Tiny Tuesday: : Tasmanian Flax Lily

One would think that somewhere in the 256 pages of the Leica camera manual there would be something titled macro photography, but one would be wrong. Or at least one would be so confused that further attempts at interpretation would be useless.

I reverted to my usual trial and error methods with marginal success. By the time OilMan and I went out to lunch at the Spinster Sisters and I had lox, cream cheese, avocado, red onion, capers and a bagel, with a glass of wine and polished off with an affogato,* I didn't know whether to lie down and take a nap (OilMan's choice) or run around in the midday sun looking for something tiny. 

I found a super bright red shield bug, but he wouldn't sit still long enough for me to figure out what I had managed to do to my camera. In fact, I couldn't even tell, squinting into the glare, that he was bright red until I put his blurry image up on my computer screen. 

A close look at an intricate double hammock type web--a lower web, designed to catch debris,  suspended under an upper  one which was the bug trap, revealed the spider waiting motionless in the in the space between. No matter how I contorted myself, I was unable to get my lens focused on the space and the spider took off.

A moth marked like a dry leaf sat motionless next to the door to the pump house, but it was so cleverly marked and had it's wings so closely blanketed around itself, that It just looked like a very uninteresting leaf with the barest suspicion of a couple of very thin legs.

All in all, it was a very pleasant trip into the world of the unnoticed and truly tiny, but for the time being, I shall have to stick to flowers, which at least hold still! I have no idea what this plant is called, LATE EXTRA: a text from Dana as I write says Dianella tasmanica, commonly known as Tasmanian flax-lily. The flowers are tiny…about a centimeter in diameter. There are lots of them growing around the house. 


*handmade vanilla ice cream and whipped cream with an espresso poured over it…the perfect dessert….