Well, PhotoHunter has sure opened my eyes to a new side of the blogosphere. While surfing around looking at the great photos posted this week, I happened across Rambling Woods. The blogger there has begun a new meme called Nature Notes.
The challenge this week is stated there: ”I am going to challenge myself and hopefully you to take a look at nature. What is going on in your area? Is it spring in your part of the world or are you heading into cold weather. Take a little walk….. look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?..Step outside and close your eyes. What do you hear? …take a deep breath…What do you smell?”
Well, I have spent almost the entire morning engaged in that exact activity. So here is my contribution to “Nature Notes.”
It was grey and cold and damp this morning when I woke up. The cloud cover was so heavy it almost felt like the sun never actually got all the way up. After breakfast, the rain the weatherman has promised us all week arrived and it began to pour. The Rain Garden filled up most of the way, and I opened the window in the back bedroom, removed the screen and took some pictures of the area while the rain continued to fall.
Notice how the creeping jenny in between the flagstones at the top of the photo has greened up. It is convinced that spring is here, and even if the snow the weather people think is going to fall tonight actually manifests, it won’t substantially slow this plant down.
Later on, during a break in the rain, I went out to the vegetable garden to strew dried leaves from last fall over my baby lettuces, mesclun and beets. The hope is that this coverlet will protect them from the predicted freeze tonight. I don’t have the means to protect the plum trees and their infant fruits, they will just have to fend for themselves. Hopefully, the weatherman will be wrong and the temperature won’t drop below freezing. (Fingers, eyes, and toes crossed)
I proceeded to walk around the place, and observed that you could not really walk the labyrinth today, it would be more likely to be a success if you realized you were going to wade it.
Since I had my wellies on, I waded through and found this absolutely magical image at the rock with the Tiny Tarn. It is reflecting the elms on the edge of the property.
As if that wasn’t enough, all unawares I tilted up one of the daffodil faces to get a full on view of the blossom and, holding an awkward position, shot a macro view straight into the petals. It was not until I got inside and downloaded the images on the computer that I discovered I had captured this tiny moth, hiding deep in the blossom, trying to stay warm and dry.
I proceeded around to the front of the house and peeked over the fence there at the Stroll Garden.
You can see here that the water in the Rain Garden has already drained away, unlike the labyrinth. Soon it will be time to start mowing the lawn again, but we can put it off for a few days still.
Right near that gate is a redbud, and it is in full bloom right now. I became captivated by the rain drops hanging off the blossoms, and took many shots of them. This is by far the best one. If you look closely at the drops, you can see the refracted image of the house and gardens upside down in the drops.
Then it started raining again, so I went back inside with a little jonquilla daffodil I picked out of the Rose Garden that I wanted to make a portrait of. This is one of the many bulbs I bought from McClure and Zimmerman last fall. Its varietal name is Kedron.
The Citrine Dragon consented to sit for his portrait after I spent a lot of time trying to get a perfect image of the little jonquil. Sometimes you just get lucky when the energy of the magical being suddenly shows up in a static medium like photography.
Now, don’t forget to go visit the other people who are out enjoying their environment and trying to document the changes that are occurring in this most wonderful and changeable season.
