Funking Out in Every Way

Boy, what a funk I’ve found myself in today.  Today is the official beginning of autumn.  Coincidence?  I think not!  As much as I’d love to blame the start of fall for my mood, in all fairness, it really wasn’t at fault.  For most of the day, the weather was nothing but lovely. This mood that I’m in, however, will allow me to present my feelings about the end of summer with unvarnished truth.

I think regular readers of this blog already know about how I feel concerning summer’s demise.  How apropos to find gray clouds blotting out the sun as I searched out the subjects of my photos for Scott’s assignment.  The sky mirrored the feelings in my head and my heart today.

The golden warmth of a summer day that warms my soul and my toes will soon be whisked away as we barrel head on toward the cold and drizzle of the months to come.

Memories of summer packed away, awaiting better days.

No one is splashing, swimming, floating, enjoying the pool any longer as my raft lies abandoned, dry and deflating and awaiting closure.

And my boys of summer. As sad a story as there could be. Their season nearly over before it began, officially eliminated from play-offs, just playing out the month. My Red Sox bear hides his face.

I promise I’ll snap out of it.  This funk won’t rule this blog, or my life for long.  This post was my contribution to Scott’s assignment “End of Summer.”  There is still time for you to participate – posts are due by midnight your time on Wednesday, September 26th.

Transition

Hello there bloggers, readers, family and friends.  I’ve missed you!  This blog has been quiet for almost two weeks.  It wasn’t really on purpose or a blogging break; I think the blogging muse in my head has simply been silent.  I’m honestly not sure if other parts of my brain tied her up and took her hostage or if she just stepped out for a while.  Either way, she’s back this morning.  I have such a mix of feelings and thoughts and photos to share, I’m not sure how this blog post will eventually come out, but if you’re ready for what will likely be a bumpy ride, join me for a spell.

This time of year is generally a rollercoaster ride of emotions for me.  I feel a deep sadness at the passing of summer.  (By the way, Scott has a new photo assignment posted about just this subject – be sure to have a look!)  I’m not ready to let the heat and bright sunshine and lazy days go just yet.

Memories of summer vacation are still fresh in my mind, but that place seems so very far away right now.

However, I can’t live in the past, so I do try to appreciate the beauty of the season to come.  I do admit that fading summer/early autumn does present some beautiful light, and I was drawn outside with my 50mm lens the other afternoon.  I’m not sure why, but I’ve found the 50mm often does a lovely job of capturing true colors and a soft-but-sharp-at-the-same-time focus (if any photog-types have a reason for this that you can explain, feel free to do so in the comments).  These dahlias I planted in my whiskey barrel planter have been gorgeous all summer, but I never felt quite able to capture them until I took the nifty-fifty to them:

It is hard to deny that autumn is on the way when the goldenrod appears.

This monarch butterfly kind of looks like how I feel: it seems to be trying to take in the last that summer has to offer, while surrounded by encroaching fall.

(Perhaps I should have saved this one for Scott’s assignment?)

I know that fans of autumn will remind me of all the goodness fall has to offer.  Warm, golden afternoons, crisp nights, crunchy apples, hot cider, rainbows of foliage.  I do enjoy them all.  But for now, allow me to mourn and maybe wallow just a bit in my sadness about, the passing of my favorite season.

 

Oh What a Beautiful Morning

It is funny sometimes how blog posts come to be.  I realized yesterday that I hadn’t updated about my proposed birding project despite the fact that I have indeed been doing a bit of work on it.  But then, I never want to post a blog post without pictures, and I didn’t have any new bird photos to share.  It was still fairly early in the morning – yeah, 9 am is early for me in the summertime, got something to say about that? – so I went out to the backyard to see if any birds would cooperate and pose a little bit.

You know what they say about sometimes forgetting to see the forest for the trees?  While I was outside trying for those bird photos, it suddenly struck me that I was doing that.  Yesterday was one of those beautiful mornings – sunny, blue sky with just a few puffy white clouds, low humidity, temperature only in the upper 60′s.  I stepped back a little bit to breathe and take it all in.  I was getting a little dizzy from looking up into the trees and trying to focus on the fast-flitting birds.

