Today's Flowers: Looking Back through 2009 Flowers

This post will be more like yesterday's flowers than today's flowers but I thought it would be fun to look back through some of my earlier flower shots in 2009. Above are my climbing roses which are the first to bloom and first to stop blooming each year. They grow in front of my storage building (which is painted green) and my greenhouse (which is clear).



The tulips and last of my daffodils (second shot) were blooming in April. The roses shot was taken in early May. The roses continued to bloom until June when my other rose varieties were just starting to bloom. I've posted my later roses recently so I'll continue on back through the earlier season.



The irises above are one of my favorite flowers which bloom in April, sometimes in May depending on the year. I also like the darker purple irises below which also bloom in April and May.



I have a lot of different varieties of daffodils and narcissus and this year I was glad that some of them were later blooming than others.



The daffodils and narcissus staggered their blooms from early March into April.



My early blooming daffodils and narcissus were bowed down by snow this year. I was pretty sentimental though when we had snow on the ground and daffodils blooming March 2 , because it reminded me of 1985 when I went into labor with my daughter.



When we left for the hospital there was still snow on the ground but after my daughter was born on March 2, 1985 the daffodils all bloomed just for her. I thought about that this year when we had snow and daffodils on her birthday.



Next week I'll probably return to posting what's in bloom now but since the same flowers have been blooming on and off for months now I thought a change of pace would be a nice change. Especially since I didn't join Today's Flowers until after the spring flowers were replaced with summer.

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Photohunters: Surprise

The photohunters theme this week is surprise. It was easy for me to go to one of the dates in my photo archives where I was surprised by my family, because I was surprised when I turned 50 in 2007. Bill and I went to Manhattan and I knew I would see my sister (blond on the left hand side of photo below) who lives in Manhattan. What I didn't know was my other sister (she's in the middle of the shot) and my daughter (right hand side wearing a hat) were going to surprise me by coming to Manhattan for my birthday weekend too. Very nice surprises and a fun way to turn 50.
I almost posted photographs of the surprises nature has for me on a daily basis, an unexpected butterfly, or spider web, or a new bloom on a flower I thought was done blooming. However, I think I'll leave it with my 50th birthday surprises almost two years ago. The last shot was taken that same weekend of me and my daughter.
At first I was going to leave it with the first photograph but every now and then a new reader to my blog will mention being surprised to realize that I am a woman. My name is a bit confusing on that score. So I thought I'd surprise anyone who thinks Carver is a man by including the shot above of me and my daughter taken the weekend I turned 50 in 2007, although I think I posted this shot before.

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Nature Notes: Increasing number of signs of new season ahead

Although the weather continues to be quite hot, there are new signs daily that the season is beginning to make a slow change. It's even cooler at night which is a blessing for me as any breaks in the heat are great.
Not only are the virginia creeper (above) starting to add some fall colors to the green, the dogwood trees are forming more and more berries and a few of the leaves are starting to change which is very early for here. The berries will turn red in another month or so.
I hope I succeeded in bringing the photos in with a format so you can click to enlarge. The shot below has birds in the trees but they are going to be hard to see without enlarging. The tree with the birds never did get leaves on the top branches but I know the tree is still alive because it filled out with leaves on the lower branches.
There are still plenty of buds with their promise of flowers well into October unless we have a hard freeze that knocks them out.
If it weren't for the flowers, I wouldn't mind an early hard freeze. I prefer colder weather over the heat. However, I also worry about the farmers and I know that they suffer hardships with crop losses when we have a hard freeze too early and also too late at the other end of the year.
In the North Carolina piedmont, we are usually safe from a hard freeze after mid April and then usually don't have another until sometime after mid October. Of course averages don't always hold and it can be hard for farmers if the freeze dates deviate too much which sometimes happens.
There have been so many rabbits this year that they aren't even startled by me for the most part. They don't bother my plants too much either because of my let them eat weeds attitude. I have discovered, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, that rabbits will feast on weeds if they are available and leave my other plants alone for the most part.
My big crepe myrtle in my back garden is almost finished blooming but the ones in my front garden which have some shade from the oak trees are just reaching full bloom. The one below is about a month behind my others.
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Today's Flowers: Butterflies, flowers, and seeds

The butterfly in the shot above blended in so well with the wildflowers that I almost didn't spot him.



