Thankyou

Someone on blipfoto has sponsored me for a years full membership subscription. To say that I am overwhelmed would be a gross understatement. In the true tradition of unselfish acts of such generosity, he or she has chosen to remain anonymous. I really wish that I knew who you were, but I respect your decision and thankyou from the bottom of my heart. I hope that I can justify your munificence with my future blips, the pressure is on.

I returned to the grove today, with my modified flip-flops, having installed a layer of toweling. The improvement in footing was outstanding after yesterdays experience of trying to find a blip with blocks of soap attached to my feet. I love being an engineer.

I decided to do the dew hour again, in the hope of finding the dew coated butterfly that I messed up yesterday. I often wondered where butterflies spent the night. Judging by the dew covered wings, the question has been answered. This also explains why so many of them have chunks missing from their wings. A whole army of insect eaters come out to play at night, rodents, lizards, frogs, toads, bats, snakes and who knows what else.

I sat on my stool in the middle of the grove, armed with a flask of coffee and slowly swiveled around, scanning the whole area, looking for an exposed butterfly wing. Not an easy task as they tend to park on matching fauna, judging from all my reject butterfly photos that I have collected over the last month, but knowing what to look for is more than half the battle, but the battle was lost, no dew covered wings today.

I collected a few photos of various creatures, but I really wanted something special today, so I processed what I had and returned to the grove for a second attempt. By now it was after 08:00 and the sun was hotting up and I had forgotten to put sun block on my toes, which were itching like mad and seemed to attract every ant and fly within a fifty yard radius.

The butterflies were out, but nothing new or impressive. The dragons dancing displays suggested that they were feeling horny, so I decided to follow the dancers and wait for one of them to take a break. This particular dragon seemed to be annoyed by my intrusion and actually dived at me several times. Had it been a wasp, I would have run away, screaming like a girl, never to return, but dragonflies do not phase me at all.

After dive bombing me, he would hover for a few seconds and then fly off, only to return a minute later and repeat the process. I soon recognized the pattern and was ready for him and collected about twenty hovering shots. I knew the blip monster had to have something special lined up for me today.

I have had a tremendous time this month, blipping from the grove, topped off with a hovering dragon. I feel that this location has still got a lot more to offer, so the series will continue.

Dave