Friday, April 29, 2016

Sharing Space.......


I find it difficult to take shots of lily of the valley as they are so low to the ground.  I took a chance with this one lone sprout sticking up among the hosta leaves and the lily of the valley leaves. It had been raining so the water clings to the leaves.  I know the flower likes to have plenty of moisture. The overlapping leaves makes the photo into an abstract shot.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

A Promising Situation......


The viburnum skipped blooming last spring.  With our early spring freeze I thought things would pan out to be the same this spring.  Look at what I see now.  They are not in full bloom yet but their stems and buds still put out an interesting display.  All the  little ducks are in a row.  I will have to go back in two years of blogs to find its name.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Over the Fence.......




The honeysuckle is blooming.  It is receiving a lot of rain and looks fresh and green.  The flowers are almost all opened now.  I didn't notice a fragrance when I took the photo but the wind was blowing so hard that the fragrance was headed towards the neighbors.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Goldfinch.............


I still have goldfinch coming to the feeding sock.  I see other Iowan photographers share their goldfinch birds and they are all pure yellow now.  Mine seem to all have a brownish color still mixed into the body color. I hope they keep coming to the feeder when they do turn to a pure yellow coloring.

Monday, April 25, 2016

White Birch..........


The tree calls out to me to take its photo on certain days more than others.  Yesterday the sun was bright and the light was clear making the bark look so clean. Small sets of leaves are now forming on the branches.





The leaves that are just now forming make a blurred shadow at the ends of the smaller branches. The spiral tentacle shapes will be popping out soon, making some of the birds very happy.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Sunday Whites......


I am thinking that when we had a below freezing morning that some stems were damaged by it.  I am finding different tulips, not all of them, but some that look like someone came along and gave them a squeeze and a  bend.  The white tulip has a subtle small red fringe on the edge of its petals. Other tulips look like the one below the white one which is very short.  I have a few of those also spread around in the different gardens.  I have never had short tulips.

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Partly Cloudy......


The crab apple imitates the clouds shapes or maybe the clouds imitate the trees.  The foreground lilac may have buds on them but those things are slow.  Walking outside in the yard, the fragrance of the chokecherry tree and pear trees is strong and pleasing to smell.

Friday, April 22, 2016

Living Sculpture..........


The "not so perfect" tulips put on a show with their rain damaged shapes.  The colors are so great in this particular variety. 





The weather has been perfect for them and the rains have made them sprout taller and straighter.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Spring Rains.....


We are getting gentle rains and that does help everything in the garden to look better.  No heavy rains to knock off blooms but some mud has to form for the dogs to walk through. I was near a flowering tree at church on Sunday and it was like standing in snow as the white petals were falling to the ground.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Tulip Time......


We are getting a good rain this morning.  I think the tulip usually closes up for that then opens when it is all over.  We need the rain.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Looking Away......


The sun is bright, the "red one" comes for a drink and I grab the camera. It still doesn't mean the bird will ever look at me.  It isn't like school pictures where the photographer grabs the student by the head and turns it to the direction and angle that they want the person to sit.

Monday, April 18, 2016

Sunrise over the Garage.......


My sunrise is looking good.  I was out just at the right time. It just becomes daylight in an instant once it is clear of obstructions.

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Tulip Time......Times Three.






I shared three photos today as I have a lot of pictures of tulips.  They don't stay around for long so I take every shot I can get at many different angles.

Saturday, April 16, 2016

Spring Blooms.......



Ornamental pear trees are beautiful but I wish it were a real pear tree. The tree is planted right next to the real pear tree which hasn't budded yet.

Friday, April 15, 2016

A Curious Fellow........


He is a young one as he wasn't too afraid of much of anything.  Barney would frighten him but he was curious about us people and would get close to us to see what  was going on. Button couldn't see him but the squirrel thought him to be interesting also. I think he thought he was an albino squirrel.

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Thinking Spring


One lone tulip left growing in the area.  It will hang around for a while so maybe I can get a perfect focus on it the next time I take a snap of it.  The wind never stops blowing.

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Rose Power.........


If I were at the bookstore and looked at photography books, I could probably find a photo like this. I don't work for the artsy photos so much but this worked out well.

I didn't plan for the white tablecloth to be so beneficial for the two shots.

