Blue Bachelor’s Buttons
Bachelor’s Button
Bachelor’s Buttons, centaurea montana, are a native wild plant, but are actually considered a noxious weed in some areas for their habit of moving in and taking over the place. My yard is too shady, so they’ve minded their manners here, though I’d love to see a few more blue flowers this time of the year. Because their stems are so long and all around them is green, they look as if they are susepended in air, and have actually outgrown my Shasta daisies in height.
Bachelor’s Button and Shasta Daisy
Three Columbine Flowers
Three Columbines
They look like little ladies in hoop skirts, delicate and beautiful, three columbine flowers in the morning.
Daisies, Daisies, One, Two, Three
One, Two, Three
Yesterday they were all just slightly opened buds, like the first one, now they are popping open.
I’ve been running out of time to post, but not to photograph. I’ll have to double up some days to catch up on the photos.
Cranesbill
Cranesbill
I typically like to photograph light-colored flowers against a dark background, like the shadows in the woods, but the breeze was moving the shadows and sunlight around and a very light patch ended up behind these cranesbill geranium flowers. I love the shade of green, and I like the effect. They are in my back yard, and have naturalized in a nice row at the edge of my “woodland garden”. The are a native wild plant, and I brought home bits and pieces of plants from old homesteads about to be bulldozed for development. They are a geranium, and if you look at the shape of the flower you’ll see a similarity with the flowers that grow in clusters in the geraniums we find more familiar. The name “cranesbill” is derived from the shape of the seeds, which grow in clusters like the buds you see on the left, a small oblong shape but with a long pointed protuberance that is reminiscent of the beak of a crane.
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Busy Bumblebee
A Busy Bumblebee
I love to see these pollinators out in force, here visiting both bugle weed and forget-me-nots.
A Favorite Tulip
Favorite Tulip
I like tulips of any sort, but most of mine have been eaten by small burrowing creatures or the bunnies who come to visit in spring. I quit replanting them in my yard, but this one single tulip continues to sprout and bloom each spring. Its leaves are smaller and shorter than the others, and the flower itself is as well, so perhaps it’s camouflaged by the ivy for long enough to actually make a showing. It’s just a tiny little thing too, just like a small cordial glass. Studying the red veins fading out into the petal never ceases to amaze me.
Lilac Time
Lilac Time
The lilacs I planted “temporarily” by my gate and side window about 20 years ago have become rather permanent, and despite being damaged by heavy snow have gracefully curved over my gate and the path to my back yard like a dappled green tunnel full of heavenly scent. I’ve never seen it bloom like this, but it’s only just begun–in a few days there won’t be any green in this photo. But no matter, once they began to bloom I could smell lilacs even with the windows closed. Spring is here.
Flowers
Gerbera Daisies
Nothing says spring is here like visiting a greenhouse, especially one where they started nearly all the annual flowers and vegetables themselves. And nothing says summer is on its way like a cluster of colorful gerbera daisies. I was there for vegetables, but I couldn’t keep away, they look like happy balloons. My only defense is to take lots of photos. This is at Bedner’s Farm Market, a place I’ve been visiting since I could barely see over the tables of vegetables.
Just one more colorful photo of snapdragons.
Snapdragons
Good Morning
Good Morning
Nothing says “good morning” like yellow flowers in first light. These are a few of the turnip flowers I didn’t trim yesterday for a bouquet.
Pear Blossoms
Pear Blossoms
Finally my pear tree is blooming. the blossoms are actually pure white, but I liked this creamy tone in dappled sun, early.
Morning Song
Morning Song
We had a bit of sun this morning, and these daffodils were singing their song until the storm got to them.
Umber Patterns
Umber Patterns
The sun shines through a dense clump of many-flowered aster, whose dried flowers and leaves create a rich random pattern of warm winter umbers.
Bloom Again in Autumn, 2011
Bloom Again in Autumn
The pink pasture rose blooms again in autumn, surrounded by so many buds it will be November before they are all done. I was lucky to find it in such magical light at an angle that caught the shadows of the buds on the outside of the flower, showing through the translucent petals.
Purchase a print in a variety of styles and sizes or a greeting card from my Fine Art America profile: Bloom Again In Autumn
My Lady’s Bonnet, 2011
Rose of Sharon
The white Rose of Sharon flowers always reminded me of an old-fashioned bonnet or frilly hat, here caught the morning after a rain with water droplets weighing down the petals.
Raindrops on Roses, 2010
Raindrops on Roses
Who doesn’t welcome the sight of a brilliant pink rose on a dark autumn day?
Catching such voluptuous raindrops as these is a rare event—it either has to be right after the rain has stopped (falling raindrops will blur the photo with movement) or a day where rain falls intermittently and the humidity remains high so the raindrops don’t evaporate.
In either case, it’s generally pretty dark and overcast so all those lovely raindrops have few highlights, and shadows are saturated.
In this case, between the showers, the sky brightened enough to pick up each and every droplet, and to highlight the brilliant pink of this rose on one of my neighbor’s rose bushes. It had rained so hard that the water was even pooling in between the petals.
