shirley - behind the lens: plants

Showing posts with label plants. Show all posts

Showing posts with label plants. Show all posts

Purple Berries

>> Wednesday, October 30, 2013 – berries, green, plants, purple

Not very fall-like, but I captured these berries not too long ago. I was totally drawn to the vivid purple color.

Purple and green is one of my favorite color combinations, and always reminds me of a bathing suit I bought in my early teens. A one piece, with purple and green diagonal stripes, purchased from the Spiegel Catalog through the mail - one of the first mail order purchases for me. I remember feeling quite out of my comfort zone with that color combination - perhaps it was a departure from the style of that time. But so I digress.

The trees here have reached their peak and I need to get out there with my camera before it's all gone!

Edited to add: The plant photographed is a Callicarpa or Beautyberry, a shrub found mainly in the South.

Pond's Edge

>> Thursday, November 17, 2011 – landscape, plants, pond, water

I drove back to the pond I ran past last week during my 11 miles on 11.11.11 - I wanted to take more time to capture it on my "big camera".

There are so many textures and colors present, I doubt I've done it justice.

I must remember to go back in the spring and summer.
Linked to This or That Thursday.

I Feel Like Pink Today

>> Wednesday, June 29, 2011 – flowers, garden, pink, plants

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!

Texture Tuesday

>> Tuesday, May 10, 2011 – photography, plants, texture, white

For this week's Texture Tuesday, I added Kim Klassen's Luminous texture, in the soft light blending mode to one of my solomon seal pictures.

Here's the original:

(I did crop the textured photo a bit)

For more Texture inspiration, check out Kim Klassen's site and sign up for her newsletter to receive free textures!

Earth Day - Good Friday

>> Friday, April 22, 2011 – 105mm, green, plants, water

Just a few images of the parsley that is due to go into the garden. I'm glad I didn't plant them out there last week because either the bunnies would have eaten them or the cold temperatures would have frosted them.

This Good Friday and Earth Day, remember the sacrifices paid and the beauty that is the Earth.

273/365 - Rain, Wind, Soccer and a Rainbow

>> Saturday, October 2, 2010 – green, P365-2010, plants, rain, rainbow, soccer

The day started with rain and wind, then just wind, then some sun and wind and finally clouds and wind.

The wind made today's soccer game very chilly and challenging for the girls, but they still managed a 4-1 win.

This is my official P365 picture - I love the group cheer just before the 2nd half.

A big surprise towards the end of the day - a rainbow! With the wind blowing the clouds around, it only lasted about 10 minutes.

Did I mention it was windy today? Oh yeah, that's standard for around here.....

260/365 - Fresh Basil

>> Sunday, September 19, 2010 – food and cooking, green, P365-2010, plants

The warm spell has caused my basil plants to produce huge leaves, even this late in the season. I'm lazy - I don't use the basil in bulk until late September, when I'm ready to make a big batch of pesto, which means I am constantly pinching back the plants to prevent them from going to seed.

I hadn't planned on making any pesto today, but when I pinched back all of these gorgeous leaves, I went ahead and made a small batch.

Hopefully I have more time next weekend to make a Big Batch of pesto. The weather forecast calls for hot weather, so I expect a great crop of leaves.

221/365 - Random Stuff In the Landscaping

>> Wednesday, August 11, 2010 – green, P365-2010, plants

I admit it - our landscaping is a big mess. Weeds everywhere. I'm too tired, and it's too hot to deal with it. Next year, we need to put down the mulch!

We even have a large vine producing squash in our front yard. From a seed that Brian planted last fall. Amazing what can pop up and grow.

112/365 - Seedlings

>> Friday, April 23, 2010 – P365-2010, plants

The basil seeds I got from Jill have started to sprout.

I can't wait for these little seedlings to grow. Just because I love pesto!

312/365 - Pond without a Pump

>> Friday, November 6, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, green, plants, water

Our little backyard fish pond has been pumpless for over a month now. Our last pump stopped working back in September, a minor annoyance, because the the circulating water oxygenates the water for the fish. The last time this happened, in 2007, we lost all of our Koi. The gold fish are much hardier and don't really need much oxygen, as only a couple have die over the past 6 weeks.

I have a replacement pump, but the pond piping requires some "modifications". I still don't have it figured out, and I've been playing phone tag with the pond people. I'm thinking about paying them to come and make the changes to get things going again. I miss the gentle sound of flowing water from the waterfall.

The iris plants don't really care either, sticking out of the water.

282/365 - Rows of Soybean

>> Wednesday, October 7, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, farm, plants, prairie

Another one of my "drive by" photo surprises. Yesterday's gray skies brought sunny ones this morning, but I know that the rain will be back tomorrow. So I purposely brought the camera out for my morning commute.

