Photohunters: Bags

The photohunters theme this week is bags. My duaghter used to use this pumpkin bucket for her trick or treating bag. After she grew up, I used the pumpkin buket to hold the bags of candy I get for the neighborhood trick or treaters.

This year I've had trouble getting motivated for Halloween. I decided that I might not even carve a pumpkin for the first year ever. However, I like to have something on my front porch so the children know to come to my door for some candy out of the bags I always get. I decided that I could put flashlights in the pumpkin bucket with stuffed animals to prop them up for a funky jack o lantern. What do you think? Is it too weird? Just weird enough?

To visit other photohunters, please go to the home of the hunt where participants post starting Saturday.

Nature Notes and Signs of the Season - Pumpkins, berries, leaves and such

I have been driving past the pumpkin patch below for the past week or so, and finally managed to get caught at a stop light at the right time to catch a shot.

This may be the first year in my life that I don't get a pumpkin and carve it for Halloween. Then again, I still have a few days so maybe I'll change my mind.

The berries above are amongst my favorite signs of fall in my garden but I keep forgetting the name of the bush/vine they are on. I say bush/vine because I have it growing against my deck wall like it's a vine but it's actually a bush.

Holly berries always make me think of Christmas although I noticed this year they were one of the earlier berries of fall to start turning red.

The crepe myrtle leaves are already dropping on the ground to form their beautiful carpet. I tend to think of the crepe myrtle as being especially beautiful when it's blooming in the summer and forget what lovely leaves it has in the fall.

My oak trees are still slowly changing colors. More green than orange and red leaves. I kind of like the way they are slow with the autumn color because it spreads out the display.

The cardinal is starting to blend in better when he's in the trees. In the summer I look up and think the male cardinal is a flower, in the fall I sometimes think he's a leaf.

For other participants of one or both of these themes, please visit the home of nature notes and signs of the season.

Update: Thanks to Stine for telling me the name of my vine with the two tone berries is bittersweet.

Today's Flowers: Almost missed the flowers for the leaves

I was photographing the autumn leaves in my back yard on Saturday and didn't even realize that my roses were trying to stage a comeback until I down loaded the photographs.

The first and last shots are the ones I took after I had looked at my downloaded shots and realized there were a few roses left. I immediately went back outside and up the hill to investigate the beds in front of my greenhouse and storage building. The roses in front of the greenhouse have gone to sleep for the winter but the storage building roses have a few new blooms.

The shot above is the one which made me realize I should walk up the hill in my back yard and check out the roses. The Virginia Creeper growing on the lines I used to use for peas was what I was shooting but in the top right I spotted the little rose bud. By the way the area where the Virginia Creeper is growing was my daughter's swing set but after she outgrew the swing set, permanent raised beds with tops for starting spring plants were built. I often refer to that part of my garden as my swing set garden.

Please visit the home of Today's Flowers to visit other participants.

Photohunters: Tied

The photohunters theme is tied. Since some of these photographs have small tied elements, you may click inside the photographs for an enlargement if you wish to.

The tarp over the garden sale center at Colonial Williamsburg is tied onto the supporting sticks with rope. Another tarp is tied on the support with rope/string in front of the Magazine and Guard Tower. Another tarp inside the fence for the Magazine/guard tower is also tied with ropes strings.
Inside the magazine are rope tension drums which have tied parts in the rope.
To view other tied up photohunters, please visit the home of the Photohunt starting Saturday.

I will be flying my peace globe on November 5, 2009 and I hope you will too.

I hope that you will consider participating in Mimi's Blog Blast for Peace this year. I will be writing my post on November 5, 2009 for this event but wanted to go ahead and add my voice to encourage others to participate in this event. Please click here to go to Mimi Writes and get your own peace globe. The globe below is the one I've personalized and I will explain more about it when I write on the blog blast for peace date.



