Thought to bring you some of nature's amazing pictures today!

How fabulous were the small things in nature designed, especially to please our eyes!

A colorful extravagance of micro design!

I am one of those that doesn't like diving into my files to search for stunning images to publish under lockdown. No, so I go out in our garden to wait for fresh beauties and I have some nice pictures here to show you today. The start of winter is here in South Africa and soon we will be awash in the winter rains, all of these little ones will disappear in nature's own lockdown!

But for now, let's enjoy them!

This bee chased the small butterfly off his seat!

Pollen collecting for the honey mix at home!

I followed the small butterfly and he is called a "Zebra Blue" The specie name is "Leptotes " and there are four families in this species that are impossible to tell apart with the naked eye. Size: 10m and wingspan: 20mm.

So the little Zebra was looking straight at me here!

A cool surprise was also this visitor, as this late in the season they have all packed up and left. He looks like a "Pantala" due to the two black spots at the tip of his tail. They are also known as "Globe Skimmers" or "Wandering Gliders"

This little beautiful critter has got us flummoxed. Two shades of blue with a white line that divides his torso and thorax. The two front legs with the flattened thighs should be a dead giveaway, but not so, as he appears nowhere in our books!

About -10mm I steered him gently to the top of the post to get a macro shot, but he was not happy at the top and made his way down again. A beautiful little guy in his blue suit!

Mr Bee arrived and I waited for him to come and greet me!

Of course he came up on the flower and he looked me straight in the eye lol. Of course he is an honest bee, as the belief here is, that if somebody cannot look you in the eye, then have nothing to do with them lol.

There are many of these beautiful little creatures floating about in our small garden. Some easy to get, but others don't seem to like their pictures taken. The little Zebra butterflies are similar to the dragonflies, as they only sit for a few seconds. But my camera's nickname is "Patience" and she takes her time to get them all hahaha.

Day 53 of our lockdown now and hopefully I will be able to get into our bigger garden soon!

This picture, or as some would say, image above is our bigger garden where I love to go and play. It is a place of silence and serenity and the closer that one get's to the mountains, the more their ancient power gets rooted in ones soul. Soon I pray that we will be back there, walking for miles in the friendly company of mother nature!

We used to work in one of the high crime "hot spot" city suburbs. Papillon was started in that ugly suburb and we stayed among gangs of drug dealers and prostitutes for 17 long years. Yes, we learned and taught a lot and had some amazing successes in the communities there, but by grace after all of those battles we are now in a rural area surrounded by clean living. Life has many tricks and it all depends on how we endure it!

Note: All photos are my own, unedited and only cropped for uploading. The butterfly and dragonfly specie information was taken from our range of insect and butterfly books. Butterflies; "Gardening for Butterflies, by "Steve Woodhall & Lindsay Gray. Dragonflies; "Dragonflies &Damselflies of South Africa" by "Warwick & Michele Tarboton"/p>

We hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity

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