Tag: photoblog

Mar 2, 2011

Morning glories.

Now that the days are getting longer and the weather is Spring-like, I’ve started my ritual walk-around-the-yard-to-see-what’s-new every evening after work.  I was stalking a cardinal for a while, trying to get a great shot to share with you.  He wasn’t in the mood, though.

I am anxiously watching for signs of life in my bed of perennials.  I was excited to see these 2 morning glory seedlings show themselves.  Their leaves are very distinctive.  Last year I planted a couple of seeds.  One grew into a vine.  The vine grew to cover the 6′ metal obelisk under which it was planted, and then some.   The flowers were a beautiful pink/crimson.  These 2 are volunteers from that vine.

Mar 1, 2011

They're baaack.

As Monte is all too aware, I am NOT a fan of bugs.  Spiders in particular.  So, I am hoping you can appreciate the steely focus and determination with which I leaned in headfirst to within a couple inches of this guy while I manually focused to capture this moment and share with you.

Ok, so what if the spider was no more than 1/4″ long?   We all need to stretch beyond our comfort zone, right? 🙂

I was walking out back this afternoon and was a tad disappointed in the late signs of spring.  But then I saw this web glistening in the sun.   If the spiders are back, Spring must be right around the corner!

 

 

Feb 28, 2011

Reflection.

My blog is featured today on a website called 365:  Make Something Everyday and Change Your Life — a bit of a thrill for me, as I near the 1 year anniversary of starting this photo-a-day-for-a-year project (just 1 more week to go).

I’ve really enjoyed this project.   Yes, the year has flown by.   Like all the others.   But, I can honestly say that doing this photoblog has made it just that much more enjoyable and memorable – which will soon become a wish fulfilled.

This is shot of a ceramic gazing ball / garden globe that adorns one of my garden beds.   I like how it caught my reflection with the sky as a backdrop.  I’m also trying out the color accent setting on my camera.

Feb 27, 2011

Last hurrah.

We’ve had an absolutely beautiful weekend.  Temps hit 80 here at the house.  And we’ve been busy – a little yard work, a little house work, a little work work, some shopping, chats with out of town family,  and we replaced the doors on the garden shed.   There’s just never enough time…

Well, the Valentine’s Day roses have been beautiful and lasted for 2 weeks.  These are a few of the petals that I snapped before I took them outside.   I tried to get a good macro shot, but this was as close as I was able to get.

 

Feb 26, 2011

Free bird.

Today was a lovely day.   We got lots of things done around the house and yard.

I was walking around at the end of the day and took a couple shots of the sky.   I caught a bird in this one.

I’ll leave you with this.

Feb 25, 2011

Signs o life.

Tee-gee-eye-eff!   I am looking forward to a break this weekend.  The weather has been fantastic.  Maybe we’ll get some time in the yard and in the shop varnishing.   Most of all I look forward to spending time with the people I enjoy so much.

The trees out back are starting to show their colors.  It won’t be long until everything is green again.   can’t wait!

Feb 24, 2011

A rose by any other name...

This evening was a clear, crisp one, after a brief downpour this afternoon.  I took a walk out back looking for any signs of flowers.  A couple of bright yellow dandelions were the only blooms to be seen.   Usually I kick the tops off of these when I walk by, until I can spend an entire Saturday morning digging each one up by the roots.

This time I stopped a moment to see one.  I guess I’ve never really looked at a dandelion before.  The little curly stamens in the middle were a surprise.

Feb 23, 2011

Better late than never.

Happy Day After National Margarita Day!!

Yes, that’s right.   I missed the opportunity yesterday to post a margarita moment on a day set aside to honor margaritas of all shapes and sizes.

Not a problem.  We made sure to grab a couple of margs at Chuy’s tonight to make up for it.

