Colorchallenge Monday - Red

These flowers seem like they belong on some foreign landscape, maybe even on another planet. Looking at it reminded me of the drawings that you might see in the illustrations of a Dr. Seuss book for children. My Grandmother used to send those books to me on my birthdays when I was a kid, and I loved them so much! Can't you just see "Horton Hears a Who" in this photo? Maybe my imagination just runs away with me more than other people, but I can almost see the little residents of Whoville floating by on a speck of dust right this very minute.

As a kid I would sit by plants like these and watch the vast array of insects coming and going. They would be scouring the ground and climbing the stalks, then those seemingly huge bumble bees would buzz in for a landing. How do those magnificent things fly with those big bodies and such small wings? Whenever I saw that the paths of differing types of insects was going to cross I paid close attention, would they ignore each other or duke it out?

Ants seem to be the rulers of these mysterious worlds, they forage far and wide and if one gets into any trouble they send a signal to their mates for help, and the ant version of a Calvary usually arrives in short order. Ants are truly interesting creatures and a person can learn a lot from watching them. I remember one time when I was working at a Power Plant on one of the big rivers in my State, there was a huge flood coming from heavy rains upstream. We were all working like like crazy trying to get our ducks all in a row before that surge of water arrived, it was a long grueling day for all of us. But we found out that we were not the only ones that knew about the coming flood and were preparing for it. We watched in amazement as all of the great Fire Ant hills on our side of the river suddenly sprung into action as a massive and frantic effort for survival got underway. How did they know that the water was coming? Who told them? I just can't give a good answer to that other than that they just knew instinctively that it had come a heavy rain upstream and that they needed to work fast to save their colonies.

Not only did these ants know that the flood was coming, but they also knew just what to do. They started gathering leaves and twigs together and they interwove them and locked each together with their own bodies. By the time the water reached their hills they had created a huge raft, with the ants on the bottom sacrificing themselves, and the queen up on top surrounded and guarded by her very own palace guards. It was a fantastic sight to behold as they lifted up and floated away, and I have never looked at an ant the same way again since that day.

I hope that you enjoyed the view from my world today!