My 2019 in Review - Photos

I managed to pick 26 pictures that were my favorites of the year either because I liked the way they turned out or because of a memory they evoked. I noticed some themes after I had collected them.

All except one are outdoors (although two were taken through my office window so I was standing indoors when I took them).

Many were pictures of plants: bare trees, witch hazel, red yucca seed pod, button bush, joe pye weed, cardoon, sunflowers, beautyberry, and red buckeye (nuts).

7 were pictures of animals or evidence of animals (other than birds): whelk shells, horseshoe crab beginning to roll over, northern red-bellied cooter (turtle), tiger swallowtail butterflies, cicada, spider, gray tree frog.

6 were pictures of birds or feathers: pelican, ibis, gallinule, bald eagle (wet), red-bellied woodpecker.

There are two sunrise pictures: one from my front porch on the first day of 2019 and one from October when we were camping in southern Virginia.

More than half the pictures are from places I go that are close to where I live (i.e. not requiring an overnight trip).

Trees with Seeds

This time a year it’s easy to spot trees with seeds. Some are very colorful like the magnolias (they remind me a little or red M&Ms)

And the dogwoods.

Others are mostly brown like the golden rain trees

And maples (some trees shed their samaras in the spring…others, like these at Brookside Gardens, wait until the fall)

And red buckeyes with the buckeye nut showing where the mottled brown and green husk has cracked.

Then there are seeds that are still green…that will take more time to mature and dry…ready to be shed next spring. The tulip poplar seed pods are still closed in the fall…the seeds not yet mature. We always accumulate a lot of tulip poplar seeds in our gutters in the spring.

The sycamore seeds will get softer…the balls feeling almost ‘furry’ by the time they break apart dispersing the small seeds in the spring. Each bump on this immature seed ball will become a sycamore seed! When I show tulip poplar and sycamore seeds to preschoolers on spring field trips, they are always awestruck my how small they are compared to the trees!