Tuesday, April 12, 2016

Tuesday's Tones........


The sun shines through the leaves making the red leaves of the coral bells a special sight. I bought thi plant  last fall and it seems to have wintered through well.








I have a bonus photo today of the sun causing the lilac to look yellow green.  The cold weather does not bother the lilac as they seem to be one of the earliest shrubs to leaf out before they bloom.

Monday, April 11, 2016

Three Blooms.....




I know that hyacinths are suppose to be a stem covered with many blooms.  In Iowa, the best we can do it a stem with two or three blooms. I have these planted in a couple of places and this one surprised me.  I had not seen any stem shoot up nor any buds. 

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Morning Sky.......


It is early morning and the small dog has me up and outside. I could smell the amonia from farm fields and a few Canada geese were flying in the sky. It had warmed up in the night and and it was a good surprise.  The white bank shown is a cloud also but does look like a mountain covered with snow.

The clouds were moving through so quickly and the sun was blocked most of the time that I was out there.  The sun was actually up above the horizon and once the clouds moved away it was instant sunshine.











It was a great morning to see cloud formations in the east.  The one maple tree seems cut off and yet it makes one think that the tree too was watching the morning sky.

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Bluebell


If it would quit being 26 degrees F. at night these flowers would be opened completely showing full blooms.

Friday, April 8, 2016

Agronomy Photo.......


The roma seedlings are being planted into bigger containers. This one looks like a perfect specimen and it should be glad that it is safe and warm inside the house tonight.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

Pastel Portraits........



The lily is in full now.  I have it braced against a wall so it won't fall over again.  Low light photography is not my choice but it is the only time that I had to do the shot. Having low light does give the flower more of a blended color effect.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Early Spring Dining......



I didn't get the sock filled today so they will be hanging upside down to get see from it. The finches both house and goldfinch have been enjoying the easy pickings.I have never seen that red on the back of the bird before.  I wonder how much of it is red when it raises its wings to fly.

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Spring Blooms.......


The bush cherries bloom earlier in the season than the other fruit trees.  They seem to die out in sections as they get older and I have to trim out the dead stuff.  Every spring they surprise me by being alive and showing such a great show of blooms.

Monday, April 4, 2016

Moon and the Sun.....


I took many shots trying to figure out how to get a focus photo of the moon.  It worked best with  my camera by zooming in a little. There was enough scattered light from the sunrise that the camera allowed me to take the shot.

The view that I first see when I take our small dag outside is this.  I never know what it will look like when I look east.  The house was in the road so I couldn't get far enough left to get the moon out of the trees.  It is fun for me to keep trying and keep learning with this camera. When the sunrise advances the moon will be a white sliver in the sky.

Sunday, April 3, 2016

Fern Leafed Peony.......


They could look like a bunch of palm trees in a small scale.  They are liking the warm weather today and the full sun makes them glow.

Saturday, April 2, 2016

South Side........


Before leaving the school yesterday I walked over to the south side of the building and took a few shots of these blooms with the phone.  It was very cold out there and I wondered how crazy was I to be out there. The south side of a brick building is a great place to plant bulbs as the soil gets warmed faster there when the sun is shining.  These daffodils line a sidewalk that is rarely used.  Students can leave out a door near here but their parking lot is on the other side of the building. The flowers then are not seen by many. As I have blogged in the past the warmth along the building makes them mature quickly as my daffodils at home are just now in the leafed stage but no buds have formed.




I like this variety with the light yellow center.  When looking at them from a distance they seem to be all white but the pastel centers show up when you get closer.  I didn't know for sure if they were paper whites or what until I walked over there.  The cell phone really takes a nice photo.

Friday, April 1, 2016

Repeating the Theme........


I showed birds yesterday and today I will show them again.  I wanted you to see this bird at the bottom of the feeder.  From what I can find in my research is that this could be a female goldfinch. It seems those who put out info about the goldfinch are only interested in the male bird.  They show photos of the males repeatedly but do just a written description of the female bird.  I would really like to know if the female does get to be brightly colored as the male or if it will stay this color all summer. I liked this photo most because of the bottom bird plus the positioning of the three of them.

Blurry Blue Cup Day.....

 It is Monday and I am a little blurry eyed today. It is fitting then my blue cup is blurred a little because it is in low light. I was too ...