Raindrops on roses…and for my feline-oriented friends, we all know the next line!
Pink Geranium
Pink Geraniums.
One of my pink geraniums catches the late afternoon sun. Over the years these pink geraniums, kept in the basement over winter and set outside in spring to flourish another year, have each changed color, fading to palest petal pink or deepening to magenta, another to a bright coral. This one retained some of the deeper pink veins on the petals along with a blush of deep pink fading to the top, , but edged with the finest line of deep pink, which makes the florets appear deep and lush, yet lacy. Any cuttings I take will likely not look like this, but will take on their own identity.
Alley Taken Over by Morning Glories, 2011
Morning Glories
I walked to my destinations today, and always find the most interesting photo subjects when on foot; I’m lucky I got to where I was going.
This alley backs buildings that are mostly older homes made into ill-kept rentals; landscaping is not maintained, nor are fences, garages, back porches, etc. I often find the detritus of everyday life interesting strewn around in the tall grass of an uncut back yard, piles of stuff can amount to modern sculpture and a leaning twisted gate is always an interesting subject from any angle.
But this September the good old-fashioned purple morning glories that spring up seemingly from nowhere decided to decorate the place, and up and down the alley they had twined on fences, trees, tall weeds, parked vehicles, bicycles, everything that had stood still for at least three weeks was festooned in dense garlands of heart-shaped green leaves and twirling, reaching stems sending out individual questing purple trumpets until finally, today, they bloomed in earnest.
The Umbrella Garden, 2011
The Umbrella Garden
A garden full of umbrellas? On a mild sunny day? I had to stop.
These people have always had a lovely garden, and surrounded their corner lot with prize-winning dahlias. Now, apparently, the garden is all about the dahlias with a few tomato plants thrown in. Typically, you want the sun and rain to reach the plants in a garden. I’m sure the umbrellas are there to protect the dahlias, whose large multi-petaled flowers on plants which may be 5 feet tall are easily destroyed by storms. They may be just for joy, or they may actually be growing them for a competition.
There is something I like in the choice of umbrellas, too, uniform in size and shape and style. But I wonder if they ever close the umbrellas so they can see their dahlias.
This is still one of the most popular images on my site! They have the dahlias this year, but no umbrellas.
Glories of the Morning
Glory of the Morning.
I’d been waiting for the morning glories to bloom at my neighbor’s house, the one with the big old white barn I’m always photographing.
I’m back to that old white barn in my neighbor’s back yard. Each year morning glories grow at the corners and they always look fresh and new, no matter the color. The graceful vines and shapely bright green heart-shaped leaves along with the vibrant purple flowers look delicate and sweet clinging to the weathered boards with peeling white paint.
The huge clump that grows at the corner where the fence meets the building that I’ve had my eye on that since it started twining on the fence, is finally in full bloom, the weather was cooler and we had a little rain so the flowers and leaves are full.
I used all my lenses and took at least 50 photos, choosing six to start with for a slideshow here. Hope the neighbors didn’t mind when I laid down in the alley to get a photo of the morning glories against the sky.
Gingham and Phlox
Gingham and Phlox
Looked so lovely in my garden as I hung the laundry. The sun’s angle is falling, ending up behind the neighbor’s trees by mid-morning unlike during the summer when it’s high above the tree tops nearly all day. But in the changing autumn light it creates dramatic and random shadows and spotlights.
Overexposed, 2011
Overexposed
The morning glory vines I’d photographed a few weeks ago twining around the rusty wrought iron fence were now blooming, so I took my camera to photograph on a walk through the neighborhood to Main Street.
However, I had forgotten to change the settings on my camera, which were on fully manual and set for low light photographs, probably my black cats looking out the window in the morning.
All was not lost, however, as I like the effect of the faded but clear areas in the fence and the leaves, and the rather vivid violet in the morning glories, but all the washed out areas where the white barn and light-colored pavement were reflecting the mid-day sun and it just overpowers all the detail.
Pink in Autumn
Pinks of Autumn.
Autumn is known for its brilliant reds and golds, not necessarily pink, but I love the slightly faded shades of pink in autumn, the Autumn Joy Sedum a soft rose and even the late summer phlox losing the edge of its magenta in the softer autumn sunshine as it leans down to mingle, green leaves relaxing their color too.
New and Old
New and Old
I’m back to that old white barn in my neighbor’s back yard. Each year morning glories grow at the corners and they always look fresh and new, no matter the color. The graceful vines and shapely bright green heart-shaped leaves along with the vibrant purple flowers look delicate and sweet clinging to the weathered boards with peeling white paint.
Another huge clump grows at the corner where the fence meets the building, and I’ve had my eye on that since it started twining on the fence, waiting for the flowers to bloom. I went there this morning to catch them in full sun but before the flowers closed for the day, but it’s been so dry they were wilted. I tossed my bottle of water on their roots and I’ll hope for a better outcome, a little earlier tomorrow morning.
See other photos of my neighbor’s barn, and other photos of morning glories.
