I picked some favorite photos from the year for a slide show. They are all outdoors. Thematically there are birds and insects more often than lizards or turtles. Some are documentation type pictures and others are artsy. They were taken in four states: Maryland, Virginia, Missouri, and Texas. For some reason – the fluffed up Eastern Bluebird is my favorite. Enjoy the show!
Our first local stop in Maryland was our old house. We loaded up the few things we had left (which included some things we had left accidently). I took one last picture through the windows on the upper floor into the back of the house (view of the sycamore and the red maple). The room that had been my office (the picture on the right) was my favorite of the house. I realized that the room I’ve chosen in my new house is quite different…but my favorite of the new house.
The only furniture we left was the table and chairs on the covered deck. The table was just too awkward to move (didn’t fit through doors without disassembly).
We cut two daylilies (with buds) from the front flower bed and added them to a bouquet we purchased at a grocery store to put on my mother-in-law’s grave. She died in 1990 and had purchased the original daylily bulbs the year before…it seemed fitting to include the flowers in this bouquet. We’ve had annual times that we put out flowers/wreaths on her grave – her birthday and the Thanksgiving/Christmas holiday. We don’t know when we’ll be back in the area so this might have been a last time.
We took a short walk around Brookside Gardens…a place we enjoyed during all the years we lived in Maryland. It was not a thorough walk around…but enough to be a gentle goodbye to a special place.
We stayed in a hotel near the title company where the closing would occur. It had an impressive shower: a different kind of drain and well-balanced barn type glass doors and textured walls without seams.
The next morning, we were the first appointment of the day at the title company with a waiting room like a sitting room…with a carpet that needed a good vacuuming. Our part of the closing was uneventful; I was disappointed that the buyers were coming in later and we did not get to meet them.
We made a stop at my favorite grocery store for one last purchased of my favorite salad dressing. It was a bust since it was sold out, but I was still glad to be in the store on last time.
We left the area to head back toward Missouri before noon.
Continuing the sights from a stroll through Brookside Gardens last week…
The Flamingo Flamboyance exhibit near the visitor center and conservatories is looking lusher that the pictures on the garden website.
The big leaf magnolia (I think….didn’t see a sign for it) was blooming! It was the first time I had seen the flowers – probably the botanical high point of this last visit to Brookside. Most of the time the big leaf magnolias in the forest have branches so high off the ground that it is hard to see the flowers.
The weather is still cool enough for the rose bushes to be full of blooms. The pergola has been rebuilt recently so the wisteria/climbing roses are severely trimmed…full of promise in the upcoming years with the improved structure.
Overall – the walk around Brookside was full of reminders of how much I’ve enjoyed the place over the years….so glad I had a few hours to savor it one more time before we move away.
My daughter and I took a stroll through Brookside Gardens when she was here last week; we both savored it – anticipating that it would be a long time before we were back…or maybe it would be the last time. There was plenty to see…starting with the spring bulbs in the parking lot rain gardens. I noticed that the new growth in the stand of horsetails near the visitor center is a lighter green.
The new growth of ferns contrasts with the greens around it. The glossy green bushes in the background are camellias that are completely done with their blooms.
The rhododendron blooms are past their peak. There were some flowers that had been knocked off by the rains of the previous day.
The spiral walk in the 2009 anniversary garden is less distinct with the spring growth than it was in the winter.
The new sculpture made from the trunk of the sycamore that had to be cut down (uphill from the conservatory) is well done – representing some of the trees that are prevalent in our area: oaks, pines, maples.
My daughter hadn’t seen the other more recent sculpture…liked it as much as I did.
It’s easy to like flowers – big and small…lots of them to enjoy this time of year.
We didn’t go into the Tea House since there was a yoga class in progress. I settled for a cypress (with reflection) picture from the path.
Another new-to-me feature of the garden…that I photographed near the visitor center: mobile sculptures. They stand out now…will even more in the winter!
More about our visit to Brookside tomorrow….