As summer winds down, more and more flowers are going to seed. I always enjoy photographing the Queen Anne's Lace after they turn to seed (shot above).



The flowers on the butterfly bush above, are starting to fade but still add a little splash of color in my garden.



My gerbera daisies died back mid summer but a whole new bunch started blooming recently. The shot above is of one that just opened recently.

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Photohunters: Ripples

The photohunters theme this week is ripples. I thought I'd start with the Atlantic Ocean which has lots of ripples. If you click to enlarge you might notice the dog walking on the sand which also has ripples.

Shelley Lake also has a lot of ripples. When the geese and ducks are swimming they are surrounded by ripples.

The shot below shows the shadows which are formed by the ripples in the lake.

The last shot shows how the ripples can almost look like ribbons, or that's what they look like to me.
For other participants, please visit the home of the hunt where participants post on Saturday.

Nature Notes: Summer Winding Down

I used to have all my photographs in a format where you could click to enlarge them but while trying out different hosting sites, that hasn't been working. For this post, I'm back to where you can click to enlarge and that may be necessary to see the little guy below who blends so well.
Mr. Grasshopper (oops I found out he's a katydid) landed on the viewfinder of my camera. I couldn't believe it when I looked at my camera and he was sitting there looking up at me. I tried my best to get him to land on a white flower so I could get a good shot of him but he ended up on a blade of grass where he blended so well as to almost be invisible. The katydid is on the first shot.
It's still so hot and humid that it's hard to believe it will ever cool off, but there are increasing numbers of signs that fall is around the corner. The Virginia Creeper at certain spots of my yard has prematurely began changing colors. Most of it won't change for another month or two but I like these early signs of change.

The money plant has dropped most of its seeds leaving behind the white husk. The pecans get fuller and fuller and there are so many, I may beat the squirrels to some of them.
The pecan tree branches are so weighted down with nuts that they practically land on my face when I'm sitting on the deck swing.One of the colorful additions to late summer are the ameliopsis berries. This vine is very invasive, which I didn't know when I first started some on my deck wall, but I like the berries and variegated leaves.
The first I knew of how invasive this vine could be was when it figured into a plot of a mystery I was reading.I thought I'd end this week's nature notes with a recent shot of one of the many rabbits that call my garden home. Not a particularly good shot but I love how translucent his ears are.
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Today's Flowers: Drive-by Flower Shooting

Recently, I've been photographing the flowers that attract my attention in the entrances to shopping centers, condos, and anywhere else I drive by or in.



When I'm at the post office or grocery store it's easy enough to shoot the entrance flowers when I'm stopped. However, I usually notice apartment and condominium flowers when I'm driving and it's not safe to shoot them.



It finally dawned on me that there wasn't any reason when I'm not too busy to drive into the condo entrances and pull over where I can shoot the flowers.



Sometimes I find it depressing how over built my city is, sprawling well out into what used to be woods and farmland. However, at least there are still a lot of trees and flowers, as well as parks and trails. It certainly could be worse.



I find myself singing lines from Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi, such as, They took all the trees Put em in a tree museum and they charged the people a dollar and a half just to see em, among others. At least it's not quite that bad yet.



Although I am glad to be able to drive by flowers and trees and mixed plantings, it's definitely not the same as miles and miles of forests and farmland.



Oh well, what ya gonna do, they paved paradise and put up a parking lot (thanks Joni for saying it so well) . . . I guess all I can do is be greatful they planted the entrances to the parking lots with flowers.

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Photohunters: Artificial

I am going to take a circuitous journey to the artificial photohunters theme this week.



My Aunt was hosting one of the suppers for a recent family reuion, at her newly renovated house in the NC mountains.



I was at least as interested in her garden as I was in the inside, being a lover of flowers and nature in general.



When I made my way inside after admiring the garden, I was struck by the fabulous flower arrangements.



I complimented my Aunt on the beautiful sunflowers when she pointed out to me that they were artificial.

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