I Can Buy Myself Flowers

One of the most over played, overused songs of 2023 and yet here I am, falling prey to its catchy theme. The over arching message is just so damn relatable - self empowerment, self care and self love. I don’t need to wait for someone to deem me worthy enough to shower me with flowers. I will buy them for myself because they are beautiful and bring me joy.

 

 
I recently discovered a local flower farm - only 3 miles away - that sells bouquets from their roadside farm stand. It’s an honor payment system - a drop box for cash or pay via Venmo. The farm utilizes responsible growing methods and of course, I love supporting a local business. Through this vendor I’ve discovered the ranunculus flower and now I can’t get enough.

 

 

 

 
The ruffles are to die for - like layers of a croissant!

 

 

 

 

 

 
I enjoy these beauties every time I pass them in the kitchen. Looking forward to having more flowers in the house in the coming season.

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The Grand Poppy

Don't judge the plant when it first emerges from the ground - case in point, the Oriental Poppy. With leaves that look like dandelions on steroids, the poppy overcomes its unsightly foundation with puffy crepe paper blooms, nodding on delicate stems.








There are always flowers for those who want to see them. Henri Matisse

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That Extra Hour

Last Sunday, we "fell back" from Daylight Savings time to Standard Time, gaining an hour.

What did I "do" with that extra hour? My kids slept it away, but I spent part of that hour outside, in my bathrobe, taking photos. Because that's what I do and the neighbors have grown accustomed to it....

I was really into it because of the frost and even broke out the macro lens.






It would be nice to have more "extra hours" every now and then, but I am happy to have it once a year. If only we didn't have to lose it in the spring.....

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Iris and Peonies Blooming In My Garden

First - a purple and white iris - this is new to my garden - a neighbor down the street was having new landscaping installed and offered up soon to be replaced bearded iris to anyone who wanted them. She even dug these up for me! They bloomed on Friday and I was amazed by the color.



These Peonies aren't from my garden - they are from next door. Thankfully, my neighbors know I like to take pictures of things and I don't think they mind if I'm huddled on their porch with my camera. It's the light on these beauties that caught my eye.



With all the rain we've received, the flowers are really showing off! I wonder what will bloom next.

Shared with Tuesday Muse at A Rural Journal.

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Friday Flowers | Lilacs

I've been enjoying the fragrance of the lilacs that took forever to bloom this year.



Growing up in Massachusetts, the lilacs normally didn't bloom until late May, around my birthday, so I always thought of them as my birthday flower. Back then, the standard, "old fashioned" lilacs were widely planted - you know, those tall, towering bushes on the side of the house, laden heavy with clusters of lavender flowers. Often though, the bushes would mature and rendered themselves too large for the space they were planted in - after all, a fully grown standard lilac spans 12 feet tall with a 10 feet spread. So many a mature lilac bush ended up being replaced with something smaller.

For our current home, I knew we didn't have space for such a large bush, so I opted for a more petite, dwarf Japanese variety, Miss Kim. Their only drawback is the small size of the florets.



But they give off that same wonderful, lush fragrance. Maybe one day, I'll have a proper spot for a standard lilac. For now, I'll enjoy the delicate blooms and fragrance that says "Spring is Here".

Wishing those in the US a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.

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Has Spring Finally Sprung?

I am amazed at how late the spring flowers are around here. It really looks like early April or even late March, but here we are at May 5 and these are just starting to bloom.

Fragrant Viburnum:


Chives:


Pink Blossoms on a plant in my neighbor's yard. I have no idea what they are, but the blooms are small, pink and pretty.


Happy Spring (Finally!!)


Sharing with Mary and Mosaic Monday

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Almost Forgotten

I took these photos, oh, probably two weeks ago, and somehow, between the normal craziness of life, so many soccer and iPhone photos, they got buried in my photostream. Makes me realize that I should go back through my photostream every now and then to see what gems I had forgotten about.


I love cherry blossoms in the spring.


This photo reminds me of our previous house in Indiana - we had a wonderful pink dogwood nestled in the front of the house, flanked by rhododendrons and azaleas. Back then, I actually took time to garden and planted several hundred tulip bulbs every fall. The spring show was amazing.

Amazing how a simple picture conjures up a memory. I guess that's why I take pictures. So I don't forget.

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Pink and White

I think pink and white flowers epitomize spring. We are lucky to have such an amazing show this season.


Textured using Kim Klassen's Be Still Texture.


Textured using Shadow House Creation's Oil Painting Texture.

