Sunday Selections#8

Welcome to Sunday Selections #8

As bloggers, most of us have built up picture files of photos we think we might use "one day".
Often, as newer photos are filed and used, these older files are forgotten about.
They lie dormant on our hard drives, quietly singing to themselves,"what about me, it isn't fair"..


Well, here's your chance to use these forgotten photos.
Have a gander through all those old photo files and pick a few (or even just one) that have been there a long time, but never used.
You know, because a better idea came along.


Post them on a Sunday, under the Sunday Selections title, then link back to Kim, at Frogpondsrock, because this wonderful concept is hers.
Then hop on over to Kim's and add your name to her linky list.

It really is that simple!




The selection I've chosen today is called "Husks".


This first picture is a spider husk. It was caught in a web just outside my kitchen door and even after several weeks, it's still there. I took the photo the day I first saw it, about six weeks ago. By now I thought it would have blown away or got washed off by rain, but it's right beside the door frame, so I guess it's protected there from the weather.




I have to confess, this second photo is not at all old.
I took it this morning.
I was outside checking on my tomatoes, when I noticed a dark brown "something", clinging to one of the leaves.
As I reached to pick it off, it flew away.
I turned over the leaf and saw this caterpillar husk.
The moth or butterfly must have hatched out early this morning.
It flew away too quickly for me to see which it was.





These next three photos date back to about 2008. I think. Could be 2007.....


It's a praying mantis, shedding it's outgrown skin.
I wasn't out there while the actual shedding was going on, but I was there to see the mantis walking away from the newly shed skin, so raced inside for the camera.
(Now, of course, I'm smarter, and pick up the camera before going outside.
You never know what you might spot.)


The pale brown stick-like figure clinging to the bird netting is the mantis.
The near transparent white that you see in the bottom left is the newly shed skin, the husk.


Here is a closeup of the still soft and fragile praying mantis. He'll take a couple of days to harden to his former strength.



And here is the empty skin. The shell. The husk.

Join us, won't you?
Dust off those old files, find something, anything.
We don't mind what you choose.
Good or bad, we'd like to see your old photos.



Comments

  1. Oh Wow River the pray9ing mantis photos are really interesting. I had a huntsman's skin that hung above my bed for years (oops) It used to make really interesting shadows on the wall. I vacuumed it up the other day because the electrician needed to get into the space in the wall behind my bed. I miss that huntsman shadow.

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  2. The last photo of the Praying Mantis Husk reminds of the Alien Face Hugger from the Alien Movies :-).

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  3. Fascinating photos, River. I've never seen a praying mantis husk!

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  4. Oh I didn't know spiders did that, are you saying they shed their skin like cicada's and the like? I always thought they were just dead. The nature study is very interesting, it's nice when people notice these sorts of goings-on :) Oh...and I love your girly shoes (in your other post) - I used to wear high heels but there is no way I'd ever do that again...give me comfy flatties any day...

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  5. I remember finding a spider husk when I was young. As it was quite a decent size, it freaked me out thinking of the massive spider that sucked the guts out of this one.

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  6. Wow, I've never seen a praying mantis husk before!

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  7. I'm so jealous of your garden... not because mines not teeming with bug-life, just that my efforts in maintaining the place in order to walk through it and experience the bug life are so poor I haven't seen my compost bin since 2009. But I know the bugs are out there, and the frogs, they crawl and jump into my house every night....

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  8. frogpondsrock; Any spider husk above my bed would have been vacuumed up within 5 minutes of me seeing it!

    Windsmoke; I haven't seen the alien facehugger. It must have been in the second movie which I purposely didn't watch because I hated the first one.

    Wanderlust; that one there is my first, and probably the last too.

    gaby@727m2; I think the spider got sucked oit by the bigger spider that lives in that web. That's how they eat.

    Tenille; when I was young the only things I noticed were books and dinner. Well, mostly dessert.

    Kath; a first for you then.


    Starfish; you've got frogs? Now I'm jealous.

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  9. Thank you for sharing the great pic of the prayer mantis - my fav insect.

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  10. Isn't nature wonderful. We shed our skin too of course, only we do it bit by bit. Wouldn't it be scary if we'd shed our skin all in one go, like the smaller creatures? And what a mess that would make. ;-)

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  11. drb; I often see praying mantises in my garden. Sometimes tiny baby ones too.

    Carolina; thanks, I may have skin-shedding alien dreams tonight.....haha.

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  12. You have a very visually pleasing blog, you know.

    Of your photos in this post, I'll vote for the praying mantis as my favorite, partly because I grew up with them, and they don't live where I've been for the last 25 years, and I miss them.

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  13. Snowbrush; thank you. When I started blogging, I wanted to be one of those funny writers who made everybody laugh and come back for more. I soon realised I'm not a writer, but the photos were looking good and people are coming back for more, so I'm happy.

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  14. Oooh, I love your theme for today!! I so nearly did a similar one, using pictures I'd taken of things most people consider mere rubbish, or junk. I'll find those another week.

    LOVE your praying mantis, but I think my favourite is the caterpillar husk. :)

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  15. Jay at the Depp Effect; I haven't been to your blog for a while. I'll have to get over there soon.

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