Seven Years Ago Today

Glad the day, Lilies!

[Originally published on June 18, 2010, not one word different.]

Ayard in springtime

By Moristotle

“We can go abroad, or aloft, why not ayard?” –An old book of adverbs

No fooling

Spring has sprung (in the Northern Hemisphere)

By Moristotle

Ask Wednesday: What's blooming in Columnist Chuck Smythe's Colorado?

Fairy Slipper (Calypso bulbosa),
an endangered orchid

Glorious mountain flowers!

By Ed Schmahl

[Editor's Note: Ed Schmahl and Chuck Smythe have been hiking buddies since 1966. They've spent uncounted thousands of hours in the mountains of Colorado.]

Ask Wednesday: What new's blooming this week?

Dahlia

Colorful flowers!

By Morris Dean
 
 
 
 
 

Ask Wednesday: What other birds did the editor see at the beach?

By Morris Dean

First he shares some more photos of the Blue Martins and the Pelican at Carolina Beach (that is, in addition to those he displayed on June 15):

Ask Wednesday: What's blooming this week around the editor's office?

Gardenia

Lots of flowers

By Morris Dean

 
 

Thor's Day: At home

In the garden

By Morris Dean

When there are no words, I can still go into my garden and click a camera.

Flowers: The 2012 collection

"Melange of Marigolds"

By Ken Marks

Marc Chagall once said, "Art is the increasing effort to compete with the beauty of flowers—and never succeeding." Well put. To me, flowers are nature's ultimate synthesis of form, function, and color. On an evolutionary timeline, they are latecomers. They appear in succession after mosses, ferns, and conifers. In their power to attract, they stand on an evolutionary pinnacle.

Crinum Lily's second season

I was delighted to hear my wife shout out recently (July 15) to tell me that her Crinum Lily (Crinum Ellen Bosanquet) was in full bloom again.

    The flower's first blooming is shown in photos I took last July.

Dahlia delights

[Click to enlarge]

I took the photograph of my wife's Dahlia on June 7 with a Nikon D60. The original JPEG is shown to the right.
    After darkening the midtones in Photoshop's levels adjustments (an option I'm grateful to Ken Marks for suggesting in order to emphasize the flower over its surroundings), I tried some "artistic" filter effects and selected the ones that appealed to me.

Gild my day, Lilies!

Day Lilies have gladdened my days for many years, and may there be many more!

Sunlight on a blossom

...makes me happy, as John Denver more or less said¹.

Original photograph
(taken on January 29 with Nikon D60, hand-held)

Poster edges filter effect (Photoshop)

Dry brush

Cutout (a Salvador Dali effect?)

______________

1.  

Oz man: thus*

We planted two new Osmanthus bushes recently along the southeastern side of our garage, and they are delightful in their evergreen leaves and subtly fragrant blossoms.

Osmanthus

_______________
* Mnemonic device: Frank Morgan (1890-1949) was the cinematic Oz Man. He played the title role in the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz.

Gracing life

Fully visible from our back windows, gracing our domestic life, Camellias.
 

 

(colored pencil)

 

(cutout)

Water Hyacinths by light

For a little night music, on September 19, I offered an early night-time photo of my wife's Water Hyacinths. Ken responded (on Facebook), "I'd like to see a daytime picture." So, thank Ken for two photos of recent blossoms (taken on September 29, no later than 6:40 p.m. Eastern). I trust that you can spot the almost-originals—they weren't filtered, but they were brightened up just a bit and given more contrast.

What is that berry?

Taxus x media =
Taxus baccata x Taxus cuspidata

"The cone seed of our Yew looks like a burst berry," my wife told me yesterday, as she led me to it.
    "That dark spot in the middle is the seed."
    Having taken my camera out for the Yew—and with so much else happening in the yard this lovely early Fall—I visited some other plants too. I used the "A" setting with the narrowest aperture opening that would afford at least a shutter speed of 1/60 sec. (for deepest field for close-up focus). Not entirely successful this overcast day (and having forsaken tripod because of a breeze).

Holly Berries

Mahonia

Beautyberry Bush
Callicarpa japonica)

Beautyberry Bush
Callicarpa japonica Leucocarpa
("leucocarpa" means white berries)

Muhly Grass

Some kind of Orchid
(from Trader Joe's)

Osmanthus heterophyllus Goshiki
("goshiki" means five colors;
the new growth is variegated)

Let's try some Photoshop effects with those last two:

(poster edges)

(cutout)

A little night music

Water Hyacinths

When I arrived home this evening, my wife told me that many water hyacinths were blooming in our fountain. I made a note to take some evening photographs, but almost forgot, so it was quite dark when I went out with my Nikon and tripod and remote control. I had turned on some of the landscape lighting and a light inside our back porch. Below, at f6.3 and letting the camera figure out how long to keep its shutter open, is what happened (so to speak). For all of the exposures, my tripod stood in about the same spot under our north pergola.

Iris

Japanese Maple

Ask My Wife (1)

Ask My Wife (2)

Western Night Sky

Southwestern Night Sky