Dogwood Blooms

For some reason this year my dogwood blooms seem so small to me.  They look mini-sized.  I think they were bigger in years past.  Maybe is was all the extra snow and coldness we had this past winter and first of spring.  I'll never know.

Crocus

I took this photo of the crocus popping up in my backyard in early March.  Instead of shooting down at it as one would normally do, I got down low and shot it from underneath.  This did two things:  1. eliminated the ugly brown mulch and 2. provided a new perspective for the viewer that they don't ordinarily see.
Why not take your camera out today and find a little bit of spring and shoot it from different angles and see things from a whole new perspective!

..photo enhanced with Velvet Cream action and Web painted borders action from The Coffee Shop Blog.

Photos from my Phone

I have been reading a friends blog for some time now, hello Katie J.  Anywho, I see her taking a lot of photos from her phone and posting them on her blog.  I realized that I hardly ever take photos with my phone and I really should start doing that more often.  I always have it handy, so why not.
So here's a post entitled "Photos from my Phone"

About a month ago, Dennis totaled his SUV (see post here).  We finally got the insurance go ahead to purchase another vehicle.  After much looking and sitting in cars, trucks and SUV's Dennis surprised me when he settled on this.  (mainly because he fit in it (which is very hard for my tall, broad man) and it gets better gas mileage than his Expedition).

Friday I was driving to the school to pick Logan up from football conditioning and had to pull over onto the side of the road to take this photo.  I love the blue skies and white Bradford Pear trees in full bloom as well as  the fence and horses. 

Last fall we lost one of the Blue Spruce trees that flanked the entry of the house.

Saturday, we pulled the remaining healthy one out and replanted it in a new bed out back.

Here's the before and after:

Sunday, my son Logan asked me if he could chop down a dead tree in the yard with an ax.  I said, sure, why not.  Here is my son...a.k.a. Paul Bunyan

With todays technology we pretty much all have camera's on our phone.  Why not move those photos from the phone to the computer, blog them, print them, scrapbook them and enjoy them.

Thanks for stopping by!

Volunteers

Last spring (09) Dennis and I put a new flowerbed in along the side of the house.  I put a few iris's in there that my friend Stephanie gave me.  I had some extra space and so I decided to plant some vegetables.  My yard is very shady, and this side of the house does get some sun.  Most of my veggies didn't fare well.  They grew, but very slowly.  I was harvesting zucchini in September and green peppers in November.  What did do well were the tomatoes.  So well that they self seeded themselves throughout the flowerbed.  I pulled all but 3 or 4 plants.  They have grown all summer, they are about 4 feet tall and growing strong.  I went out the other morning to pick the ripe maters.  Here are some photos just before I picked.

And look who I found on the front porch step.

A little yellow fellow with black spiky hairs.

He is from the American Dagger Moth family.

This is what he looks like today.......

And should he not become lunch anytime soon, he will cocoon and emerge as this rather boring looking fellow.  I will probably see his hanging out at the nearest light bulb.

Have a great day!

A little of this and a little of that

Summer time is Busy time.

Here's a little bit of what we've been up to lately.

The last week of June we enjoyed our trip to Ohio boating with family and friends.

I had a good time scrapbooking with 17 scrappin' friends last weekend in St. Louis.

Isaiah and I had great birthdays.
Evan's friends Harley and Hailey baked me a birthday cake.

I taught a Photography class to 3rd, 4th and 5th graders at church all last week.
Isaiah was my helper.

This is a photo one of my students took of me.

Isaiah had his birthday party over the weekend.
It started with water wars....

Then moved inside to the ice cream sundae bar....

Next was present time.....

And finally the boys dug into their goodie bags and modeled their "Billy Bob" rotten teeth for me.

We had a big storm today and a branch fell and snapped my Dwarf Japanese Maple tree in half.

The branch that took out the JM tree

My poor tree is not a pile of branches on the ground now.

The storm knocked over a tree out back.

My Purple Cone Flowers are in bloom.

My Crepe Myrtle is in bloom.

Thanks for popping in for a visit.
Is your summer as busy as ours?

Around the Yard

The smell of the wild roses blooming next to the wild honeysuckle this time of year draws me into the yard with camera in hand.

I love to stroll through the yard to see what's blooming, soaking in each fragrant bloom.  Our yard is a bit on the wild side.  No formal gardens, no meticulously planned and sculpted cottage style herb or vegetable gardens (to my dismay).  Just some random flowers struggling to make their way in this shady piece of earth we call the back yard.  Some are wild, some are grown on purpose for our pleasure.  All are beautiful in my eyes.  I took some photos to share with you.  I do hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

As I was down on my knees trying to photograph a purple salvia, I met this critter.  I think he was just as interested in observing me with my camera in front of my face as I was in him.

Thanks for visiting!  

Do you love spending time around your yard?

Keeping my fingers crossed

When we first moved into our home almost 3 years ago my mom pointed out that the tree growing at the end of our deck was a Dogwood.  I was so excited and anxiously waited for spring to arrive to see my Dogwood tree in full bloom.  April came and went, and nothing.  No blooms.  So maybe it wasn't a Dogwood after all.  I was sad.  Then last year I discovered 3 or 4 blooms!  It was a Dogwood!  This year that number tripled! There's been about 12 blooms.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that next year it will triple again and so on!

A few shots from yesterday.  I love the first one with the bloom starting to open.

Getting Ready for Winter

I dread saying this, but winter is just around the corner. Can't fall just stay until March? I don't think I would tire of the glorious colors of the trees, bonfires, pumpkins, mums, football and hot chocolate. But I live in the midwest, so winter is inevitable. So to prepare for those cold nights and cozy Sunday afternoons watching football with a fire in the fireplace, we must split wood. Last year I called it Pioneer Days. This year I'll call it modern Pioneer Technology! I was so happy to be able to borrow a log splitter from our friends the Coopers. What a difference that machine makes!!



Dennis hauls wood to the house


Logan and his friend stack wood on the deck


The splitter at work


Me pushing the button, the splitter doing all the work


Logan and Isaiah burning limbs and leaves


Caught Isaiah's face in a sunflare




Logan hauling wood to the house


Tigger enjoying the sunshine


Logan and his friend having fun on the swings


Dennis and Isaiah playing on the tire swing






Ready for winter....now take your time getting here please!