On the edge

I enjoy the lift that a freshly cut vase of flowers imparts to its environment. All flowers are enjoyable in the sense they elevate my mood. I enjoy the almost imperceptibly delicate to somewhat heavy perfumes they emit. Then, there are the shapes and the colors that entertain the sense of sight. Flowers are definitely eye candy.

I really enjoy the festive look that fields of poppies offer, though I’ve only seen a few of the flowers in Ecuador. Back home, a farmer friend planted the tiny poppy seeds every year to line both sides of the road approaching his cotton and soybean plantation with flowers. He used a lot of red and yellow poppies. They were so beautiful. So, not long ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find 4 or 5 little poppies in a remote corner of our property in San Joaquin.

The following day, I purposed to visit them again and found this little green beetle in their midst. I don’t know how the poppies got there. There was a blue and red one but I liked a very delicately variegated pink one whose petals were at their height of development. I jumped and ran back up to my casa and grabbed some camera gear so I could create a little something. Good design elements were at hand.

When I arrived back at the smallish garden of poppies, the little beetle was gone…boy, was I disappointed! I turned on my camera and started considering if I was even going to make an image that morning. That beetle was kind of my star. A few seconds later, here came my beetle buddy replete with a green shell and black polka-dots. He was hustling along the edge of that variegated pink poppy. 180mm of macro lens swung into the scene, cutting it down to size, as the camera began to fire.

I eased a packet of Mentitas from the pocket of my Kühls and slipped one in my mouth. Leaning back against a tree, I pondered that beetle, who was still racing around and around that pink poppy. I came away with these thoughts. They are the ramblings of a Mentita infused mind no doubt!

It’s good living on the edge. You are doing a lot more and you get to see more. Who needs a safer ground view when you can see so much up higher while having fun tearing around at great heights!? Yep, I started thinking, living on the edge just leads to a fuller more robust life. Beetle Boy had it figured out.

I saw that he and I had parallel modes of operation in our separate universes, even though I lacked a pollen-dappled antennae. We enjoyed a common thread in our animal cloths. Of course, I have to use my mountain bike to do my hustling around since I only have two legs in lieu of six. And circling the city in lieu of a poppy flower is a more likely scenario for my bike and I. No matter, I’m living where I like it the best, in Ecuador and on the edge!