I had this post up as a sticky post but since it was confusing people, I changed the date. The only way I have to keep a post at the top is to have the date set for a future date but after a few comments from people, I decided not to try and keep this post at the top. But please do visit Mimi Writes and get your peace globe to personalize prior to November 5, 2009.

Nature Notes - Fall Road Trip

I usually go on some type of road trip in the fall. This year we went to Williamsburg, Virgina which is an easy drive from where I live in central North Carolina.

We usually go a few weeks later in the season for our fall trip hitting it when the leaves are reaching their peak color but there were some things I liked about going earlier.

There is already a fair amount of fall color at home and on the road but although chilly we haven't had a hard freeze yet, so there are also a lot of flowers still in bloom.

As you have probably figured out by now we had some rain for our trip but it worked out fine. It was an off again on again rain and didn't interfere with our having a good time.

We took the back roads there which were more scenic and also took the ferry each way which was a fun change from the more direct highway route.

We had the most rain on Thursday afternoon when we arrived which worked out fine. We got checked in at the Colonial Williamsburg visitor center and spent our afternoon in an extensive museum. You could almost spend a few days in the museum alone.

Friday was the day we did most of our wandering around Colonial Williamsburg and other than occasional light rain, it was a pleasant cool fall day for walking.

I liked the way there was a little bit of each season. We even saw a bare tree as well as a lot of green and flowers, plus some fall foliage.

When we headed home on Saturday, there was still on again off again rain but not bad at all.

I always enjoy the congregation of seagulls at a ferry.

The closer we got to home the more the weather showed signs of clearing until a patch of blue showed through the clouds. All and all an enjoyable trip.

For other participants of nature notes or signs of the season click here.

Today's Flowers: The gardens at Colonial Williamsburg (VA, U.S.)

I thought I'd post some of the many shots I took this Thursday, and Friday in the Gardens of Colonial Williamsburg. Since I just got home Saturday night, I won't try and put together a very comprehensive post but you can click on the links sprinkled through this post, if you would like more information.

The first shot is part of some general landscaping outside of the Museums of Colonial Williamsburg which caught my eye. The shot below is in the back of the Governor's Palace. Many of the gardens mix herbs, kitchen gardens, flowers and ornamental gardens.

The side view which includes part of what I featured in the shot above, shows how the topiary and box hedges surround the herbs and kitchen garden portions. I find that very appealing.

I generally don't care for formal gardens as much as wilder ones but the mix of a kitchen garden with very formal aspects is interesting to me. The garden below is on the side of one of the smaller houses.

Another garden area which caught my eye is formal but the way salad greens are mixed in with flowers and ornamental plants works quite well. Although there were plenty of signs of fall with some trees changing colors, others not changing yet, there were a lot of salad greens, kale, and other edible plants that do well in the fall.

The colonial nursery is featured in the rest of this post with photographs I took of the garden beside the sale site.

They feature 18th century style garden plants and also have the garden tools of that era.

Beginning in March each year, they sell seeds for plants which would have been found in colonial gardens. They also have some reproduction garden tools for sale.

To find other flowers throughout the world, please visit the home of Today's Flowers.

Brief Blogging Break for a week

I'm going to take a brief break from blogging for the week.



The first two shots were taken today during my lunch break walk.



The last shot was taken Sunday and I thought the break in the clouds worked well for my break in blogging post.

Today's Flowers: Parking lot Spires

I can't think of the name of these flowers so I'll call them Parking lot Spires since I shot them at my work parking area.



I went outside for some fresh air during lunch Tuesday and in spite of a light drizzle I did manage to take a few shots.



For more flowers, please visit the home of Today's Flowers.

Photohunters: Sports

Sports are big where I live. I saw several different sports being played as I drove home from work Thursday and managed to snap the shot below of a soccer game. Since I was driving the quality isn't great but if you click to enlarge you should be able to see the young soccer players.
The shot below is one I took years ago and I think may have used before on my blog but it's a classic to me. The young baseball player being helped prepare for his sport by his parent.
Please visit the home of the hunt where participants post starting on Saturday.