Calla Lily

Calla lilies are one of those flowers that come up unbidden in the garden and I tend to take them for granted, but they are so beautifully draped and swirled when one stops to look at them a little more closely. The garden across the street is somewhat unimaginatively planted with flowers as if it was a series of miniature farm fields, but it is quite a sight at this time of year. There are stands of calla lilies around the edges, so many in fact, that they tend to blend into each other. This one by the mailboxes had gone rogue and, standing alone, attracted my attention. 

A hawk, probably a Cooper's Hawk, definitely attracted our attention as we were reading the Sunday paper this morning, swooping out of nowhere and landing on the porch railing where it surveyed the scene at the bird feeders. They had been swarming with activity moments earlier but some kind of sixth sense had cleared them all out just moments before. There is clearly some sort of pecking order among the many different sizes and species that visit, but none of them can clear the scene as quickly and completely as a hawk. I would have liked to get a picture of him sitting so nonchalantly so close to the house, but I didn't want to cause him to fly away by standing up to fetch my camera. Sometimes I think one of the challenges of being on the lookout for a picture every day, is knowing when to sit and enjoy the moment without the distraction of a camera, even if it means not getting the shot.

I think my phone has become so crowded with 'information'... that even if I am searching for something particular, I have to scroll through miles of unwanted pictures, news stories, and advertisements without ever finding what I asked for. Google has a way of prioritising anything that makes money for Google  rather than what I am looking for. And now, with Artificial Intelligence, the line between what IS real and what APPEARS real is becoming more blurred by the day. The US congress is conducting hearings into ChatGPT and other forms of AI, but even though some of the developers are asking for regulation, the genie is already out of the bottle and can't be put back.