And the originals for your comparison:




I think I like the textured versions better. Flowers particularly are good candidates for adding texture, so if you have never tried to add a texture, it is a great place to start.

Linked to Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.

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Spring Flowers

The last several days have been busy, busy, busy, so no time to play....

Until tonight, when I finally installed my Lightroom 4 Upgrade which arrived Monday. The upgrade was a cinch - my previous Lightroom Catalog was transferred and I was up and running. There are some differences in the Develop Module (Exposure) which took getting used to, but so far so good.







Enjoy your Thursday evening!

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Collages and Mosaics with the iPhone

The warm weather has sent the trees, plants and flowers into a frenzy. What was bare just a week ago is now in full bloom. Since it has been so warm, these blooms won't last very long, and Friday afternoon I went out with my SLR and my iPhone to capture these fleeting moments.

But today I only have photos taken from my iPhone. Seriously, it is hard to beat the ease of taking the photos, editing them, making a collage / mosaic and sharing these photos with this phone.

For the photos, I used the Olloclip Macro lens. I've posted about this lens attachment before and I love the clarity and bokeh of the resultant photos. Here is a picture of the olloclip in the package:

Once I had a nice collection of photos, I brought them into the Photogene2 app. I can adjust the photos there if I want. I used a tiny bit of Clarity on these photos to make them pop.

For the collage, I have two apps I normally use - Diptic and Montager. But I remembered that Photogene2 has a basic collage function too! It was easier to use the Photogene2 collage option and here are the two mosaics I created:

Magnolias in different stages of bloom:


Weeping Willow:


Once I created the collages, I shared to my flickr and Instagram feeds. All from the phone - no computer, no card reader and no wires. And while I don't think my camera phone will ever replace my big camera, the camera phone certainly wins from an ease of use standpoint.

Now to hook up my DSLR and get those other photos downloaded......

Linked to Mary and Mosaic Monday

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Brighten Your Winter

I think this is the latest I've succumbed to the lure of fresh tulips - normally I purchase them in January and here we are, well into February. I blame the upcoming Valentine's Day for marketing these beautiful flowers in the stores.









I just couldn't resist them. And they make me happy - I think it's a win-win.

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Transformed

Playing around with a photo I took tonight.

The original:

Wowza, that's quite magenta.... In reality, the flower is a deep purple, which is probably the most difficult color for a digital camera to render well. I just liked the spikey center.

So, playing around in Lightroom, I applied the Bleach Bypass preset:

I prefer the pink and shades of brown to the bright magenta.

Finally, for Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday, I added her simplicity texture, multiply blending mode at 75% opacity:



Which version do you like the best?

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Thanksgiving Cactus

Or maybe it's a Christmas Cactus that is, like the rest of the world, skipping over Thanksgiving and bombarding us with "Ho Ho Ho" and "50% off door buster deals for Black Friday".



OK, it's just a plant that decided to bloom and doesn't have ulterior motives.

But it does look a bit Christmassy...


I'm linking up with Deb Duty this Turkey Day:


I wish all the folks in the US a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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I Feel Like Pink Today

Two hydrangeas, both pink.





I guess our soil is more alkaline than acidic. The more acidic the soil, the blooms will turn blue. I'm OK with leaving things as they are around here!

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Faded Pink

Since I started using Lightroom to process my photos, I find I don't use textures or actions like I used to. Mainly because that means I need to export to .jpg and then open up PSE, make my edits, re-import into Lightroom and send to flickr.

But my full afternoon / evening just opened up completely, so I played around a little bit with one of the flowering crab photos I took Saturday evening, while on a walk with hubby.

The original:


I ran The Pioneer Woman's Soft and Faded Action on it (one of my favorite actions) and then added Kim Klassen's Serendipity texture on top, using the Soft Light blending mode at 100% opacity. Flattened and saved. That's it - it took me maybe 5 minutes to complete the transformation, because I have to fiddle with things (like checking out the impact of each blending mode, even though I chose Soft Light first).



It happens to be Texture Tuesday at the Kim Klassen Cafe, and the Serendipity texture I used is free when you sign up for Kim's weekly newsletter. A free texture every week!

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Springtime In Full Glory

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. ~Hal Borland


Red Bud Flowers


Lilac Buds
Both photos taken with the 105mm Nikon micro lens.

On Sunday afternoon, temperatures soared into the 80's and it felt like Summer was going to take away Spring's glory. But that warm front only served to kick start all the budding trees into flower and we are now enjoying the new color. I hope it stays around for a while.

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