The magic of dragonflies

Over the weekend, we decided to go to the visitor's center of a nature reserve located near the village of Dwingeloo. It is a really pretty area that has been set up so nicely for visitors to come and linger for a while. We watched a family with two very young and excited boys catching tadpoles and putting them in a bucket only later to put them back in the pond. One had an easier time of catching snails since he was very young and not as coordinated with his net. He was so cute trying to get the third snail from the net into the bucket.

I love dragonflies and I get the greatest kick when I get a good photo of one. I stopped to make a couple more photos as we walked back to our car since there was noone around at that moment on the water's edge. I was photographing small dragonflies pairing in the reeds when a large dragonfly landed very close to me on the wooden walk over the water. I was thrilled he sat long enough for me to get a good photo. They are like little helicopters buzzing above the pond. Click on the photos to see the detail as the photos enlarge.

"Silent Noon"

Your hands lie open in the long fresh grass--

The finger-points look through like rosy blooms:

Your eyes smile peace.

The pasture gleams and glooms

'Neath billowing skies that scatter and amass.

All round our nest, far as the eye can pass,

Are golden kingcup-fields with silver edge

Where the cow-parsley skirts the hawthorn-hedge.

'Tis visible silence, still as the hour-glass.

Deep in the sun-searched growths the dragonfly

Hangs like a blue thread loosened from the sky:

So this winged hour is dropt to us from above.

Oh! clasp we to our hearts, for deathless dower,

This close-companioned inarticulate hour

When twofold silence was the song of love.

~~ Dante Gabriel Rossetti ~~