Summer Sitting

 Summer time is for taking the time to sit in all those chairs we have in our yards to enjoy the quiet of being outside while we can. We are in a cool spell here and the summer seems to be flying by too soon!  My Friday finds after looking through my photos for the week are these summer chairs just waiting to be used.
The one above is my hummingbird spot and the chair is usually closer to the flowers. The next two are from my aunt's cottage. Rather than just take a picture of the chairs, I enjoyed the lake view while reading.

Friday Finds- Dragonflies in the Garden

While waiting for hummingbirds, I can be happy just watching the dragonflies flit around the garden. Behind our house, we have a stream leading into a pond which must be where all of these dragonflies live. Some are shy and fly away when I get up close, while others remain on the flowers. Sometimes its frustrating to have the zoom lens on the camera to get a hummingbird picture when there is a dragonfly that I can get up close to where a macro lens would work better.

The wings look so delicate, with the lacy look and the dragonfly above at least has intact wings compared to the dragonfly that I posted earlier this week. Lucky to have a variety of small wildlife to enjoy in the backyard.

Simple Pleasures

The simple pleasures of a summer garden plus humming birds that have returned to the back yard. This is where I get to hang out during the day, though not for as much time as last summer now that I have a part time job. Behind the chairs, there is a hammock where I can read (nap).  The perfect back yard for today's Friday Find.

At one time, there was some organization in the backyard garden, now there are flowers throughout. Bee Balm, Threadleaf Coreopsis, Liatris, Astilbe, Lavender,   Cat Nip, Butterfly bush, Sedum, Coneflowers, and Evening Primrose are just the flowers that I can name that are in this one garden. Now that I am taking a picture a day for a year with Captureyour365, I have plenty of subjects in my gardens.

Birds- At least 2 hummingbirds are visiting the flowers, while ignoring the feeders. The garden is on a small hill which provides a green back ground when taking pictures.

Insects - Dragon Flies are daily visitors along with more bees than last year. In the evening, the mosquitos come out in herds while at night we have fire flies.

Flowers- These are all the summer flowers currently in bloom.

Friday Find- Peonies

Peony Blossom on the Porch 

Texture kk_waterfront28 Overlay, 53% Blend

Same picture as above without texture. 

 My gardens start out sunny in the spring, but once the Maple and Oak leaves come out, they become shade gardens. The flowers are a week or so behind my neighbors and this week our Peonies finally bloomed. These are from a Peony plant that I dug up from my in-laws backyard after they passed away before their house was sold. It is a nice memorial to have in the front garden.

The first year, I had no support for the heavy blossoms, but this year I put the ring out early. The flowers bloomed this week and they are still leaning over. I was hoping for a lot of blossoms and I was not disappointed,  they are beautiful.

I love the textured blossom above in the vase. I used Perfect Effects 8 to add a vintage layer and then took it into Photoshop elements 10 for the texture. The Perfect Effects is new for me and I am not sure what I am doing, but will need to practice since I think there are some great features for landscapes. All it takes is time.

The progress of the Peonies through the spring. 

Friday Finds- More Than One!

Texture: kk_waterfront28 - Soft light 100% opacity with flowers masked

Woke up to find more than one Iris blooming. I went out with my camera before I even had coffee to get the morning light on the wet Irises. I guess I was procrastinating as I have a list of things to do today, including fertilizing the lawn while it is still wet. But the light and irises called me out.

Was just able to catch the bee as it buzzed among the blossoms.

Now I need to get busy with my list for the day!

Happy Friday!

Linking with Friday Finds at KimKlassen.com

Friday Find- Wild Flower

Lady Slipper Wildflower          Texture: kk_Mary 33% Screen blend

Original Picture without texture

This is my Friday find of the week. We have had rain and raw weather which didn't mean the best walking conditions until Thursday. On Thursday I went out for an early morning walk with my neighbor and while watching the dog along our trail, I noticed that the Lady Slippers were blooming. This is our state wild flower found only in damp, shaded areas. These are not meant to be picked since they don't transplant well due to their growing requirements. There is a myth that you could be fined for picking them, but that's only in the state south of us.