March was a busy month with a variety of little celebrations – both at home and traveling.
Brookside Gardens. Brookside is one of my favorite places for photography….in any season. There were plenty of plants to photograph/celebrate in March 2022.
Snow that didn’t stick. The temperature can vary so much in March. I celebrated a snow that was pretty…but didn’t stick to the streets or walkways.
Successful transition to alternative laptop. My laptop died suddenly and completely…had to be sent to Dell for diagnosis and repair (under warranty). I celebrated that my husband helped me 1) make sure I had everything off the drive (i.e. we took it out of the laptop and accessed it from another computer…I got everything I’d been working on since the backup which was about a week old…and we made another backup) and 2) provided an alterative laptop for me to use until Dell could make the repair and return it. Writing this – I realize how much I appreciate my husband of almost 50 years still dropping everything to help me through a problem.
Big pictures fit in my car. I celebrated that the last of our big pictures fit in my car…got transported to Missouri…won’t have to go on the moving truck.
House hunting in Springfield. I learned a lot on my first round of house hunting in Springfield MO…celebrated that the process of moving has begun.
Getting to Carrollton…healthy parents. Both of my 90+ year old parents were healthy during my visit…something to celebrate after not seeing them since November.
Travel scale fixed. I was chagrined to discovered that my travel scale was not working….a little panicked that I would gain weight during my two weeks away from home. I celebrated when replacing the battery solved the problem!
New low weight of the year. And then shortly after my scale was working again – I achieved a new low weight for 2022…I always celebrate those days (usually with a little extra dark chocolate).
Antibiotics. I’ll write about my adventure of getting sick while I was away from home in a few days…will just say now that I celebrated when antibiotics worked very quickly.
Home again. I am home again as I write this…and celebrating as usual after a road trip. I’ll write more about how I got home and the backlog of activities in the upcoming week.
When I use my bridge camera, pictures are composed using the zoom on the camera. I chose 9 to feature in this post; they’ve already appeared in other posts with others from the same location, but I like to pull my favorites together as a way of summarizing the locations I enjoyed in March: home, Brookside Gardens, a yard in Carrollton TX and Josey Ranch Lake (Carrollton)…seasonal representatives of the usual types of subjects: plants, insects, birds.
There are a range of unique aspects that I recorded in March:
It was the first time there were amorous cattle in a field that I drove by on my way from Springfield to Carrollton. I guess it is another sign of spring!
Seeing the spherical sculpture glow from within from reflected light at Brookside Gardens was something I had not anticipated….will now always look for again.
Seeing a bird on an empty suet feeder…then clearly seeing the under bright yellow feathers of a flicker as it flew away.
Starting to get our house ready to sell…touching up interior paint.
Being able to photograph the arch in St Louis from the bridge over the Mississippi when I was driving – it is one of the few times that I appreciated a construction delay that snarled traffic.
Total failure of my laptop. This is one that I hope never occurs again! It was under warranty so is being fixed by Dell.
Very cold drive through WV with snow all over…except on the roads.
Continuing the Brookside Gardens macro images…..
The dried flower clusters of the wood hydrangea from last season look fragile but they have endured all winter and many are still on the stalks. A few leaves have survided as well. The leaf I photographed with the macro lens still had some green…was probably still producing food for the plant! Most of the leaves from last season are long gone though.
The witch hazels are one of my favorite winter and spring trees. They bloom very early….and have unusual flowers – streamer petals.
The suction cups of a vine growing on the wall of the visitor center have held it firm all winter! They look so fragile…but are evidently quite durable.
I hadn’t noticed the Deodar cedar in the Brookside 1969-2009 Commemorative Garden before – I only know its name from the sign at its base. The needles and cones were a bit different than the evergreens I see more frequently. Taking a walk with my camera frequently causes me to notice something a little different!
As I walked back to my car – I saw some more familiar pines…took some macro images of the pinecones and a small branch with needles on the ground. I’m always seeking new insight into common items through the macro lens! The fibers in the breaks of the pinecones surprised me.
