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Tuesday, April 06, 2010

Nature Notes: Tis the season of pollen and azaleas


I'm amazed at what a difference a week has made. We went from fairly cool wet weather to dry and hot.

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All the pollen seemed to form and drop at once. The shot above is the lid to a recycle bin and I'm guessing birds formed the pattern which I'll call pollen art. The macro shot makes it stand out and the pollen was so thick it seeped into the grain of the thick plastic lid.
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Even the iris (above) in my back yard had a fine dusting of pollen which I guess blew from the trees in the front yard.

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My azaleas are beginning to bloom. I have a lot of varieties and some bloom in April while others are about a month behind the first ones.

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I love my overgrown azaleas when they are in bloom. Some of them grow as tall as trees. Even the miniature ones spread out like crazy when left to their own devices.

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The white flowers below are from my dogwood tree which is growing into the oak tree canopy. Just a week ago the oaks didn't have any leaves and now they are all leafing out.

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The bird below almost looks like a statue to me. He was singing up a storm.

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10 comments:

Nicole said...

That's gorgeous. Spring in her fullest!
We have the same thing in Hungary when the trees all around us start to 'shed' their pollen, all is yellow :D
That bird shot is beautiful too.
I can almost hear him sing :)

eileeninmd said...

Lovely flowers, the azaleas are awesome. Spring time is a beautiful time of the year.

mommanator said...

Its thatway here too, and my sinuses can attest to that. Lovely shots!

Anonymous said...

Your pictures are beautiful. AWESOME!!!

http://graceolsson.com/blog said...

oh dearest..how the springtime is beautiful....OH, GOD IS WEONDERFUL...
CONGRATS FOR THE SHOTS...
HAVE A NICE DAY
graceolsson.com/blog

Caron said...

I'm in awe of the warm weather and the blooming going on in other parts of the country. It was 43 and raining in the upper Midwest yesterday. I don't remember SUCH a disparity, but for all my grousing this winter I have to say that this winter was brutal and brought everyone low. Spring blooming seems months away even today.

Gel said...

These are all pretty. I especially like the trees silhouetted and the macro of the dreaded pollen! This is the worst allergy season in history, my husband heard. I've had horrid allergies all my life and it's awful. Thank goodness for pretty weather like cherry blossoms, (which I'm allergic too) for distraction.

walk2write said...

I've been noticing those pollen grains in most of my close-up shots lately. I thought something was wrong with my camera or the operator:) Your trees and shrubs are beautiful! I really like that soaring shot of the dogwood and oak tree.

Unknown said...

Wonderful!!!

Rambling Woods said...

Pollen art...I love it. I think we are starting to gear up as my allergies are acting up and I take oral meds and use two nasal sprays. Yuck.. I guess it's a trade-off. I want spring, I don't want allergies so I could go live somewhere where it's there is nothing green....Thank you for posting to Nature Notes... Michelle