I was at a park recently and notices the large stands of canna lilies.From a distance they were a beautiful splash of color and I walked over to photograph them.
When I got closer I realized that there were more brown flowers that were way past their prime than there were healthy ones.
However, when I got even closer I realized there were many individual blooms that were beautiful and worth photographing.
I find it interesting how different the same scene looks depending on what I'm bringing into focus with my brain and, or my camera.
Click here to visit the home of Today's Flowers.
The photohunters theme this week is free and I felt free to do anything.
This is another one of those topics which has so many possibilities that it's difficult to know which one to choose.
Monday was a free day from work for me since July 5 was a holiday. The U.S. Independence day fell on Sunday this year so the national holiday was Monday.
I took advantage of a free morning to go on a walk at Shelley Lake. All of these shots were taken on my free July 5 holiday walk.
I managed to get out early enough so that I was fairly free from the extreme heat which came later in the day.
The lake was even free of the crowds that were out on Saturday when Bill and I took advantage of an unusually cool day to go on a walk.
I guess the regular early walkers were taking advantage of a free day to sleep in so it was great to have a relatively quiet morning at the lake on Monday. I think the crowds were so bad on the trail where we walked on Saturday because everyone was free to get a later start and still have a cool breeze.
The heat is back with a vengeance so it's not practical for me to try to walk unless I manage to get up and out early. The mallard duck and Canada Goose below can't get free of their shadows.
Photohunters post their links at the home of the hunt beginning Saturday mornings. I hope everyone is fancy free and has a great weekend.
I'm going to start with some shots of the American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) which I took during the later part of May and haven't posted yet. When our Nature Notes host wrote about the migration of the various Vanessa butterflies in the post at this link, I was pretty sure the ones in my garden are there all summer.
However, after reading her post I started paying attention and noticed that I hadn't seen any lately.
I decided to hold off on posting the last of the shots I took until I was sure they weren't still around. At this point I'm pretty sure the American Lady has moved on to cooler spot for the summer. I don't blame her because I would if I could. I live in the North Carolina Piedmont.
Another butterfly that I photographed almost a month ago that hasn't been around lately is the Silver spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus )above and below.
As I mentioned last week I've been seeing many Eastern Tiger Swallowtails in the Yellow as well as black forms but the black forms have been camera shy.
The shot above is actually a black form from last year for comparison with the yellow ones, because the only ones I'm getting any shots of so far this year are the yellow form. The shot below is a recent shot of the Yellow Form.
I don't have any idea what kind of moth the little fellow below, who I photographed recently, is but I think he's cute.
I went to Shelley Lake to check out the wildlife on Monday and there were a ton of geese and ducks and a few heron. The mallards and geese are in many different sizes and I have trouble telling from photographs which ones are adults and which are teenagers.
It's obvious when they are together because the adults are much bigger than the teens. I don't think the mallards above and below are fully grown.
I heard a mother calling to her child to come see the turtle or I would have missed the fellow in the next two shots.
I don't know what kind of turtle he is and I hope he's not a threat to the ducks and geese on the lake. I don't think his head is enough to be a snapping turtle and do the damage that the Rambling Woods turtle did as the post at this link told us about.
For more participants of nature notes, please visit the nature notes home at Rambling Woods. The official day for the theme is Thursday.
I thought I'd let my flowers represent that United States flag (at least in terms of colors) since today is our Independence Day.
I have a fair amount of flowers in bloom that fall into the theme of red, white, and or blue.
I started with a gerbera daisy, then Rose of Sharon and below is a hydrangea bush.
Below is another gerbera daisy.
Next are some small white morning glories that grow near the daisies.
Below is another one of my hydrangeas. It began as a baby I transplanted from my initial hydrangea and it's a big bush of its own now. The white puffy flowers on the right of the bush are Queen Anne's Lace.
The rose of sharon below has red and white in its blossom. I like that variety.
The hydrangea below has already put out another baby big enough to transplant but I'm not sure I'll divide it again.
The white yarrow is growing through the honeysuckle. It's kind of hard to see the feathery yarrow leaves as the honeysuckle leaves are dominating.
My crepe myrtle below is very red in certain light and more of a pink shade in the evening light.
The clouds and sky end up making the crepe myrtle photos into a flag of its own with red, white, and blue.
The queen anne's lace above is a favorite volunteer in my garden although some places I don't let it have its way or it would choke everything else out.
I can't resist throwing in some extra crepe myrtle shots as I photograph it a lot when it's in bloom.
For flowers around the world, please visit the home of Today's Flowers.
The photohunters theme this week is open. When I saw that I thought, this is a wide open theme, and I'm not joking.
The shot above is of an open door at the Duke Gardens Cafe in Durham, NC. The shot below is of an open window at the NCSU JC Raulston Arboretum Lathe house in Raleigh, NC.
The next shot was taken in the Art Park at the NC Museum of Art. The door is open on the "Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky" by Chris Drury.
The last shot was taken at the NC Botanical Garden at UNC in Chapel Hill, NC. The Ati (reproduction of an Occaneechi hut) below is always open.
For more photohunters, please visit the home of the hunt where participants post their links beginning on Saturday mornings.