The pines have a lot of lichen on their trunks and branches…and some of it sluffs off. I thought the pieces in the grass with the dried pine needles made good color and texture compositions.
Brookside Gardens was beginning to emerge from winter when I went last week. I already posted the non-macro pictures from my visit. Today and tomorrow, I’ll share the macro images I collected with my phone, clip-on lens, and Bluetooth clicker.
The crocuses were up and worth bending over for a macro view.
The yew hedge was mostly green but there were a few dead branches that made for some contrast.
The bark on the large crepe myrtles in the Rose Garden was full of splits…and held moss too.
There was a cherry tree beginning to bloom in the Fragrance Garden. The flowers were pink and white…the buds very pink.
The snow drops and miniature iris were on a bank which made them easier to photograph – I didn’t have to bend down as much because the soil was sloped!
Compare the inside of the flowers: Lenten rose and (red) camellias.
The ferns damaged by frosts were interesting at both magnifications I tried.
Last but not least for today – a ginkgo leaf that had folded up as it dried over the winter….a little abstract art of nature.
Tomorrow…the rest of the macro pictures from my walk at Brookside.
The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.
Why soil is a surprisingly noisy place – Wow! A whole new way of studying soil…listening to it.
Gas flares tied to premature deaths – A study done by Rice University environmental engineers with data from North Dakota and Texas. There are currently no limits to flaring, unfortunately. Why can’t we use the gas productively? It bothers me when we hear that we need more fossil fuels to observe the way the industry still is so wasteful and polluting.
Dying for makeup: Lead cosmetics poisoned 18th century European socialites in search of whiter skin – I had heard of lead makeup before…but never is this detail.
Top 25 birds of the week: forest birds – The only one of these that appears in the forest behind our house in Maryland is the Tufted Titmouse.
Study questions the role of vitamin D2 in human health but its sibling, vitamin D3, could be important for fighting infections – The labelling on foods fortified with Vitamin D does not say which type is used – hopefully it is D3. The supplemental Vitamin D I take is definitely D3.
The Prairie Ecologist – Photos of the Week – February 26, 2022 – Winter photography….it’s about over for us. Daffodils are up!
What is the best age to learn to read? – There is more variability that I realized…generally between 4 and 7. There is growing consensus that there is no reason to rush it. Learning language is key and often older children learn to read faster because their spoken language skills are greater.
Effects of noise on marine life – The study was focused on turtles and observed noise-induced hearing loss (sometimes temporarily) which hampers their ability to detect predators, communication, navigation, etc.
Rash-causing moths are spreading in Maine because of climate change – Browntail moths (native to Europe). I thought when I saw the headline that it might be about the saddleback caterpillar which is native to North America and has stinging spines that cause a painful rash. We had a specimen in the Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy exhibit back in July/August 2018.
Study of algae in Acadia National Park lakes shows recovery from acidification – A success story…the Clean Air Act Amendments enacted in the 1900s are making a difference!
I walked around Brookside Gardens on a stereotypical March day – breezy and in the mid60s. Last time I had been there (back in January), we had parked near the visitor center; I opted to park by the conservatories this time. The first thing I looked for was skunk cabbage under the bald cypress in the area between the gardens and nature center. I saw green leaves…only one group of spathes and they were in the water!
There were groups of spring flowers beginning to bloom: miniature iris, snow drops, crocus, and marsh marigolds. The daffodils were still in bud stage.
The new sculpture I noticed in January was even more appealing this time: the day was sunny and the reflective inner coating made in glow for within. In January it was a very cloudy day, so the effect was not visible.
I was surprised that there were two large trees that looked like hollies but their berries had not been eaten by birds. Are they a hybrid that is just for show….not providing food for birds after a few freeze/thaw cycles?
The non-native witch hazels (and hybrids) are at the height of their blooming now. There are yellow and orange and red…clouds of color in the ‘forest.’ Witch hazel has become one of my favorite trees. I’ll probably plant one or two at my next house!
