flora – Page 50 – red paper boat

One Week Later

April 1, 2007November 5, 2015 Shelly

March 25

April 1

It’s amazing how much things can change in just a week. The crabapple trees have been threatening to bloom for weeks now. I first noticed their bud swellings on Valentine’s day. The grass has turned an impossible shade of bright green. The forsythia and redbuds are blooming. Lilacs won’t be far behind.

It stormed early this morning, so everything was super wet when I got up. There is a giant patch of violets at the back end of the field, but most of them were still asleep. As I was bending down to look at the flowers, I heard a large bee buzzing overhead.

Photography

The ones that disappeared are back

March 25, 2007November 1, 2015 Shelly

Spring Leaf Buds Opening on Bramble

New Leaves

Last Fall’s Milkweed Caught in Multiflora

Morning Dew on Multiflora

Sun Dappled Vines Twined Around a Branch

Fall Leaf Nestled in the Branches of a Fir Tree

Ivy

I went out this morning and took pictures while the dew was still on the leaves. I love this time of year, when everything is just starting to emerge. There is a pale, lacy green tinge around the trees. The migratory birds are starting to return–someone has been singing in the tree outside my bedroom window. The peepers are peeping. The grass has turned from winter brown to dazzling green. The sky is an impossible shade of blue. It’s warm enough to open windows and let in the fresh air. I imagine I’ll get tired of it quickly, though, because with warm weather soon turns to hot weather, and open windows let in the sound of noisy neighbors. And y’all know how much I love hot weather and noisy neighbors!

Crankypantsing, Photography

The dragonfly forever passes like splintered diamond

August 21, 2006October 26, 2015 Shelly

White-faced Meadowhawk (Sympetrum obtrusum)

One of things I’m going to miss about living in the country is the abundance of wildlife. Of course, it’s also one of the things I won’t miss. Butterflies and dragonflies and big, fat bumblebees are all very nice, but raccoons tumbling across my roof at 2am is something I could happily live without. I also won’t miss ‘possums getting into the trash. And then there is the mowing. Dear lord, the mowing. That I won’t miss one little bit.

Instant Review: The Good Life (UK) / Good Neighbors (US)

This was another Netflix find. It’s a 28 episode series produced by the BBC in the mid-70s, about a suburban couple who quit the rat race in order to live self sufficiently. Their neighbors are exasperated (who wants pigs, goats, and chickens next door?), but are generally good sports. I’m finished with the first set of discs, and so far, it’s been thoroughly delightful.

The humor is smart, and, most interestingly to me, the main characters seem to actually like each other. I guess I’ve gotten so used to shows like Raymond or King of Queens, where the characters don’t like each other (and who can blame them, since most of them are pretty awful people?), that I kept waiting for the Goods to tear into each other. They don’t, though. Even when they’re making jabs at each other, it’s not mean. It seems to be more of an “I know you and we’re sharing an inside joke” sort of humor, instead of “I know you and I’m going take advantage of it to score a point off you.” Very nice!

Instant Review: Ragweed

I cannot unrecommend it enough.

Photography

Every night I tell myself, I am the cosmos

August 16, 2006October 21, 2015 Shelly

I don’t know why I’m so fascinated by these Cosmos flowers. There’s something about the contrast of the egg-yolky centers (appropriate, as that’s where the ovaries are located) with the purple petals. This one was starting to show a bit of early evening shadowing, which helped accentuate the slight ridging along the length of the petals. You can also see a faint scattering of pollen. The bees and butterflies had already paid this blossom a visit.

Speaking of the cosmos, members of the International Astronomical Union are expected to determine that there are 12 planets. Pluto, whose planetary designation has long been challenged, will hopefully remain a planet, along with his brother, Charon. Ceres could be elevated from asteroid to planet, as well. The inclusion of the catchy 2003 UB313 (popularly known as Xena) would bring the number of planets to 12.

My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles may soon need a little tweaking.

Photography

Happy Birthday, Andy!

August 15, 2006October 21, 2015 Shelly

Bumblebee on Joe Pye

First: Happy Birthday, Andy! And, Happy Ides of August to everyone else.

It’s a shpadoinkle day in the neighborhood, with bright blue skies, puffy, little clouds, and soft, warm breezes. The humidity has gone down, too, thankfully. It was thoroughly disgusting yesterday, raining on and off all day with a heavy mist that never cleared. August in Indiana is for those who wear gills.

Of course, since it was humid yesterday, I decided to prime two boards for painting. It took forever for the primer to dry, so I didn’t get around to doing any actual painting yesterday. We’ll see if I get to it today. It’s looking good, though! I’m thinking they’ll be abstracts, because I’ve been wanting to do some sloppy, drippy work. They’re kind of large, though, and I don’t have a good space to work on big, messy projects.

