This hosta in my yard seems to be holding the other plant hostage.

Indian Pipe Plants. They rise up out of the forest bed where the leaf mulch lies inches thick and the sun only penetrates the canopy in small splotches. Ethereal. Ghostly. Beautiful. They grow in the same area of the forest where the faery image was captured. It seems only right that they should choose this spot to grow. They emerge from the ground with their nodding blossoms already formed in that position. Once pollinated, they turn their heads to the sky to allow the seeds to ripen within.

Yesterday I was out in our woods taking photos of some flowers. I saw this tree and for whatever reason decided to take a photo of it. Take a close look at the two photos below. The first one was taken with flash; the second one without a few seconds later.

Could this be a faerie? I think this is pretty strange! And no, I did not alter this photo in any way. I don’t see any explanation in the second photo for the image in the first photo, do you?

Here is a closer look:

I don’t know about you, but I believe in faeries!

I snapped this at the Botanical Gardens this weekend. I like it’s cheery face. Rick’s Dad is stable at the moment, but he does have a post-surgery infection at the moment and is running a fever. They have been keeping him in a “doze” under sedation and will be bringing him out of it little by little, starting today. Please keep him in your thoughts!

My Mom is still visiting, so I’ll take my usual blogging back up next week. I do have some new slo-mo vids to share with you, so stay tuned!

Thanks to all of you for your caring thoughts and wishes. It was like getting a caring cyberhug in return. I am feeling a bit better and not as strung out. I have to get a handle on my emotions and not allow the actions of other people to contort my life so. Really, should I be making myself miserable over events that I cannot change and that are beyond my control? Wasting precious moments of life being depressed? I think not, but it’s so hard not to fall into the same pit time after time. Maybe I can blame it on my cayenne temper from the Italian side of the family. Then again, maybe not ...  I am going to try and do a better job of keeping emotions in check.

The stress brought on another scary incident of sleepwalking on the night we learned about the cancelled contract on our Colorado house. I haven’t had one in a few years, and they are creepy. I found myself opening doors in the hallway outside our bedroom, looking for the bathroom which of course is not in that direction. I even picked up the gate we lean against our bedroom door opening to keep the dogs in with us at night and placed it across the stairs instead. Of course, I didn’t realize it until morning dawned and it was time to go downstairs that I had even done it. I don’t remember going through the gate the first time, but I do remember fussing with it on my “return” trip. I don’t like sleepwalking!

In the meantime, our weather has been delicious—cool, sunny and non-humid. I think that’s about to change this week with temps in the 90s and the return of humidity. Pool time! The day lilies that surround the pool are now blooming (see above), the phoebes are adding to their nest in anticipation of a new crop of babies, we now have a red fox prowling the neighborhood, and I have a wonderful supportive husband who understands my dark, stormy moods. All in all, life is pretty good. So what if we go broke?