Photohunters: Electric

In May of this year, the NCSU Bell Tower was struck by lightning during an electrical storm. The article at this link describes how a 1,500 pound chunk of granite was knocked down by the lightning and they had to rush to get it fixed prior to graduation this spring.



It's hard to get a good shot of the full Bell Tower while riding in a car, because of all the electrical wires. I've actually been thinking for some time about how next time I'm at the street across from the campus I would photograph the Bell Tower. As it turned out Bill and I drove by there on the way to Lake Johnson last weekend but the electric wires got in the way since I was shooting from the car.



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Nature Notes: Quack, quack, quack . . .

Bill and I went to Lake Johnson which is across town from me. It's fun seeing the differences as well as similarities in the water birds that are found at lakes beyond those close by my house.



I got a kick out of how different their neck range is, as shown in the shot above. Everyone is stretching out but some have much longer necks to stretch with.



Back home, the big news are the dogwood trees. They are about a month ahead of where they were this time last year.



When I was at the NC Botanical garden, there were some signs of fall. Mostly seed heads, berries and a few trees with early signs of change. However, the Paul Green Cabin which is nestled in the woodsy part of the garden, still looks like it's in a summertime forest.



When I was at my office in Durham, because I've had to work on site instead of at home like I normally do, I noticed the crepe myrtles are still in bloom there. At home mine are mostly done blooming. I took the shot below out of a window at work. I guess the bottom line, in terms of what's happening in the natural world where I live, is that there is a little bit of several seasons on show.



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Today's Flowers: Medical Planters and NC Botanical Garden

The first two shots are of flowers in the planters at the UNC Cancer Hospital which explains the medical planters being in my title.



The rest of the shots were taken on the same day (this Thursday) at the NC Botanical garden.



I did a very fast walk through while eating lunch at the botanical garden which is across the highway in Chapel Hill, NC from the road which takes me to my doctor's appointments at UNC.



As I've mentioned before on my blog, whenever possible I try to mix fun photo shoots with doctor's appointments to take the edge off.



The shot of the American Beautyberry bush below which focuses on the berries isn't flowers. But I think the berries are as pretty as flowers.



I'm not sure what the bud cluster below is. I suppose since it was growing through the Beautyberry bush it might go with that. Hard to tell since I took a macro shot making it look bigger. However, since that bush has tiny flower clusters, I'd be surprised if the buds look like this. Maybe someone knows.



This has only been a fraction of what's blooming at the NC Botanical garden but I think I'll leave it with one last shot.



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Photohunters: Orange

The photohunter theme this week is orange. Above is a shot I took this week at the NC Botanical Garden. The garden guy has an orange rim for a head. The shot below is a sunset this week, shot from my bedroom window of the partly orange sky.
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Nature Notes: Busy, busy, busy birds

This time of year the bees start to diminish in numbers but the birds get busier.
The burst of bird activity which begins here at the end of summer and into the fall is similar to the spring surge of effort.
It's not as easy to photograph the birds this time of year as it is in the spring because the leaves in the trees are giving them so many more places to hide.The easiest time to photograph my birds at home is in the fall after the leaves have dropped and in the spring before the trees leaf out.
The little bird below was moving while I was snapping the picture but I kind of like the effect where its wing looks like a full pleated skirt.
You can click inside any of these shots for an enlargement although the quality isn't great when they are too big.
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