You have to look closely to find these flowers among the low growing shade plants.

There was more than just Lady Slippers in the woods. I don't know what this wild flower is below. I liked the individual buds on the long stems. 

And even though I had dandelions on yesterday's blog, I just couldn't resist putting this one up today. The blue of the background is from the water and is such a pretty contrast to the white. 

A perfect day for a walk and a find, even better, we didn't see the water snake that my neighbor claims lives near the path. 

In the Yard

Lizard In the Yard, My Friday Find

5/23 A Vision of Make Believe

Gnome / Pretend / In the Yard

The suggestion for today's Captureyour 365 photo prompt was to blur the background and I nailed it today. This guy was not my first choice as I started out with a small, decorative bird house for my subject that I was moving around the front yard. After six pictures that I checked on the computer, I decided to go back out and try again since I either didn't like the placement of the birdhouse or it wasn't blurred enough.

I went back outside to the wet grass with my sandals and as my feet were becoming wet and colder, I moved the bird house around the front yard. Then I got distracted by the tulips again ( don't worry, the irises will be up next week and there will be iris pictures to replace the tulips). Today's tulips were glistening with raindrops and I did some practice shots with different apertures to see the differences in focusing. These were taken at f/14 which allows more of the flower to be in focus, rather than just a small part. If you look closely at the water droplet, you can see a reflection of the camera. 

Then I took the bird house out to the back yard and decided not to walk through the yard to get there, but through the house and I found my subject,  the lizard. Sitting on the table on our three season porch, I saw the lizard that was given to me 8 years ago by a student when I was teaching that I used as a decoration on the porch. The lizard became my "gnome", the pretend for today's prompt and my Friday find. The sandals came off and in bare feet, the lizard was placed all around the back yard. Today turned out to be a fun day of photography and I was lucky to get it all done this morning as it poured during the afternoon.

My friend T came over with soup and we had a nice lunch of soup and salad, where she helped me pick the fun picture of the day. I loved all the lizard pictures, but the one for the picture of the day makes me think of a comedian, "Two flies fly into a spider web…..". All of the pictures just show such an attitude and today turned out to my favorite photo day of the week. I feel like the Lizard was a find for me and helped me to overcome a rut that I feel into this week as I was becoming overcritical on every picture taken. It also helped that my friend T was supportive and told me to enjoy what I am doing. Today was a good day for photography, here's to more flowers blooming and my newly bought tomatoes growing after all this rain.

Rosemary already planted by the front door along with a clove of garlic that came out of the compost pile. Today, I bought basil at Agway and now I just need to get oregano and mint for my other planters. The tomatoes will be planted by the compost pile where I know they will flourish. I also picked up sunflower, cosmos and wildflower seed packets for our side yard to provide a colorful border to attract more birds and butterflies. 

My Friday Find! I should come up with a name for him.

I get picky about what gets posted here, but today there were so many good pictures that I am sharing more than usual. Enjoy!

Wet tulips, 100 mm lens, f/14

Backyard bird house photos

Friday Finds: Tulips

White Tulip in Front Garden

Today I am participating in Friday Finds hosted by Kimklassen.com where photographers link their finds for the week. The pictures can be of anything that you consider a "find" for the week. Something inspiring, beautiful, unique or you just plain like it. I am going with the beautiful for this week. This photo is appealing to me because of the simple colors and the glow of the white against the green. Perhaps the green leaf going through the center of the flower would bother other photographers/artists, but for me, I like the contrast that the leave adds to the flower. The texture is simple and it cuts out some of the clutter from the background. Usually I add a mask to the texture and "paint" the flower back in for the blossom to have no texture.  However, once I started the painting process, I realized that I liked the effect on the flower. 

Now if we only had some sun today for more photos like this, I would be outside right now!

Texture: kk_Jamal - Overlay 80% Opacity