There were dried wood hydrangea flowers that got into the stream! Some were being carried along by the water. I was surprised that they were still so intact.
Camellias bloom this time of year. There was a sign reminding people to stay on the paths rather than stepping into the mulch around the plants!
As I made my way back to toward my car, I walked to the Brookside 1969-2009 commemorative garden near the entrance gate to the conservatory parking lot. I noticed a new (to me) spiral path to a bench and
Plants growing under the bald cypress.
Stay tuned for 2 posts featuring macro pictures I took with the clip-on lens + my cell phone coming next week. Here are a few broader views taken with the bridge camera that I enjoyed looking at and photographing with the macro lens later: cherry blossoms, vine on wall, golden deodar cedar pollen cones, and Lenten roses.
Continuing the images from my walk around Brookside Gardens….
Even cold damaged flowers are good subjects for macro images…particularly with small water droplets on them. The amount of magnification makes quite a difference!
Juniper adds green and blue color to the scene this time of year.
I am always attracted to the horsetails near the visitor center…in a thick stand. These primitive plants have always fascinated me because they are a plant I learned about in a biology text book (way back in the early 1970s) then recognized in the wild on a day trip to Platt National Park.
And then there are the best of the rest. Do you recognize the gingko bud, a yellow holly berry, a rhododendron bud?
Overall – every time I go to Brookside there is something new to notice. My observational and photographic skills get a workout!
Kase Smartphone Macro Lens clipped to my phone and a Bluetooth remote shutter. Speed was not essential because it was too cold for insects, but I got a lot more images that he did!
While he was getting his equipment together, I looked at water droplets on nearby trees reflecting the forest.
The wood hydrangea had lots of surfaces of interest: dried flowers, leave scars, and buds for next season. Someday I want a wood hydrangea in my yard!
There was a vine growing on the wall of the visitor center with tiny tendrils ending in ‘suction cup’ like structures keeping the larger stem attached to the vertical surface.
Another stem with leaf scars and noticeable lenticles….and some bristles. I’m not sure what plant it was.
Finally – there were the camellias that are blooming this time of year: flowers and buds…lots of water droplets.
More Macro from Brookside tomorrow….
The usual birds and plants in the collection for December – plus some from the light display at Brookside Gardens. My camera’s zoom feature is one I use almost all the time to control what I want in the image….usually opting to make the subject fill most of the frame. Sometimes I want even more magnification and am forced to be content with the max my camera can do. All of the images this month were handheld except for the bald eagle; my camera was on a monopod for that one. Enjoy the show!
It’s a season full of celebrations. In my family we have celebrations associated with a birthday, an anniversary, Christmas…and then ones associated with the beginning of winter. Here’s my top 10 for the month:
A winter day at home. Being at home enjoying the forest through the window….still one of my favorite places to be…even in winter. I like I particularly in the morning when the sun first hits the treetops with golden light.
Flannel sheets. The week we change from percale to flannel sheets has a lot in common with decorating for the holidays….it is a celebration of the season…full of warmth and snuggles. It’s such a treat to get into a bed made with flannel sheets prewarmed by a heated mattress pad!
Brookside Gardens lights. Our walk around the lights at Brookside Gardens was even more celebratory this year since we didn’t do our traditional visit to the garden lights in 2020!
Pumpkin roll. Our grocery bakery has this treat seasonally. My daughter is the one that introduced me to them several years ago so the celebration is a special food of the season that prompts me to savor the positive impact she has always had on my life.
My birthday…my parents’ wedding anniversary. Celebration abounds in December for my family…every year.
Coursera course – Anatomy of the upper and lower extremities. What a great way to fill up the lulls this month. It’s challenging enough to require my full attention! Celebrating the course…grateful to the Yale faculty for producing it…Coursera for hosting it.
Druid Hill Park for birding. Celebrating the walk around the park as we did it…and in hindsight that it was before the Omicron variant was spiking in our area.
