Tag: photography

Photo Friday: follow me!

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You’ve been here many times before, but I had so much fun discovering what’s been happening behind the scenes that I just had to share with you dear reader.

First, thing you’ll notice is that my sunflowers are now about 12 feet tall! Walking in the garden with these behemoths towering overhead makes me feel like a child again…

But now I turn your attention to looking closer, underneath the leaves here, where you will find squash blossoms and immature fruits awaiting pollination. 

What’s that you say?

You spy bugs in the blossoms?

Not to worry.  Keep up with me now.

Here’s a surprise!  Naked Ladies bounding up from the ground where I was sure they would be never seen again!   You see there was in incident with that rototiller earlier in the season…  Yet there were survivors and…

What?

Oh, yes I saw it too, another little bug in the flower, and it’s eating the pollen you say?  Don’t worry, just follow me…

 Having never grown cotton before I was enchanted with how the flower buds reminded me of ceremonial Thai hats.

We had a couple of 2 X 4 Tarter tank water troughs hanging about, left over from brooding chicks and geese.  So we moved one into the garden and attached a lovely faucet handle (brought all the way from the house in California) into the drain hole.  Now I fill it from the well and it gently soaks the garden on days with no rain.  I think it looks lovely and it is definitely practical don’t you agree?

I thought these were stunning so I captured them for you too...

 I’ve entitled it: 

A Mother’s Adoration

So as you have noticed I have bugs.  I chose not to spray and that’s what you get when you don’t use chemicals.  Lots of bugs!  Instead I planted flowers in the midst of the garden and that, my friends, brought in more bugs.

the reinforcements!

So, allow me to introduce you to my equalizers…

The Fairy Lacewing

A Dragonfly

(He must have flown in from my last post! 😉 )

Looking closely we see evidence that parasitic wasps have taken up residence amongst the tomatoes…  I know it offends your sensibilities, and for that I am sorry, but it is a bug eat bug world out there and without the beneficials we would go wanting!

And now finally…

SPIDER ALERT!

OK, you’ve been officially warned.

(Please do click on her for a closer look, and if you can stand it, click on her again to really see her in detail.)

I found this beautiful lady!  She’s one and one half inches long (including legs)!  Do you see her suitor in the background?

For those bugs who would seek to destroy my garden by their sheer numbers, Japanese beetles and squash bugs, well there is the bucket of water for them…  I gather them up every morning and take them over to my chickens and the WeeChoo.  The chickens make short work of the Japanese beetles, and My guinea hen “WeeChoo” eats the squash/stink bugs!

Yes, my garden is full of insects.  Some of my plants have holes in the leaves and I lose a few to the bad guys now and again.  However, as time goes by the good should outweigh the bad.

In the end, I have the confidence of knowing that I can eat what I grow without fear.   It also makes me glad that I have not added anything to the environment that would do harm.

It is a great feeling.

Photo Friday: grass fire

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On our Sabbath outing I must have taken 70 to 80 photos that I was certain were going to turn out wonderful.

An unusual dragonfly that looks like a bi-plane…

Too monochromatic and dark.

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While watching flirting dragonflies flit I tried to catch them but they were all over and unphotogenic, one landed…

on the end of this stick… he’s there I promise, but my camera liked the rocks in the background better, and thus, he disappeared into the shot.

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I tried again, with the water as a backdrop.

So OK, I got him this time…

Hey!  You still awake?

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There were photos of trees, the lake and the dam too, all boring.

On the way home we were suddenly transported back in time and flying down the highway at about 65 MPH.  I set the camera to the mode called “Children” which allows photographing “active children.”  (I don’t make this up my camera really says that in the viewing window!)

I was surprised at the result…

Fun, but not a great photo.

The sun was low in the sky when we finally turned onto the road that leads to home and I saw this…

I think it is pretty, but not so clear and finely detailed as I like.  I took several more shots, but none were so wonderful as this next one…

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This is the one I loved.

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“Well I think that… if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard…” 

Quote:  Dorothy, edited,  from The Wizard of OZ

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Is it my Imagination?

Curiously, I have begun to notice that my photographs are a bit fuzzy on the main page, but that if I click on them for a closer view they suddenly get sharp and clear.   Not bragging (oh please) but the detail in the grass deserves a closer look.  It was such a lovely find!

Photo Friday: once upon a time in the west

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I have always had a thing for clouds up in the sky.  I used to love to lay in the grass and watch them morph and change, all the while imagining, bird, elephant, ice cream cone, ships.

When I taught young children in California ( ages 6 to 8 ) I tried to sneak in a bit of time for imagination, things to get their creative writing flowing…

They had never been taught about the secrets hidden in clouds, so I made it my job to teach them… even when the principal disapproved of the practice…  Then we had to do it on the sly or at recess times.  After a time, we went in to capture them on white paper.

“Teacher, this paper is white and so are the clouds!  How can we make them on white paper?”

I got out the blue chalk, “Watch.” I said.  And using the blue chalk I proceeded to outline a cloud on the white field.  Then I lay the chalk on its side and carefully filled in the sky all around my cloud, during which I heard such things as…

“ooooh!”

“Oh cool!”

“WoW!”

“I WANNA TRY IT!”

“Draw the shapes you saw in the clouds today.” I said.

And when they were done I handed them lined paper.

“Now write about what you saw!”  I encouraged.  (At these times, I never heard a complaint from even one about having to write.)

I was such a rebel.

Today I want to share with you a time in your youth when you lay on your back with friends and imagined… the clouds are still there, beckoning to you.  When was the last time you stopped a moment and just looked into the clouds?

One

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Two

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Three

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Tell me, what do you see?

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(All photos are clickable to allow a better view!)