Love and Anger

These ducks are taking a stroll down the path.

I posted a bunch of excited ducks which dashed in every direction and never seem to pause.

Today, I am sharing the calm ones which are found at a different lake.

Instead of chasing after me like the ones I met last week, this one actually fell asleep while observing me.

An expressive duck showed me its LOVE in its own way above.

There seem to  be a peaceful and serene atmosphere.

I believe these ducks are well fed, leading to their calm behaviour.
Then suddenly the atmosphere changed!
Two brown ducks dashed forward angrily to attack a white one...

As you can see in the 3 photos above, the brown ducks attacked and pecked out some white feathers.
I wanted to interview them to find out the reason for their sudden outburst but my daughter chased the brown ducks away to avoid further loss of feathers.

The victim seem fine and still look pretty in the landscape.

Back to peace and tranquility.
A little bit of anger and violence added some excitement.
Imagine a sandwich made of 2 pieces of love and a tiny bit of anger in between.
That's how things appear to be.
There is always the calm before the storm, followed by calm again.

Have a splashing weekend!

Butterflies in Love

As part of the 'kiasu game, I went in search of more butterflies in the garden and the hard disk.

Plain Tiger Butterflies dated on plain compost.

Common Grass Yellow Butterflies tied the knot beneath common Costus leaves.

Another pair of lovely Common Grass Yellow Butterflies preferred the mulberry leaves.

A pair of unidentified maroon moths at the lemon tree.

2 beautiful White Antennae Wasp Moth surround themselves with wild flowers during their first date.

As this couple became tattered, they hung around tattered leaves.

Since I cannot beat Andrea in the quantity of butterflies she captured in a single photo, I resorted to posting of butterflies in love.

Do you find bugs in love in your garden?

Kanak of Nature Rambles did.

===============

1 hour later...

Joyce of My Little Potted Garden is showing off GOLDEN pupae!
You got to check them out.
She even has the pupae in 4 different colours, all produced by Butterflies in Love.

  

Wild Mushrooms

Mushroom grows on soil but it is not a plant.

(Looks like a matchstick?)

Mushroom takes in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide.

Yet it is not an animal.

Mushrooms are classified in a separate kingdom called fungi.

Some mushrooms are edible. 

(Some even look like pancakes to me.)

(Anyone feeling squashed?)

Many mushrooms have gills that produce millions of spores.

(A chef's hat?)

However, puffballs which are fist-size or larger, do not have gills and contain their spores inside it.

Puffballs are supposedly edible but I have not tried them before.

(A lovely lampshade?)

(Reminds me of Sunflowers without petals.)

Mushrooms have been used as medicine since thousands of years ago. 

Fungi is a great decomposer, serving an important role in ecosystem.

(Err... a goblin?)

(The elixir of life?)

Amongst all the fungi in my garden, there is one that I must show you.
It is a golden heart that says, 

"I LOVE YOU."

Dogs in the Garden

Goldee loves to dig and lie down on moist soil.

This photo was taken one day before K9 was born.

She prepared her nest here.

Clifford was in the way but he didn't know that.

This photo was taken when K9 was 9+ hours old.

This is how the 'nest' looks like now.

It's a makeover.

 Hardscape prevents excessive digging by dogs.

 

Goldee and Clifford still love to play here.

They sometimes chase each other causing the stones to fly up.

Usually, they just caress each other.

 

They are very fond of each other.

Quotes on Love

"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outwards together in the same direction."

- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

"Live well, Learn plenty, Laugh often, Love much."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love works in miracles every day: such as weakening the strong, and stretching the weak; making fools of the wise, and wise men of fools; favouring the passions, destroying reason, and in a word, turning everything topsy-turvy.

- Marguerite De Valois

(Clifford admiring his topsy-turvy masterpiece above)

Below are some heart-shapes found in my garden ...

staghorn fern

water lily

penny wort

newly germinated seed

mushroom

K9's forehead