As the plants grow, it gets harder to distinguish the individual rows. So I was pleased to see the actual rows of ready to harvest soybeans in the capture.

273/365 - Good Gravy, a Giant Gourd!

>> Monday, September 28, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, Boy, green, plants

The kids had the day off from school and Brian went to a local farm with George and his family. They brought home these very interesting gourds.

But wait - let's get another shot of the green, zucchini-looking gourd:

Yes, that's one giant gourd!

213 / 365 - The Corn and Blue Sky

>> Wednesday, July 29, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, plants, prairie

I must have missed our flat prairie, because I seem to be obsessed with it and the corn. The corn - wow, is it ever tall - I run along a cornfield and before we left for vacation, I don't think it was too tall. Now the stalks tower over me. Now, granted, that's not too hard, as I am fairly short, but still - the corn grew two feet in the last week. The ears of corn and top tassels have emerged.

Taken outside the Stables, with my iPhone. I love how I can email the photos directly to flickr!

198/365 - First Tomatoes

>> Tuesday, July 14, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, food and cooking, garden, plants

But they are not from my garden.

A gift from Jill, they are a product of the hard work Jill's husband, Buck, has put into the backyard garden.
Get a load of these goodies from several weeks ago

I'm only growing some tomatoes and herbs. And my tomatoes don't look as nice as the ones I will enjoy tonight. What are you growing in your garden this summer?

195/365 - Blueberry Picking

>> Saturday, July 11, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, farm, food and cooking, friends, Girl, landscape, plants

It's been at least four years since we made a trip out to the U-Pick Blueberry Farm in White Heath. My friends from book club raved about this year's great crop, so we set out Saturday afternoon with friends Kathleen, Mel and Sara in tow.

The skies opened up and rain poured down on the fields as we were getting our blueberry gathering buckets ready, and later we determined this was a good thing, as the rain cooled things down and washed the bugs (Japanese beetles) off the bushes.

Mel sets off down a row of berry-filled bushes:

While Erica and Kathleen head the opposite direction: (Definitely away from me!):

But they can't escape Mom with a camera (aka the camera nazi):

Look at these beauties! Freshly washed by the rain.

And after about an hour hard work, we have these:

About 5 pounds of sweet berries (and that doesn't count the ones I ate along the way).

Mel enjoys some of the berries she and her mom, Sara, picked. The boots are hand-me downs from Erica and they look so cute on her!

The farm also grows herbs, corn, raspberries and green rhubarb - I wonder what Sara will make with it:

Checkout? If no one is there, you weigh, calculate, log and put your money in the box.

One of my favorite pictures from today - three pretty maids, all in a row. And a kitty, too!

185/365 - Hydrangea Bloom

>> Wednesday, July 1, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, flowers, plants

I really darkened this in PSE to bring out the faint pink on the edges of the petals. When in full bloom, the petals are completely pink, so I find the variegation at this stage to be much more interesting.

And even though today was the first day of July, I don't think we reached 70 degF here. The coldest start to July in over 70 years. It was a bit chilly - and I liked it! Certainly an anomaly, the temperatures are sure to climb back up.

180/365 - New Growth

>> Friday, June 26, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, nature, plants

I'll admit it - I wasn't finding anything "inspiring" to photograph today. The continuation of the hot, humid, stay inside in the A/C because it feels like a sauna outside has made me a little cranky, even for a Friday.

All of the heat, copious rain and sun has resulted in the maturation of many plants, with summer flowers now coming into bloom. It's hard to remember those fragile little buds of spring, the promise of new growth - but that new growth can still be found if you look for it (or in my case, if you happen to walk by the maple tree in the backyard because you are bored).

Still some baby leaves, waiting to grow bigger. Just the little bit of inspiration I needed today.

141/365 - Minor hail damage

>> Monday, May 18, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, nature, plants

Looks like my hostas weren't the only leaves to suffer some damage during Friday's hail storm:

Poor lily pad, all shredded. All of the lily pads look the same way. The silver lining? The flowers are starting to come up to the surface.

And the iris should be sending up some buds, soon:

What's next to bloom in your garden?

139/365 - Smoke Bush

>> Saturday, May 16, 2009 – 365, 365-2009, nature, plants

Buck and Jill have been rearranging their landscaping and decided they didn't want their Smoke Bush. So I inherited it and planted it today on one of the corners of the house. I had to transplant several purple coneflower plants (Echinacea purpurea) to make room for this burgundy leafed bush.

The bush produces puffy flowers that resemble smoke puffs, so that's how it received its name.

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