Beech nut

Empty Beech nut hull

deck

I don't know what it is about weathered wood the just gets to me, but it does. The color and the texture... all that it has endured just because we put it there, in this case, to walk on.


To be continued...

Impressions of a Daisy

All images were taken blurry intentionally, and various other treatments were applied using Picasa to give the images an impressionistic feel.

Daisy looking down

Face in a tree

Do you see it?

Vine

Virginia Creeper vine on abandoned shed

dandelion collage

I've taken so many dandelion photos recently that I thought it might be nice to make a collage of them. I put this one together with the aid of Picasa (i.e. choose pictures and click a button), but it's not quite what I had imagined. I might have to try a different one that I put together myself.

dandelion sunset

Transformation

Remember this?


Now... it looks like this

Taking chances

Sometimes I let my camera do the seeing for me, especially when my subject is close to the ground and turning my head upside down doesn't seem like the best idea. I never know what's going to happen when I take pictures in this way, but there are always some pleasant surprises, like the sunlight streaming through these Wild Phlox flowers. Taking chances is one of the best things you can do with your camera. Get out there and play!

bottle

collage

"What are those?!" you might be wondering. They are catkins. A catkin is "a dense, elongated, and drooping cluster of flowers without petals. Most commonly, the flowers found on a catkin are of one sex. In some trees, such as the poplar, both male and female flowers are present. Catkins are typically found on trees which are wind pollinated, such as oak, birch, willow, and hickory." [source]  I believe these catkins came from one of our Aspen trees (aspens are a member of the willow family).  I left them inside the house for a few days after I took these pictures, and when I picked them up, they dumped yellow pollen all over my hands and the table.  I didn't realize the important role these fuzzy little clusters played until the evidence was in-hand (get it?).

Awakening

Today's Picture Spring prompt is "Awakening," where Tracey encourages us to "Capture something that is just waking up with the welcoming warmth of the season and honor it, I see you little one."
This is some Lily of the Valley that is coming up in my garden. I really doctored this one in Picasa, boosting the saturation multiple times, plus a few other modifications. I like the glowing effect that I ended up with.

Look inside

Flower power

Solitary

No "Picture Spring" prompt today. The prompts from the last few days have just done nothing for me - brought me no inspiration. So I decided to strike out on my own for today's photo. I couldn't choose just one to share, though...

There's a freeze warning in effect for tonight, so it's very possible that I'll lose all the lovely daffodils that have been blooming in our front yard.  Such a shame!

Pastel palette

Today's Picture Spring prompt is the pastel pallet. Even though we are naturally drawn to bold, bright colors after months of blah colors, Tracey wanted to remind us that muted pastel hues can help to "soothe our senses and calm our souls."

Look around

Well, I didn't follow today's Picture Spring prompt, which was "The Sky is the Limit." We were supposed to take a photo of the sky, but it was pretty bland up there today, and I was already taking wildflower photos anyway, so.... here are a few of my favorite photos from today of my favorite "weed," the Dandelion.

Morning ritual

Here's my image to go with yesterday's Picture Spring prompt to photograph a morning ritual. These are items that are part of my morning ritual on the weekends when I count birds for Project Feederwatch during the winter months: binoculars, paper and pen, and DSLR camera.

What items would be in your morning ritual image?

Booked

Forget the Kindle or the iPad... I'll take a book that I can flip the pages of any day.