My mother’s experience coming home from the hospital. I am celebrating that she is getting focused therapy that is showing positive results….more than any previous hospitalizations.
Telephone conversations. Celebrating all the alternative communications we have…since I didn’t travel in December. Even though we do texts and emails and zoom…somehow the telephone seems to be the one where the deeper communication is occurring (maybe because it is synchronous, one on one and not as ‘quick’).
Quiche. When I make quiche…I simple use what I have on hand – so I am celebrating that one I made recently turned out great!
It was a challenge to pick one picture from each month of 2021 to feature in this post….but a worthwhile exercise. I did not use consistent criteria for my choices, so these images are special for a variety of reasons.
January for witnessing interesting bird behavior – A bluebird on our deck railing looking up at our bird feeder full of other members of the flock…waiting a turn!
February for learning to make high key images – A high key image of a lily….the flower purchased at the grocery store. I had just watched a video about high key photography and was thrilled to have some easy successes.
March for beauty old and new – The crocus were out at Brookside Gardens but I found the remnants of last seasons flowers more interesting.
April for a bird trusting that I wasn’t a threat– A bird looking rather assertive. I had paused its search for food in the leaves to make sure I wasn’t a threat; evidently I wasn’t because it went back to its search a few seconds later.
May for memorializing a bird – A juvenile little blue heron in the cattail leaves at Josey Ranch in Carrollton TX. It had a broken wing so I think of this image as a monument to its short life.
June for something that only happens every 17 years – The periodic cicadas seemed to be thick everywhere – even our yard. This one was under our red maple.
July for interconnection in nature– Back in Texas…am insect on a cosmos flower on a cool morning.
August for the fragile beauty of a new butterfly – A monarch butterfly seconds after it emerged from its chrysalis is our front flower bed.
September for capturing a small thing, seeing it better than I could with my eyes – Some birds nest fungus in the mulch at Howard County Conservancy. I was thrilled that I had my gear (phone, clip on macro, clicker) even though I hadn’t planned to do any macro photography!
October for being in a river – More macro photography – this time the wing of an insect on a rock just above the water line….photographed on a volunteer gig before the students arrive.
November for the colors of the flower – Another view of a cosmos flower. I like it when the light is such that a black background is possible.
December the new orb sculpture at Brookside – A surprise (for me) at Brookside – I hadn’t seen this sculpture before…and I also enjoyed the holiday lights (missed them last year).
Brookside Gardens ‘Garden of Lights’ is a Christmas tradition that we restarted this year after a year away because of the pandemic; now that we are fully vaccinated and boosted, we are venturing out -- slowly. Tickets are required this year to control the crowd size and there is no model train exhibit in the conservatory. Our time slot was immediately after dark which worked well for us. It was in the mid-30s when we got there; we bundled up and headed into the gardens; I wore my mask even though we were outdoors the whole time since it was in the mid-30s and the mask keeps my nose warm!
The sky was slightly overcast. I noticed the crescent moon several times…never sharp because of the clouds but always there.
The caterpillar is looking good. We entered through the mouth and came back from the other end after we’d made the loop around the lights.
The rainbow was static this year….no ‘lightning’ flashes from the cloud. I took pictures of it from several perspectives. The night scene mode on my Canon bridge camera (Powershot SX70 HS) which takes several images then stacks them into one did reasonably well with all the displays.
In some cases, it provided a very intense ‘plant’ image. This bush had blue lights which appear as brilliant ‘flowers’…the green is the bush’s natural leaves!
The dragon with baby was in its usual garden room…no smoke or sound effects as it has had in some previous years.
There was a new orb sculpture in one of the rose garden fountains – perhaps part of the renovation. It will be interesting to see how it looks in the warmer months of the year with water.
Giant dragonflies were high in the trees.
There were also the usual animals: giraffe, dolphins, snail, and lion….among others.
The whole landscape of the gardens was full of lights…all with a garden theme. The spider web was very well done this year.
