Flowers for Friday – Spring around the house
Last weekend, if you will recall, I mentioned that it was cloudy and rainy on both Saturday and Sunday.
This was, of course, the only time that ‘our’ camera was at home with me these past two weeks. Yes, once again, I was without a camera all week.
You can imagine my frustration at Sunday lunch when HB said to me “You know, I’m taking the camera with me again this week.”
And I replied with something along the lines of
“Dam* it! Have you LOOKED at the TREE out back lately?! It is ready to BURST into bloom. We’re supposed to have NICE weather, FINALLY, on Wednesday or so. Then it is going to BLOOM and I won’t get to take ANY PICtures of it!
AND the Waldstenia out front looks GORGEOUS right now!
You DO realize that this is our LAST spring in this house, RIGHT? How am I going to get PICTURES of the perennials before we MOVE?!”
(yes, I really do speak with that kind of emphasis when I’m riled up)
HB says soothingly, “It’ll be okay… I’m sure it will still look nice next weekend.”
To which I say “NO. Cause by then the flowers will be fading already.” “Dam* it! I just need a little bit of sun today. What time do you leave”
HB “um, at 3:00″
*glancing at clock and seeing that it is 1:30*
HB “how about we pray for some sun, really fast?”
—
Yeah, so the sun didn’t really come out. It was doing that “Oh, here I come, out from behind the cloud. oops! changed my mind! ha ha ha!”
But the rain stopped long enough for me to run out and take some pics, and I didn’t get ALL that dirty crouching and laying on the ground to get these shots…
… just a little bit.
Waldstenia ternata (Barren strawberry)
This would be the aforementioned ‘gorgeous’ Waldstenia.
Yes, that is a gnat crawling around on the one in the center.
Especially when I’m coming home, the flowers are all angled toward me as I walk up the path, and really look amazing. (no, they aren’t turned to greet me, although the fanciful side of me likes to think of it that way, that would be the direction where they get the most sun during the day)
As you can see in this photo, they really are very small little flowers. But something about them really appeals to me. Maybe it is because they look so bright against the green background. Or maybe it IS because they face me when I walk up the sidewalk.
The funny thing about the Waldstenia is that it is probably THE hardiest perennial we own. It can have snow dumped on top of it for 3 months, and when the snow melts, it is the only ‘evergreen’ perennial that really does stay nice and green. The rest of them kind of turn to mush green.
Mush green, yeah, not so appealing, eh?
These epimediums were supposed to be the big filler of our mostly shady perennial garden.
We bought them not for the flowers, but for the leaves. Of course, the flowers are a nice bonus.
Epimedium x versicolor ‘sulphureum’ (yellow epimedium)
The thing is, they really haven’t spread all that much like I’d hoped. So much for the idea of epimediums as filler. Ah well, at least they look pretty.
Most of our hostas are past the early shoot stage, but this one is lagging behind a bit.
This is the first year I noticed that when the shoots are only an inch or two tall that they are actually purple. I noticed that on almost all of our hostas. I know they will eventually bloom purple flowers, but I don’t remember ever noticing that the shoots themselves were purple.
And in the back of the house, behind the porch, we have the tree that was causing me such angst, and that did indeed bloom this week.
I decided I like having some pics of it in this pre-blooming stage too. Something about the shape of the buds and the way the budding flowers stick out.
HB comes home tonight, and he promised me that he made GOOD USE of the camera while he was gone. Of course, it wasn’t like I had all that many chances for photography this week. But there were a couple moments when I would’ve pulled over (on my drive home) and taken some pics.
It is interesting that I find myself looking at the world a bit differently now that I am in a sort of photography-mode.
I know Sheryl (La Pixiatrix) has written about this some… but I hadn’t noticed it in myself until just this week.
And this week also hammered home the point that I’m really itching to have a camera where I can control the aperture, exposure time, and focal length (among other things).
Not too much longer…
Colleen from NJ says:
Gorgeous! Just beautiful. Those flowers tilting at you? They are saying, “Dani, look at me, take my picture next!” They are in photography mode, too.
missed your blog, girl.
oh, ps, memoirs of a geisha: finished. a bit bummed at the storybook ending, but loved the book otherwise. what did you think?
LadyBug says:
Lovely pics, Danielle.
And it’s totally okay to believe those flowers are greeting you as you walk up the path. It’s like when people try to tell new parents that their newborn’s little smiles are “just gas.” I say, “You deserve those little smiles. Just enjoy them.” Same with the flowers…
Umm…I’m not comparing your flowers to baby gas here. No. The flowers are the newborn SMILES!
Aw, heck. Forget it. Just enjoy your fabulous flowers, girl. You worked hard for them. They SHOULD smile at you…I mean GREET you…upon your return home.
Have a great weekend.
Amber says:
I love the lovely flowers. Even with a dark background. That is how all my pictures look this week. Rain is expected for today and Saturday. So much for that sunny weekend, huh?
Closet Metro says:
gorgeous pics!
I’ve been looking at the world differently, in Photograper mode, too, much due to the influence of Sheryl’s eye.
Squirl says:
I, too, enjoyed your flower pictures. I noticed that most of the flowers you photographed were yellow. Yellow is my favorite color, followed closely by green. You can understand why I love the trout lillies so.
La Pix says:
Love the yellow flowers. So reflective of light and warmth.
I am trembling with excitement for you getting your own camera. What kind will you get? I would love an slr though I know for myself it would not be as convenient as the Canon PowerShot S70 that I use. Many people who have the kind of cam I have don’t know that you can change aperture, exposure and focal settings… What kind of cam do you use now? You get damn good results with what you have (not that you shouldn’t get a new toy/tool with which to play/see)
Oh, and before I forget: !Hostas!
We’re on the same wavelength again. Spring has sprung itself into our senses.
Danielle says:
Colleen, it has been so long since I’ve read Memoirs of a Geisha that I only have vague impressions of it. I remember being fascinated with this view into a world that is so different from the one that I’ve known. But being unhappy with something about it. Maybe it was the ending… but I’m really not sure.
Squirl, you know at first I was going to say “oh, the yellow ones are the only ones blooming right now”. But you know, part of it is that I _bought_ plants that were supposed to bloom yellow flowers. I really like flowers in strong colors – bright reds, orange, yellow to have a bright contrast against the green leaves. But I’m also really drawn to blue and purple flowers, of course. So, it is a bit of a balance.
La Pix, the camera choice is still up in the air. I’m not sure how extravagant (read “how much money”) we are going to get with the camera or not… I’d like to go ‘all the way’ and get a really, really nice camera… but we’ll see. My graduation will be around the same time that we are selling/buying our house… so it is hard to know how the expense situation will play out. Gotta start saving those pennies now! (HA)
Right now, I use a Sony Cybershot model DSC-P71. It is autofocus/autolight, but you can try to change the light settings from sunny to cloudy to rainy, etc. It ends up changing the color balance more than the exposure, which is a bit frustrating. It also has some focal length settings and a ‘flower focus’ setting which I use a LOT, as you can tell. *grin* I’ve learned to trick the focus and light settings somewhat and of course, I take a lot of ‘bad’ pictures that I don’t post.
John Boy says:
Nice yard. So what did HB take photos of?
I also enjoyed the last post on reading
Danielle says:
John Boy, thanks for stopping by! And thanks for the create your own South Park character link. I’ve got some plans in the works for using it in what I hope will be an interesting and creative way.
He took pics of his trip to DC, specifically, a monument that I haven’t gotten to see in person. I was glad to have the opportunity to see it from his perspective with the assistance of the camera.