Archive for the 'Ile de France' Category

Small world, big stakes!

Here is an unexpected shot… all I intended was to take a photograph of the spider on the buttercup, when in flew an unexpected visitor, the spider’s next victim. Notice how the spider hangs his victims from silk threads - ready to be eaten at a later time.

Spider hunting

See also :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus

Flower folding

This Dog Rose was neatly folded (resembling an orchid). It’s creator, a crab spider, lay in wait inside.

Flower neatly folded by…..?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_canina

Caterpillar suspended in mid-air

This caterpillar was part of a colony of some 20 or so individuals enclosed in silk threads. On being disturbed it threw itself out on a invisible silken thread and hung suspended in the air.

Caterpillar suspended in mid-air

See : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_caterpillars

Crab spider having a snack

Crab spiders often catch large insects such as bees. It seems this fellow was on his hors d’oeuvre. The fly in its jaws was so small that I didn’t notice it whan I took the shot.

Crab spider having a snack

Lichen covered branches

Lichen in Spring

Lavacourt - first impressions

It is unfrequent to be so pleasantly surprised. On a weekend drive out of Paris I stumbled almost by accident on the hamlet of Lavacourt on the River Seine and its small Restaurant-Bar-Tabac “Chez Charlot”. Immediately opposite lay the village of Vetheuil - a village made timeless by Monet who lived there in the 1880s.

No better invitation could there have been to settle down to a simple lunch of “poulet frites” and a “pichet” of red wine. What else could one ask for?

The village of Vetheuil as seen from the hamlet of Lavacourt (captured by mobile phone).

Vertheuil seen from Lavacourt - taken using a mobile phone

And the same scene rendered timeless by Claude Monet some 120 years earlier (painted in oils!).

Vetheuil in Summer

Here is another of Vetheuil in the Winter. Je pense q’une autre visite s’impose!

Vetheuil in Winter

Find out more about Claude Monet.

Paris from the air

Paris from the air

Wikipedia entry

Antlion (Myrmeleontidae)

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Other resources :

Statue with lichen at the “Jardin des plantes”

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Broad-bodied Chaser (Libellula depressa)

Dragonfly resting in park

Male.