Category: flowers

a second look, attention to detail, attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, birds, bucket list, fantasy images, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, Just do it, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

A lucky day…

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I went out early on Tuesday. I was seeing beautiful light out back before the sun rose high enough to peek over the fence and shine right in my eyes. Still blue hour I guess. And some of the usual birds visited while I hoped for hummingbirds, so I imagined a post where I explained that all my favorite birds were still coming to the feeders, and that includes the red wing blackbirds who are visiting by twos lately. But I hadn’t written anything yet so on Wednesday morning I went out again, even though whatever quality the light had the day before wasn’t quite so nice that day. And I didn’t have to wait long for the hummingbird to come visit the fire bush. I got a lot of pictures and was tempted to go put them into the computer to see what I got, but I thought I might as well sit there until the sun came into my eyes and I would have to go inside. And she came back a second time, but stayed in the foliage and left quickly. Which is when I heard a particular whooshing sound, and I realized that a hot air balloon was out there somewhere, but I couldn’t see it. It was flying low, behind the trees, so I had to wait until it came into the open to take some shots. I was already quite delighted by this turn of events, and then the hummingbird came back a third time. What a lucky day!

I took so many pictures and they all are this shot, or close to it.
Slightly different angle in this shot.
Just so many flowers to visit and she tries to hit them all.
A little different shot for a change.
One click in Photoshop replaced the dreary white sky with this. All righty then.

It’s those lucky days that keep you going out to try again…

a second look, attention to detail, attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, Florida wildlife, flowers, fun, gardens, go with the flow, let it go, nature, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

Where’s Waldo…

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Or Mrs. Waldo as it turns out. My firebush has grown. There are flowers down in the foliage as well as at the outer edges, and down in the foliage is where she spent the vast amount of her one minute or so that she visited with us yesterday. And she waited until the shadows were developing to visit at all. But she came, so I’m happy.

I didn’t think I had gotten her in the shots at all until I zoomed in on the photos in the computer. Thankfully she did emerge from the foliage now and then.
So many flowers to visit.
Busy, busy, busy!
I was a little disappointed that the Mr. wasn’t with her.

You know, there are wildly expensive lenses that might give me better pictures. Or maybe it’s me that could learn more of the technical stuff involved in photography. Or maybe I could just count my blessings and by happy with how I get to spend my time these days.

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, backyard visitors, dragonflies, Florida wildlife, flowers, friends, fun, gardens, Nature's beautiful creatures, perseverance, photography

In the yard…

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I saw a bug. It landed on a pretty leaf in the yard and then it left. And then it came back. Which is what dragonflies do, so I picked up the camera and went out to investigate. This cooperative dragonfly just sat there for his photo shoot, not only staying still, but choosing a landing point with a little something to it, which made the photographer in me happy. I hope you can see the feature photo.

Also going on in the yard for weeks and weeks now is the saga of my plumeria plants. Cuttings were given to me two years ago by some photographer friends. Despite a dismal history with plants I said that sure, I’d love some cuttings. They looked like fat sticks at that point, but I got pots and potting soil and stuck them in there, and almost to my surprise they grew.

I don’t remember how long it took to reach this stage.

And then the inevitable happened. One by one the leaves turned yellow and fell off until there were only tall sticks sitting in those pots. By then the bird feeders had happened and my attention was elsewhere, and if I wasn’t such an accomplished procrastinator I’d have chopped up those sticks to see if I could possibly start over with the plumeria. I thought about it, but that’s as far as it got. And then one day I looked and something was happening at the tip end of one of those ‘sticks’.

Hmm, bumps. What’s going on?
Aha! Flowers are coming.

Every single one of those sticks now has this sort of activity going on at the tippy top ends. They are eye level with me, so if/when flowers do appear I’ll probably have to stand on a step stool to get a picture. I have no idea if plumeria plants are supposed to look like these do, but I guess that’s what you get when you totally ignore them until you are sure they are dead. And as soon as I saw some signs of life I wanted to ‘help’ them. Water, fertilizer, pull the pots away from the house so they get even more than just morning sun! But I procrastinated that too, so there they sit. The anticipation is killing me!

attention to detail, attitude adjustments, bugs, flowers, gardens, nature, perseverance, photography, simple things

Simple things…

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If I was talking about my kids or my pets I’d feel guilty for playing favorites. This plant has done not much of anything for a while now, but I think I have the watering down now, and I also have been fertilizing the flowers, and I have been rewarded. The rest of the plants seem happy too, but this one is giving me a high five!

This plant has always had lots of buds than never seemed to develop.
And if a flower opened it usually faced down towards the ground.
This bud is so yellow, but by noon it’ll be a gorgeous white bloom.
The flowers all look proud of themselves, facing the sun.
It was impossible to get a shot without a fly in it. I love the shadow in this shot.

This plant was saying, “Hey, look at me!” So I did…

backyard visitors, bees, butterflies, Florida wildlife, flowers, gardens, nature, old dogs new tricks, on closer examination, perseverance, photography

And then I noticed…

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I decided that I couldn’t stand looking at all the bird poop on the baffles out back, so I mixed up some more vinegar solution to go scrub them down. But while I was out there I noticed that the plants needed watering, so I got busy with that. But when I watered the pentas I saw they were full of bees! On happy day! But as I was taking pictures of the bees I kept seeing shadows on the fence, and eventually realized that a butterfly was flitting around the bougainvillea. And then I saw another one. 75 pictures later I abandoned all hope of doing any more chores and played with my photos for the rest of my day. And that’s pretty much why I never get anything done around here…

The yellow butterflies never seem to stay still, so getting any image at all was a win in my book.
The problem with chasing him around was that I was looking into the sun, and struggling against the deep shadows too.
Plus you had to catch him quick or he was gone.
I wasn’t intending to catch him in flight, he just took off while I was shooting.
And these are the guys that got me to get the camera out.
My formerly trusty 18-400mm Tamron lens is having trouble focusing so I switched to the 18-150mm kit lens that came with the camera. I think it’s my favorite lens, little and light.
I don’t know why they were all over this plant and ignoring the rest of them, but that’s okay as long as they come to visit.

I didn’t take any pictures of the poop out there, and when it inadvertently winds up in one of my images I use Photoshop to edit it out. That’s my confession for the day.

backyard visitors, bees, flowers, fun, gardens, nature, old dogs new tricks, on closer examination, perseverance, photography, simple things

A rainy afternoon…

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Just a little rain, I was actually hoping for more. My pocketbook appreciates the lull in the activity in the backyard in the afternoon. Rainy or not, the rush to the feeders is first thing in the morning and another rush at happy hour, so it’s quiet out there at the moment. I am not much of a gardener despite my efforts to attract bees and butterflies to the yard. But I belatedly gave the plants some plant food the other day and I was rewarded with this lovely hibiscus bloom.

I can never remember the name of this plant, but it smells divine, and the bees have given it a thumbs up.
Busy little bee.

I have made a note on the calendar so I can see how long the new 20 lb. sack of birdseed lasts. I briefly toyed with the idea of figuring out exactly what I’ve spent on this bird obsession of mine, starting last fall with the purchase of the Bird Buddy itself, but I’m probably better off not knowing. And besides, we’ve spent a lot of pleasant afternoons on the lanai watching the birds, and what price would I put on that? And now the rain has arrived and that’s a good thing.