Intimate Landscapes – November 2015

This is the second month for my Intimate Landscapes series (after reading Eliot Porter’s Intimate Landscapes book (available online here)) featuring images from the month that are: smaller scale but not macro, multiple species, and artsy.

A dance of colorful leaves on green grass. Tulip poplar and maple leaf shapes are easily spotted.

Sturdy fronds of a fern among, mostly brown, leaves. Maple and tulip poplar leaves again…maybe some beach and oak too.

The zinnias died back at the first of the mornings in the 30s but the sunflower continues to be green…and blooming among the dried stalks of everything else.

The onion seed pods had lost most of their seeds – rattled way by the wind. The trunk of the sycamore and its huge leaves provide no shelter for the wind.

Cut Flowers Photography

The flowers from our garden look a bit battered with the wind, rain and cooler temperatures of the past few weeks – but I cut two for some experimental photography. It was a quick project on a sunny afternoon.

I like the bright yellow and the bit of green in the corner of the sunflower image. The texture of the petals appealed to me.

The flower from the back was interesting too….and I liked the overall shape of the flower, leaves and stem enough to include the shadow.

The zinnia and its shadow made an ordinary flower something different.

The leaves of the zinnia have a bit of color in their connection with the stem….and the veins stand out too.

I had the sunflower I got from the CSA during the summer that has dried to look at as well. The petals are shriveled but retain their color. The curves and hairiness of the dried back of the flower seemed even more intriguing.

Deck Garden – September 2015

The deck garden going to seed! I’ll have to collect the seeds for next year’s deck garden as the pods dry completely.  The Black Eyed Susans are all seed pods at this point. The zinnias still have some blossoms but about half have formed seed pods. I experimented with a drape from my camera lens (made of a white plastic shopping bag) to photograph this zinnia flower on a bright sunny day.

The basil is going to seed too but it is more difficult to pinpoint went the flower ends and the pod begins. I liked the color of the pod and leaves in this one.

The sunflowers have not done very well in my deck garden and it may be that they like deeper soil. They took a long time to create buds and the blooms were not large. They often look better from the back than the front.

The leaves of the purple peas have a lot of the color of the peas in their leaves along with the green.

The leaves of the sunflowers are just green but pattern of veins. Both of the leaf images were the underside of the leaves.

Zooming – September 2015

The zoomed images included in these collages reflect my travels in late August and early September…and I’ve uploaded them in a way that you can see an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

Can you find zoomed images of

• Sunflowers (hint: they are not open all the way)
• Queen Anne’s lace (hint: from underneath)
• Maple leaves (hint: already changing color)
• Jewel weed (hint: it’s yellow rather than orange)
• Thistle pod
• Morning glory
• Zinnias (hint: one red, one pink…the hummingbirds checked them out frequently as they prepared for their migration from Maryland)
• Chipmunk
• Crow (really it was a boat tail grackle but the tail does not show in the picture!)
• Onion flowers

Enjoy!

 

 

 

The zoomed images included in these collages reflect my travels in late August and early September…and I’ve uploaded them in a way that you can see an enlarged version by clicking on the image.

Can you find zoomed images of

·         Sunflowers (hint: they are not open all the way)

·         Queen Anne’s lace (hint: from underneath)

·         Maple leaves (hint: already changing color)

·         Jewel weed (hint: it’s yellow rather than orange)

·         Thistle pod

·         Morning glory

·         Zinnias (hint: one red, one pink…the hummingbirds checked them out frequently as they prepared for their migration from Maryland)

·         Chipmunk

·         Crow (really it was a boat tail grackle but the tail does not show in the picture!)

·         Onion flowers

Enjoy!

August 2015 Road Trip

Our August road trip was from Maryland up to New York (south and south west) primarily for waterfalls in New York State Parks from a base in Mt. Morris NY. I have several subsequent posts planned about the state parks. I’m focuses on the drive itself today.

Our first rest stop had Monarch friendly milkweed among their plantings….but no butterflies.

The sunflowers were in all stages of development and harbored quite a few different insects:

Bees

Wasps

And wheel bug (with a much smaller fly).

Several other rest stops along the way had similar plantings.

My husband was driving leaving me free to take pictures while we were moving down the road. The drive through the middle of Pennsylvania is through the Allegheny Mountains so there are sections of raised highway and

Steep road cuts.

The day we drove up was sunny (and hot) with fluffy clouds building.

On the way back it was somewhat cooler because it was cloudy much of the time. The high humidity made it feel hotter than it was. I manage to get a picture of the replica of the Statue of Liberty on an old bridge support in the Susquehanna River as we zipped past.

CSA Week 8

I cleared out most of the remains of past shares before I picked up the week 8 haul. Only cucumbers, leeks, onions and garlic were left!

There was another onion in the week 8 share - and a bunch of scallions. It was a second week for tomatoes and continuation of summer squash/cucumbers. Items new this week were thyme, bell pepper and potatoes (purple!). I got three small kohlrabies from the overage table.

And there was a sunflower too! I cut off the stem a bit to fit it into an old wine decanter.

A special treat this morning for breakfast….purple hash browns seasoned with rosemary and scrambled eggs! Yum!

Sunflowers at Monticello

The sunflowers had a large bed to themselves in the vegetable garden at Monticello when I was there in June. I took a huge number of pictures and am just now getting around to looking at them again. I’ve picked a series that show various stages of flower development.

The flower stalks were much taller than a person and the flowers larger than a dinner a plate. As the seeds begin to develop the petals fade and the tops of the plants must get heavier because they bend over rather than continuing to turn toward the sun.

Sunflowers are always bright spots of the day!

Deck Garden - June 2015

Mid - June - and the garden is mostly green. The only plant that is blooming so far is one of the purple pea vines. It is climbing on the peacock pot sticker that the gold finches like to perch on.

There are buds on some of the other plants. By July there should be more color.

I am enjoying the greens at the moment.

Some purple basil came up in the pot that I planted some seeds from a packet that was over 5 years old. More of the seeds were viable than I anticipated! I’ve been pulling seedlings to use in salads so that there will be a mix of green and purple basil leaves in plants that have enough room to grow.

The mint in the turtle sandbox is root bound and can’t seem to grow any more around the edge. I’ll give it a through trim at some point then churn up the sandy soil and start over. There is a very thick mat of stems entwined over the surface so I’ll start the churn with long handled pruners!

I’ve already harvested some of the red potatoes (posted about it here) but there are several more plants from those same sprouted potatoes. My plan is to harvest when any of the potatoes peek above the soil. The pots are probably not large enough to get an outstanding crop….but maybe over the course of the summer they will all yield a serving!  The lighter green leaves of the celery that sprouted in the kitchen window sill is a nice contrast to the the darker greens of other plants.

I was trying to use old seed so I probably have cucumbers in some of the pots too. There were a few seeds left from last year and the cucumbers did well as ‘spillers’ in many of the pots. Thrillers will be whatever is not green. I am anticipating zinnias and sunflowers but there could be some other flowers too from seeds in the soil from last year. July will tell! RIght now i am enjoying the delicate red in the stems of last December's poinsetta!