The Innocence of Youth

"The young cannot be blamed for not knowing what it's like to be old, but the old is guilty of forgetting what it's like to be young"

Or something of the sort. Guess where the quote came from, for bragging rights.

Innocence. I can't help but notice how little children emanate their glow of youthful innocence whenever they have fun.




They are honest and frank. They do not deviously insult nor flatter. They speak their minds and express their honest opinion on anything, without fear of being judged.




Kids don't wear a mask on their faces. They cry when they are sad, and laugh when they are happy. They don't pretend to be excited when they're not, and when they do become excited, they honestly are.




When they do things to make you happy, you know they're not doing them because they had to. They do them because they want to. And seing your happy face, in turn, makes them happy as well. And that is enough for everyone, both you and them.




I long for the same youthful innocence, for I feel like it has left me for quite some time.

Riverside Spiders

Walking along the brook in Batang Kali, I couldn't help but notice the spiders that made the wet, splashy riverside environment their home.

This spider lives on a piece of branch that fell from a tree into a river. This tree branch is right in the middle of the river; most of the branch is underwater and the spider made the part of the branch that is above the water its home. I was thinking about why this spider chose such dangerous site for a dwelling, since the water can easily sweep the spider away and drown it should the branch shift position or move due to the raging current or  outside interference by humans or animals.

You can see how risky this location is for the spider; the rushing water is just a few inches away.

This is a very small spider that made its home at the end of a very tall grass reed that grows on the river bank and extends into the middle of the river. It seems that the area above the surface of the river is a good place to catch insects that breed in the river or habitually fly over the river surface (such as damselflies and mosquitoes).

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I still have some pictures of other riverside little creatures that I'd like to share, so I hope you enjoyed this installment of spider photos ;)

Insects Mating after Feb 14th

The day after February 14th, we went for a family getaway in Batang Kali, Selangor where my uncle owns a piece of hillside land that includes a brook / river creek and a riverside shack.

Most of the family, after having breakfast, went for a dip in the brook and literally stayed there till evening. I joined them for a bit before grabbing my camera and traversed along the brook looking for small creatures to shoot. And I got a few that I liked.

Dragonflies Mating

I saw a pair of dragonflies flying around, one chasing the other, so I followed them until they stopped and landed on a blade of grass. The dragonfly in front started to attach the tip of its abdomen on the neck of the second dragonfly.

After that, the second dragonfly attached its abdomen tip onto the underside of the first dragonfly...

Hard to say which one's male and which one's female. I'd say the one behind is male. Notice that they form a kind of heart shape in the process. The nymphs are conceived in love!


The Mating Water Striders

Capturing any decent pictures of the water striders was really hard. I had a hard time focusing on any of them due to the small size, the amazingly clear water (made the AF focus on the objects in the water) and their superfast and sudden movements. I spotted an extraordinarily large one which wasn't as fast as the others, and it wasn't until I took a picture that I realized it wasn't a large water strider, it was a pair of water striders mating!

You can kind of see how the weight of the both of them bend the surface tension of the water.

They also dance along the surface of the water while they're at it!

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I have more pictures of other brookside insects, but let me save those for another post. In the meantime, I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I enjoy sharing them with you.