Today's Flowers: Confused Camellias

Some of the camellias were confused by a warm week and and a few opened up into full blooms.

Thursday night began with rain, then snow, then freezing rain.

First thing Friday morning I went outside to photograph the confused camellias.

Click for the home of Today's Flowers.  

Photohunters: Yellow Haven

  Something Yellow

Haven

I went to my photo archives for "something yellow" and "haven".

A forest can be a haven for wildlife and humans. In the fall some of the leaves in a forest are yellow.

Click for the something yellow photohunt and click for the haven photohunt. 

Nature Notes: moving into mid January

The photographs from the first part of this post were taken on a recent walk.

I had a new member of the wildlife family appear on my deck yesterday.

If he hadn't scared me so bad, I could have easily taken a picture as I was on my deck shooting the sunrise and had my camera at the ready.

My visitor was a gigantic opossum and I stamped my feet to scare him off before I had registered what he was.

 

My first impression was a rodent like creature as big as a cat was on my deck. Once I realized it was an opossum I regretted not taking his picture.

We've had a lot of misty foggy mornings and I could barely see the male and female cardinal above when I photographed them.

Sparrows are a frequent visitor to my deck, like the one above.

The female cardinal above looked like she was trying to talk to me. The little junco below was racing around on my deck.

When I shot the male cardinal below, I didn't even see the rufous-sided towhee under him until I downloaded the shot.

We're continuing to have huge weather swings from spring to winter.

Sometimes the temperatures can have has much as a 50 degree difference within 48 hours.

It is wild to need a winter coat one morning and then another day to be able to go outside in shirt sleeves.

The carolina chickadee below is a little bit blurry but they move so fast, I'm pleased to photograph them at all.

Click for the home of nature notes.        

Today's Flowers: Berries

Not flowers but these berries provide a splash of color.

I took these shots in the fall and never used them.

Click for the home of Today's Flowers. 

Photohunters: Celebrate Where You Live

Celebrate

A picture of the city where you live

I am combining the photohunters themes: Celebrate with the other photohunters theme: A picture of the city where you Live.

I decided to use some old shots I took in the city where I live when it was decorated for people who celebrate Christmas.

I picked shots from the downtown area of Raleigh, NC which show a mixture of building styles.

The wreathes and bows add a celebratory feel to the city.

Raleigh is the capital of North Carolina and you can see the dome of the old Capitol building in the shot above. The shot below has the North Carolina flag reflected in the center.

For the photohunt with the theme - A picture of the city where you live, click here; for the photohunt with the theme celebrate, click here.