Lake Cheston ABCedarian: Z

Z IS FOR ZENITH,

A ROAD TO PHOTOGRAPHIC PLEASURE,

AND FOR ZED,

THE END.

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: Y

Y IS FOR YOUNG

Lake Cheston is always young, renewing itself and being renewed, even in winter. Witness the clubmoss (a member of a 400-million species) crowding the inner banks of the overflow near the dam. Today, in a little light, the "spore-bearing clubs" stood upright, glowing as if to say, "Bring it on, Winter! Here we come!"

with thanks to David Haskell,
who often teaches me what I see

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: W

W IS FOR WEATHERING WINTER

Beetles sun themselves above water.

Fungus flowers from bark.

Not everything waits for spring.

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: V

V is for VIBRANT

sun broke four days of fog and sleet and freezing fog

and blue water met wet sand and stone

and where ice still coated the lake's surface

stars burst on bluebird song

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: U Is for Under

        un
        der   fog
        's
        touch

slo

        ings
        fin
        gering
        s

wli

        whichs
        turn
        in
        to   whos

est

        people
        be
        come
        un

                        e. e. cummings

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: T

T is for Thanksgiving Tableaux

(large and small)

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: S

S IS FOR SYMPETRUM AMBIGUUM (BLUE-FACED MEADOWHAWK)

Only one today, but one is enough. Such a beautiful small Odonate, its face like a squarish pat of petroleum jelly, its eyes teal sky reflected in clear lake water, its abdomen jellied red hots.

Welcome back, little fellow!

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: R

R is for REFLECTION, RELATIONSHIPS, and REVERENCE

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: R

R is for ROCKS.

As in Lake Cheston rocks the Odonates!

On October 13, I noticed a bright blue, largish damselfly in the spillway by the wooden dam bridge.


I leaned out as far as I thought safe and photographed what I thought was a Familiar Bluet. Here 'tis:

At the time, I thought something was strange, but I didn't know how strange till yesterday.

Having photographed the same damselfly on October 17, on the same side of the dam but in the grasses on the dam, I looked through every book and online. Not a Familiar Bluet, I realized, but it wasn't any other kind of bluet identified in my county either.

So.

I decided yesterday to post the photo on my Southeastern Odes Facebook group with a plea: "I need some help, please. I took this photo yesterday in Sewanee, TN. I thought it was a Familiar Bluet, but the terminal appendages are short, and there's a stripe down the middle of the thorax. I have noticed what I suspect is this same bluet (the only one I've seen lately) at the same small lake for several days now. Am I just second-guessing myself? Thanks!

Almost immediately, THE expert in damselflies and dragonflies of the Eastern U.S. responded, "Actually, I think it might be a Big Bluet, which has been found in recent years in Tennessee in several places, but none of them close to Sewanee. It should have looked somewhat larger to you (not wanting to put ideas in your head)."

BIG Bluet, I thought? They're coastal damselflies! Odonata Central confirmed what I had seen, and what I saw at the lake again today:

Welcome, Big Bluet -- damselfly species number 23 -- to the Domain of Sewanee: The University of the South!

Lake Cheston rocks!

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: Q

LAKE CHESTON IS QUERULOUS

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: P

P IS FOR PHOTOREALISM

(see Deborah Rubin's Fall Leaves on Water, for comparison)

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: O

is for Orange (with a touch of red).

Red-spotted Newt

Autumn Meadowhawk (male)

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: N

That time of year when fickle weather is neither cold nor hot, neither sunny nor cloudy, neither clear nor foggy. 

It is, after all, fall in Sewanee.

Lake Cheston ABCedarian: M

Fall means Autumn Meadowhawks perching on Meadow Beauty, their amber and red faces and abdomens the perfect complements to the flower's "urn-shaped fruit[s] . . . Thoreau once compared to . . . little cream pitcher[s]."