Grape Hyacinth

From my front garden, one of the first flowers to bloom

Sunday Stills - Black and White

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is Black and White.  I have to say that I'm not a huge fan of black and white (I love color) but some photos really lend themselves to it.  Here are my choices for this week:

Black and white dog (Bandit) in the grass

Original

Japanese Red Maple in my garden

Original

Birdhouse in my garden.  Chickadees are making a nest in it.

Original

Ok, so I cheated a little on this one. 

I boosted the fade up just a little bit to get a smidgeon of color in the leaves. 

I like it so much better than full black and white.

Original

You can view other Sunday Stills participants here

Sunday Stills - Flowers/Wildflowers

This week's Sunday Stills is Flowers/Wildflowers - in the garden, in the wild, in the house.  I haven't had much time to seek out wildflowers this week plus we've had a lot of rain so I settled for flowers blooming in my garden.

The second lilac in my garden to bloom.

I have three in front of my house that bloom sequentially - totally not planned but really cool

Dianthus (Sweet William)

These are supposed to bloom every other year but they come up like clock work each spring

Climbing Hydrangea on my back fence

When we first planted this, it didn't seem to do well.  

It's totally exploding this year.

All of these were taken with my new camera.  I'm still figuring out how to use it but it's so much fun!

You can view other Sunday Still participants here.

Macro Monday - Iris

Macro Monday

An iris in my garden after a rain storm on Saturday morning.  We had very high winds this weekend and it knocked all of the iris flat.  I'm glad I got shots before Mother Nature leveled them.

Macro Monday - Maple Leaves

Japanese Red Maple tree in my garden, in the rain

Craig took this one so he gets the credit.  I'm still tired from 11 hours of horse shows on Saturday.

Wordless Wednesday - Signs of Life

Macro Monday - Blooming

It's another gray and water logged day here.  It's been raining since Thursday and is not supposed to stop until tomorrow afternoon.  My garden is drenched with very little spring sprouts.  This is from my archive from last March.  I'm hoping to see the crocus bloom again soon!

You can find Macro Monday here

Macro Monday - Signs of Fall

For the past few days, it has been cold here and very wet - 2 Nor'Easters that hit us back to back and temperatures that are 20 degrees below normal for this time of year. My garden is starting to look barren as the flowers die off.

Climbing Hydrangea

The flowers are done but the leaves are still green

The leaves on one of my lilac bushes are just starting to turn

My ornamental pear tree only bears small fruit in late fall

You can see other contributors to Macro Monday here.

Macro Monday - Hosta Flower

From my back garden

You can see other contributors to Macro Monday here.

Misty Morning

Yesterday we had a heavy fog which left everything shrouded in mist.

Hostas in my back garden.

Macro Monday - Green Tomatoes

Ed, who created the Sunday Stills challenge, has now posted another challenge, Macro Monday.

Here's my contribution for this week - green tomatoes in our garden, right after being watered.

You can see other contributors to Macro Monday here.

Weekend Project

I had absolutely nothing planned for this weekend...until we came across the opportunity to recycle hand made bricks that had been part of an old barn that was torn down. Craig and I have been talking about redoing the back stoop and the bricks seemed perfect for that. It looked so good, we decided to do a whole walkway. In total, we used about 260 of the bricks and I am absolutely thrilled with how it came out. And the total cost was for 2 bags of sand.

Before

The weeds managed to grow through 2 layers of landscape fabric

After

I love the rustic look of the bricks

Sunday Stills - Textures

This week's Sunday Stills Challenge is textures. This was a fun one for me as I started to spot texture everywhere.

A Mimosa flower from the tree in my backyard

An evergreen

Jet's mane. Even though he is so dark that he looks black, his mane has red strands in it.

Montero's mane. Women spend a fortune on their hair to get this kind of color.

Fresh bale of hay, stacked in our barn. This hay was cut and baled within the last week.


Japanese red maple leaves

One of the rails on the pasture fence.

Check out other bloggers who participate in the Sunday Stills Challenge.

Garden Visitor

Our garden has just exploded with flowers this year. The bee balm that we planted years ago has spread and has attracted hummingbirds this year. They seem to like the Mimosa tree too. If you look closely on the branch in the middle of these pics, you can see him. They move so quick that it's hard to get a good shot.

A Sea of Daisies

Saturday we took a trip to the Kutztown Produce Auction and I took my camera along. I'm still getting used to taking the camera into places with me and I didn't want to upset anyone so I took mostly pics of the flowers that were for sale. I'll post additional photos throughout the week. This was an entire cart of Gerbera Daisies in all different colors. One of my favorite flowers that is sure to bring a smile to my face.

Wordless Wednesday - From the Greenhouse

Sparrow

This cute little guy was hanging around the horse pasture. I almost didn't see him in the tree.

Lilac #2 & #3

When we were planting our garden the first couple of years after the house was built, we planted lots of flowers and perennials. Somehow we ended up with 3 lilac bushes - one to the left of my front door and the others to the right of my front door in front of our box bay window. Through luck, all three are different varieties and all bloom consecutively from left to right.

This is lilac #2 - a smaller variety than the early bloomer with tiny flowers that are heavily perfumed. It is in full bloom right now.


This is lilac #3 - another smaller variety with the smallest flowers of the three but I think it smells the strongest. It hasn't bloomed yet.


My whole house smells like lilacs for about a month and a half during early spring. I love it!!

My World Tuesday - Wisteria

About 8 years ago, we took a small cutting (like twig size) from a wisteria vine that my mother had in her garden. We stuck it in the ground along some lattice on T's swingset and hoped for the best. It grew into a green vine which we wound around the lattice. The first couple of years it didn't flower but we kept winding it around. And then it bloomed. The flowers are gorgeous and smell heavenly! This is what it looks like this year. It has completely taken over the top of the swingset and the lattice and has started to climb into the trees.

To visit other bloggers and experience a piece of their world, check out My World Tuesday.

Wordless Wednesday - Lone Violet