blue dragonfly

First thing on Sunday morning we headed to the small temple Kosokuji-Juniso in Kamakura for a half hour of dragonfly watching. We visited a couple of years ago, and although many temples have ponds and many ponds have dragonflies, only here can one get close enough to really appreciate the dragonflies. There are red ones, blue ones and black ones with white stripes. This blue one seemed to get friendlier as time went by, and came and sat right by me a couple of times. Of course, this tele-lens doesn't focus closer than 6 feet so those images are only in my mind.

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Another blue dragonfly

Well I was wrong. The dragon fly viewing is even better at Jomyoji "English" garden that at Kosokuji Juniso. At least it is better in the sense that the garden is much more accessible, and you can sit down and enjoy a nice cup of coffee while you are there.

In other news I joined Google+. It seems very handy and to have a very pleasing interface. Of course, whether it is ever useful depends on whether anyone else joins in! So far I have 2 friends!

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Temple drinks

Jomyoji is #5 of the top 5 Zen temples in Kamkaura, but the English garden and cafe in the temple grounds are the bits we, in common with some other inhabitants of Kamakura, enjoy the most.

This is a hummingbird moth coming in for a drink. Butterflies enjoy the drinks too.. As do Jameses... The dragonflies come not for the nectar, but to pose by the pond. They also chase dragonflies of a different colour and have sex with ones of the same colour but both those activities are more difficult to photograph...

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Happy cool summer

Luckily for TEPCO (our electricity provider, who is mysteriously short of watts this year) the summer has turned remarkably cool. A couple of weeks ago we had a typhoon and since then the temperature has barely touched 30C, and overnight it has been positively chilly (diving to around 23C). Here is Jomyoji temple (home of the 2nd blue dragonfly) on a cool and misty July morning.

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2011

2011, a set on Flickr.

That's it. I'm stuck. 24 photos for 2011.

The idea was to get down to 12, but the 24 seem to me to better tell the story of the remarkable year that was 2011. It certainly was the most interesting year of my life so far. The photos are presented in chronological order and weirdly there are none in the 24 that predate the apocalypse in March, the first being taken 2 days later.

Comments welcome!

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dragonfly, originally uploaded by julesberry2001.

One pleasant side effect of the mozzies, is the dragonflies. Apparently their habitat is being degraded in the Yokohama area. Not surprising since everyone's habitat is degraded by the slathering of concrete over every available square inch of ground. I wonder when, if ever, the concretification will stop. It is so pointless.

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