I’m really hoping that, when I get around to moving, I can find a place with decent studio space. I was assuming that a small, two-bedroom house would be sufficient, but now I’m reconsidering. It may be that a one-bedroom house with an attached garage would be better. That way, I could use the garage as work space. I just don’t know. Waffle, waffle, waffle…

Photography

Busy Bee

August 12, 2006October 21, 2015 Shelly

My neighbor is getting ready to sell her house. She asked me to come over and lend some moral support while she took photos of it. She recently got a new camera, and because it’s similar to mine, I offered to share some of the tricks I’ve learned. Not that Miss I’m Not Artistic needed any help, mind you. When we were finished, we checked out the photos she’d taken, and they are lovely. Mine, alas, did not turn out so well. That’s how it goes sometimes. The pixel gods may smile upon you one day, and abandon you the next.

I did get some nice flower photos, though, and a couple of her pond. While I was wandering around the flowers, I noticed a big, fat bumblebee amidst the joe pye. He reminds me a little bit of a chenille pipe cleaner.

Crankypantsing, Photography

Pod People

July 25, 2006October 20, 2015 Shelly

Spiderwort with Bee-thing

Have you ever had one of those days when it seems like everyone around you has been abducted by aliens and replaced with pod people? And then, you realize that it must be you who is off kilter, because no matter how much you enjoy a good conspiracy theory, the Horns of Disbelief won’t quite stand up to the possibility of a mass pod people infestation.

I’m having one of those days, and about the best I can manage is a baffled “WTF?”

News & Politics, Photography

Cattail and Bumper Stickers

July 20, 2006January 8, 2016 Shelly

I’ve been driving around with a nekkid car, which has been bugging me. The MoonPie of Delight was plastered with all sorts bumper stickers (what else does one do with an Onslowmobile?). I figured it was a public service to give folks something to read while they were stuck behind me in traffic.

Last week, I pulled up at a traffic light behind another blue Tracker. It was the BoD’s twin, except it was sporting all manner of red-white-and-blue stickers of the “These Colors Don’t Run!” variety. That was the last straw. I couldn’t let the BoD’s evil twin go unchallenged, could I? So now the BoD, too, is finally sporting stickers of her own, and I feel like I’ve done my civic duty. If I didn’t live in Red Central, I probably wouldn’t feel so strongly about plastering my car with pinko lefty propaganda. I think it’s important to remind folks that there is another point of view. I sometimes get the impression that folks around here have no idea that liberals exist in the wild.

Crankypantsing, Meta, Photography

We Have Normality

July 19, 2006January 16, 2016 Shelly

The migration is finished and I think most everything is working. I had a weird problem uploading photos this morning, but I’m hoping it was just a fluke. I was able to upload a bunch of files with no problem, but the second batch had to be uploaded one at a time. Hrmf. The email kinks seem to have finally been sorted out, as well, but I’ve lost a bunch of messages somewhere, and I fear they’re permanently AWOL.

On top of all that, my hard drive decided to crash and die last weekend. I’ve been pretty good about backing up files, so it wasn’t as tragic as it could have been. It was still a headache I didn’t need, though, considering that I’ve misplaced some of the programs I use all the time. Re-downloading them on my crappy connection was not fun. The good news is that I remembered to set the new hard drive’s jumpers before installing it, installation went smoothly, and everything is working perfectly. I even seem to have magically fixed a weird, non-critical error I was getting from Photoshop.

And then, as if life weren’t exciting enough, one of my air conditioners decided to die last night. Luckily, it happened while I was home and not during the day. Otherwise, it would have gotten dangerously hot in here for an elderly cat and a brachycephalic dog. It was too late to go buy a replacement last night, so I ended up going in to work early, then leaving when the stores opened. I picked up a new AC on the way home. It was a pain in the arse to install, though, because it’s so shallow that it’s not properly weighted for drainage. All the weight is on the interior half of the unit. Hrmf.

So, while I was experiencing my imposed computer and blogging hiatus, I was busy taking lots and lots of pitchurs. These are the highlights.

Crepuscular Rays

Echinacea

Zinnia

Dew on Leaf

Daylily

Cobweb Weaver

Storm Clouds at Sunset

And, it may storm tonight. Can a plague of locusts or a scourge of boils be far behind?

Note: The egg sac in the spider photo is about the size of a pea. Just to give you an idea of how ridiculously tiny those little hatchlings are.

Pets, Photography

More Flowerblogging

June 3, 2006November 15, 2015 Shelly

Dianthus

Foxglove

These were taken at my neighbor’s house last Sunday. The top photo is raw, straight from the camera. The bottom photo needed a little bit of color balance tweaking. The background foliage was verging on an unnatural shade of chartreuse, so I toned it down a bit.

Now, to motivate myself to mow the yard. The weather has been uncooperative lately, so it’s been two weeks since I’ve mown. The grass is getting a little out of control. The problem now is that if I wait until the dew has dried sufficiently, it’ll be hot out and damned uncomfortable for physical labor. O ick. If I let it wait until late afternoon, when it’s cooled off a bit, I’ll have lost any motivation I might have summoned up. Blah.

While I’m weighing my options, maybe I’d better go snorgle the puppy. After all, it might help to remind myself on whose behalf the mowing is done. I have no interest in having a yard, after all. If it were up to me, I’d let most of it return to meadow. Harriet likes her yard, though.