Dragonfly

One morning in the summer, I discovered this lovely red dragonfly on my clematis.  It stayed there long enough to take several shots.

Flowers growing in my garden:  a variety of Helenium autunale

Big Blue Heron

I love daisys  and lupines... tried to get a shot of a busy bee in one picture.

Thoughts about the blog

Over Christmas I thought I could start up my blog again and did but I find there are too many things on my plate to continue on a consistent basis.  I will return every now and then to post more pictures.

Also I am trying to decide on a different place to post the more of the France pictures and providing a link.  I didn't want to make the France post too cumbersom.

 I am thinking also that perhaps my flower pictures are a little redundant.. I do like Georgia O'keeffe's work, esp her work RE flowers and have attempted to get closeups but realize I am not getting in close enough.  a work in progress as they say.

My brother says that sometimes he feels like he is brilliant or has done something brilliantly and sometimes he feels like he's not.. cannot remember his entire quote.  I'd have to say, I feel the same way.. sometimes things just click and I'm on top of the world and other times I feel like the expression lower than a snakes belly.

 I'm still trying to decide on a camera.. toget a good DSLR .... with good macro lens, telephoto or get a  camera that does it all like the latest lumenex cameras..  Expensive choices.. still thinking.  I need to go down to a good camera store.. and get the feel of these cameras in my hand.. someone told me Hunts in Manchester was a good place.

May Flowers in 2012

April Showers bring May flowers

    I like to garden.. love the large showy sun loving blossom of the blue clematis below.  I also like the cool, white flowers that I planted in my back shade garden. 
The lady slipper I saw while taking a walk.
The honeysuckle vine has variations of pink as it matures.  Below the ants crawling on the peony bud help spread the bud into a flower.  The bleeding heart adds soft pink color to my shade garden out back.  And finally the icelandic poppy gave me a long time of various colors of poppy flowers in the front.. I hope the seeds from this plant, come up again next year.  Time will tell.
I have mostly perennial flowers and like to intersperse annuals and biennial plants.  I always look forward to spring to see which flowers made it through the winter.

                                                                Clematis





Lady Slipper

honey suckle

 

Peony

Bleeding Heart

 

Iceland Poppy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm back

Happy New Year All..  

I have started taking pictures again which I will start posting as well as posting some pictures duirng the past months that I have missed.

I got sidetracked with other things and the longer I didn't post on this blog, the harder it was to get restarted.. My perfectionism in full bloom.  (I went through a period of feeling that my pictures were not good enough..not good enough for whom?  Well I've since realized that I need to take pictures for myself  and not for what someone else will think.. these pictures are not perfect but are good enough for me.)   I have missed taking pictures and trying to improve my photography skills and realized that I need to do this.. not good to completely set aside something that is a creative outlet for me.  

So where shall I start.. I think I will go back to my trip to France last spring.  Here we go..

France in April of 2012:

I had the wonderful opportunity to travel and stay in a rented house with friends in a rural town in France.. Meusnes.  It was a wonderful experience.  We took various road trips to other areas in France.  I will try to document some of this trip in the pictures below: 

This picture was taken while riding on the train from the Charles de Gaulle airport in the northeast of Paris.. looking out on fields of Kolza.. these yellow flowers popped on this cloudy day.  Cooking oil is made from Kolza, we know it as cannola oil..

Field of yellow flowering Kolza from inside the train

 

Here we are driving through A Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher

Taken from inside the car while riding through a quaint French town.

We stopped, got out and walked around.. a Sunday, the streets were quiet..I was so surprised at how narrow the streets were.    In the picture on the right, I enjoyed seeing the soft lavender, flowering wisteria vines surrounding the entrance to the doorway - blue and white.. the lace curtains up above.. making the most of small spaces.

I love the architecture of these French towns.  It feels old and interesting.

Finally we come to the house we rented in the quaint small town of  Meusnes;

Gate and driveway to the rented house we stayed in.



Below is the back of the house we rented in Meusnes..

Back of the rented house where we stayed.

 

Back to A Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher for brunch of crepes the following day at Au Bigouden.

The paintings on the windows were colorful and expressive.

 

A French Creperie

 

Please come back later on for more Pictures from France.