During our walk, the happy noise of children responding to the lights surrounded us. They were bundled up in snow suits or riding in strollers wrapped in blankets. There was one young child carried facing outward by its mother that made an awesome happy sound and waved his arms…everyone around laughed with him and his parents.
This year might have been the all-time best experience I’ve ever had at Brookside’s Garden of Lights.
Celebrating the waning of summer…the beginning of fall –
Brookside Gardens field trip. Spending a few hours at Brookside always results in at least one mini-celebrations. This month there were three: hummingbirds – bees – and roses.
New low weight for the year. With a whole month at home, I managed to control my diet….and achieved a low weight for the year --- 3 times (lower each time). I’m celebrating the achievement and working to continue the trend!
Easy flu shot. I celebrated how easy getting the flu shot was…no waiting, the pharmacy already having all my information. And now I’m as protected as I can be for my next road trip.
Macro photography. Celebrating images capture with my phone, a clip on lens and a clicker!
Melons. The season for melons was winding down but we celebrated 2 tasty cantaloupes from the Farmers Market in September.
Early morning in the grocery store. I enjoy grocery shopping….and celebrate that I have the store almost to myself…a low risk return to ‘normal.’
Volunteering. Returning to volunteer gigs – doing outdoor programs with students.. it’s another celebration of going back to a pre-pandemic ‘normal’ that isn’t quite the same but just as satisfying.
Beautiful weather. Sunny days…cooler…a little breeze – this is the time of year that it gets easier to celebrate a day outdoors.
Ferns under the deck. I celebrated that there were more of them than I expected this year!
French fries. I have been dieting so carefully….it was a celebration to have French fries (and cut back enough on other foods that day to not make it a “weight gain” day)!
Of course – the plants are always a big draw for a visit to Brookside Gardens – never an exception to that. I did a landscape shot of the garden area the hummingbirds come.
There was a plant in that garden with various stages of flowers that captured my attention while I waited from the hummingbird.
I never was able to find the hummingbirds perched in the magnolia even after I saw them fly into the tree…but the tree’s developing seedpods were good subjects too.
There was hibiscus blooming in a big pot to the side of our position.
Turning around – I tried to capture the colors in the castor plants – leaves and seeds.
It was beginning to get a little hot, so we walked toward some shade. I was glad I had my water bottole in the back pocket of my photovest. I can easily shorten the monopod for carrying or keep it extended to use as a walking stick. As we walked toward the rose garden – I took a zoomed picture of a datura flower. I liked the white color…gentle curves.
Maybe I was a little fixated on white since I photographed white roses as soon as we got to the rose garden.
I opted to sit on a bench in the shade under the wisteria arbor and took the rest of the photos of the morning for there! The zoom capability of my camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) is one of my favorite tools. I love to experiment. As I zoom beyond the optical zoom, the images tend to get a softer focus (for example, the very magnified underside of a rose below….which is my favorite flower picture of the morning).
And that was (another) enjoyable field trip/photography session to Brookside Gardens!
While I was watching for hummingbirds at Brookside Gardens, there was ample time to photograph the antics of bumblebees in the same flowerbed. They were all over the blue/purple plants.
Further back – there was a bush that was attractive to tiger swallowtails. I haven’t seen as many of them as I usually do this year, so I was pleased to photograph a female (with blue on the lower part of the wing) and a male with battered wings.
I also photographed two skippers – one in the same area as the bees and butterflies, the other in the rose garden. They look like they are the same species male and female (looking at the difference in the end of abdomen).
All the insect pictures are using the zoom on the camera (Canon Powershot SX70 HS) rather than trying to use a macro lens. The insects are too far into the beds to get close enough for macro work…and I like having more depth of field and blurring of the background. The second image of the skipper (on the rose bud and new leaves) is my favorite insect image of the morning!)
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
Celebrating the whole of life....
Thanks for visiting my blog! Enjoy the photo picks from 2023:
Copyright © 2024, Gwen Morrison. All rights reserved.
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