Zooming - April 2014

There were so many pictures taken in the last month to look at….to crop for this month’s ‘zooming’ post. I finally chose some favorites: a degraded shell spiral, water droplets on leaves, uncurling leaves, crocus, hyacinths, violets, tulips, daffodils, hibiscus, deciduous magnolia, the profile of a sculpture. Enjoy the views!

Crocus - Harbingers of Springtime

The first bulbs that bloom in our area of Maryland are daffodils, hyacinths, snowdrops and crocus. The daffodils and hyacinths in my flower beds are up with buds just beginning to form.   I don’t have any snowdrops in my yard. So the crocuses are the harbinger this year. The bulbs were planted years ago. They have dwindled over the years; perhaps the squirrels find them occasionally or I disturb them when I am doing other things in the flower bed. I celebrated the few that came up.

I managed to catch three in various stages of blooming last week. At first I simply took pictures of them with the camera….then I started some more creative work with the 8x magnification loupe. I love the contrast of colors - blue/purple and bright yellow. The magnified images below gave me a whole new appreciation for these first flowers of spring.