile!
True beauty surrounds us, but sadly so many of us are so driven that we never see the gifts that are freely available to us. To behold the splendor of a little resident of nature is to start to understand how one is trapped in the wiles of life.
Have a look at all of these beauties!
Very difficult to snap the short tweet of the Malachite Songbird.
The Malachite on his throne as the king of the Sunbirds!
(Nectarinia famosa)
Here we have a Giant Carpenter Bee!
(Bee X. flavorufa)
This is a lady of another Carpenter bee species!
(Xylocopa caffra)
The male of the Carpenter bee species can hover all day long!
(Xylocopa caffra)
Here is a closer look at him in flight!
All that I know is that this little guy is beautiful!
A honey bee on our Indian Hawthorn flower!
Here's another honey bee at work!
And a late afternoon shot, as the bees work from dawn to dusk!
A Citrus Swallowtail Papillon (Butterfly) coming in to land!
(Papilio demodocus)
What a lovely sight at his landing and not all swallowtail species have long tails!
Life consistS of the small things, as only when one appreciates them can the bigger things be fully understood. An atom for instance forms the core of life and it's so small that it cannot be seen with the naked eye. Neither can the air particles be seen that we breath in every day. Yet without them we cannot live. Millions of molecules evolve around us daily and it is all about this thing that we call life.
Why then do we ignore the tiny things that we can see? Why do we bluster through life from one crisis to another with only a few light moments in between. Like a ship with no anchor we bob about up and down in a moody ocean. Up and down we go from highs to lows.
Nature teaches us how to live a fruitful life. At first, she looks after all of her own. Nobody is rejected and everyone is fed.
Every living being in nature has a purpose and it all works together to form the whole. Severe storms are endured and afterwards over time she repairs herself. She even reclaims the empires that man has constructed in her and all that she asks is for mankind to love her.
But we reject her, rape her by tearing the ground open and we destroy her forests and her oceans.
We even poison her with chemicals and plastics.
How long can this endure?
I am reminded of an old saying; "Stop and smell the roses" This is indeed solid advice.
We hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and thank you for visiting 
Note: Specie names taken from the books;
Birds: "Roberts Bird Guide"
ISBN 9780620383134
Bugs:"Field guide to insects of South Africa"
ISBN 9781770070615
Butterflies:"Gardening for Butterflies"
ISBN 9781775841241
All photos and wording is my own!