Yes.  That’s my frozen mango margarita on the left.  I’m sort of a margarita wimp.  It has to do with some harrowing experiences from my early college days.  Long story.  Suffice to say, I still enjoy a taste of tequila, but I need to disguise it as a fruity and icy beverage.

That’s Monte’s Texas Martini on the right — complete with jalapeno-stuffed olives.

Cheers!

Feb 22, 2011

Deja vu.

My sister-in-law Susanne gave us a basket of amaryllis bulbs in December of 2009.  They bloomed beautifully last year — with gorgeous red flowers.  Last spring after the blooms had faded I cut the spent blooms and put the basket outside to let the foliage feed the bulbs over the summer.   And last fall I dutifully cut the leaves off each bulb and put the basket in a cool dark place in the garage to start their dormant cycle.

I’ve been meaning to pull them out to start the cycle all over again.  I should have done it closer to the holidays but didn’t.  Well, last Sunday I finally dusted off the basket, watered and brought it back inside.

Just 2 days later little tips of green have already started showing on each bulb.  Pretty cool, i must say.    I can’t wait to watch them bloom over the next few weeks.

Feb 21, 2011

What the Doctor ordered.

Nobody really likes Mondays.  But, today was especially unpleasant for me as I seem to have gotten some kind of stomach bug in the morning that laid me low all day.

Later in the evening we had a light dinner with some rose’ wine — not something we typically drink.   This is an inexpensive rose’ cabernet savingnon from South Africa called Mulderbosch.   We tried it once at a wine tasting at a nearby wine store and liked it.  So, it has stayed on our list.

Just what I needed to end a yucky day.

Feb 20, 2011

Before and after.

I set out to weed the flower beds today to get them ready for planting.   We have a bed about 4 feet deep that runs along our fence for about 30 feet, and several other beds scattered throughout the back yard.

The image on top is what greeted me in the wasteland left over from the basil and zinnias last fall.  The image on the bottom shows the bed after weeding, rototilling and fertilizing.

I finished up right at noon.   We came in and had lunch — leftover vegetable soup that monte made last night.   I have to say this is the Best Vegetable Soup Ever.  I should have taken a picture of it last night, but I didn’t.   It’s chock full of carrots, turnips, celery, leeks and cannelloni beans — delicious.   The least I can do is post the recipe, which we once again lifted from our bon ami Jacques Pepin (recipe and video from the episode here) – Happy Cooking!

Feb 19, 2011

Tiny flowers.

I’ve been walking around the yard looking for the first signs of life —  but, no flowers or bud yet.

So, in lieu of a shot from outside, this is a closeup of the tiny baby’s breath that came with the Valentine’s day roses.

I leave you with a haiku for the weekend:

Saturday is here.

Do, Relax, Enjoy, Explore.

Best day of the week.

🙂

Feb 18, 2011

Prep.

Monte has been getting the boat stripped to bare wood and prepped for a new set of varnish coats.   Progress has been slow due to him being laid low by the cold/flu/fung that’s been going around — that, and the fact that I haven’t been much help lately.   Seems like my time has been sucked up with other things.

This is a shot from tonight – the wood is ready for varnish, taped and prepped.  We’re looking forward to making progress this weekend.   The mahogany  brightwork looks beautiful and I can’t wait to see it with its first coats of new varnish.

I’m having withdrawals from not getting to play with our B-dock friends.   I can feel the anticipation of the first raftup awaiting us in the next month or so!

 

Feb 17, 2011

Full Snow Moon.

Here it ’tis, folks.   The (pretty darn near) Full Snow Moon.

A few days ago there was a huge solar flare that erupted, which was supposed to make conditions favorable for viewing of the aurora borealis as far south as Texas.  I’ve seen them before, but only up in the Pacific Northwest.

Well, we went out after sunset tonight to see if we would be so lucky, but we were greeted by an overcast sky.

The moon will be full shortly, so I tried to get a shot of it between passing holes in the clouds.

This is one good shot that opened up for me.

TGtiF.