When I took the time to be in the moment, I also noticed the cool feel of the morning dew on my toes,

that the moon was out,

that the lantana was coming back for a second round of blooming,

and that the squirrel that has been vigorously picking acorns and knocking them out of my oak tree was up to some morning acrobatics.

So did I get any new bird photos to share?  Yes and no.  I saw the bright orange flash of the Baltimore orioles near the tip-top of a tree, but this underside of the belly and tail was the best I could catch:

A bird I’ve photographed plenty of times before, an American robin, stayed fairly close for a photo.

A gray catbird also posed for me.  The only photo I’d ever gotten in the past of this bird was hidden among branches and badly blurred.

And I was able to add a photo of a bird that I’ve seen before but hadn’t been positive about identifying and had no photos of one in my collection, a northern mockingbird.  This bird was at the top of a very tall tree, so this is very tightly cropped, but I think it came out okay:

So, progress on the birding project: I have a “confirmed” life list of 59 species of birds.  This does not include many birds I’ve seen in captivity such as parrots, parakeets, cockatiels, flamigoes and penguins.  I’m never likely to see those birds “in the wild” so my list would be well over 60 if those were included.  I’ll definitely be bringing my checklist with me to Maine in the hopes of adding a few more “lifers”.

I hope you’ll remember to step back and enjoy a few beautiful moments too.  Summer is quickly passing us by – enjoy it!

Halo and Hummingbird

As many of you may remember, the deck in my backyard is my “happy place” for the summer.  With the exception of the beach, it is my favorite spot and I spend many hours there when the weather allows.  Over the past couple of days, I captured a few photos from my deck that I’d like to share.

One sunny afternoon, I ambled outside, stretched my limbs and peered around the yard.  A quick glance at the sky caused me to do a double-take:

I pulled my sunglasses off my face and looked again.  It wasn’t there.  Was that arc around the sun really there?  Put the sunglasses back and it was indeed there.  Meghan had followed me outside, wondering what I was looking at.  She pulled my sunglasses from my face, and had a look for herself.  I stood there wondering, since I couldn’t see it without my sunglasses, could my camera see it?  Meghan said to me, “Wouldn’t that filter-thingy you have work?”  Duh!  Why didn’t I think of the polarizing filter?  I went inside to get the camera and attach the filter and took these shots.

I knew it wasn’t a rainbow, but I wasn’t sure what it was.  I searched online and found some information about sun halos. Apparently, ice crystals from high-level (about 20,000 feet) cirrus clouds are what cause these halos to be seen.

Just yesterday, I spent more time on the deck.  It was an unusual day because once hubby left for work, I was completely on my own.  It is rare that both of the girls are out of the house at the same time, but yesterday they spent the day at Six Flags with friends.  So I was on my own for dinner.  Not feeling like going out to get something to eat, this is what I made up for myself:

Looks pretty tasty, no?  That tomato is one of the very first I’ve enjoyed from my garden – it was delicious.  I ate it with just a sprinkle of salt, no dressing needed.  I remained outside after dinner for quite a while, reading a book I checked out of the library, 11/22/63 by Stephen King.  I’m only 78 pages into this 849 page tome, but I think I’m going to like it.

I had my camera outside with me because for the past few evenings, I’ve seen my local hummingbirds hovering around the butterfly bushes and at my feeder.  The bird that I’ve seen most often, I believe to be a juvenile male ruby-throated.  The bright red throat is yet to develop, but the vibrant green of the back and wings is there.  Perhaps it is just my own musing, but the bird seems young to me in the way it approaches the feeder.  It hovers up, down, all around before taking tentative sips.  Last evening, he stayed long enough for me to take some shots.  The light was getting low, so I couldn’t have as fast of a shutter speed as I would have liked, but here are the better shots that I took:

I just love these adorable little birds!

One week from today we leave for our family vacation in Maine.  I’m sure I’ll be busy doing laundry and packing and getting ready, so I don’t know how often I will post this week, but I’ll definitely still be checking in with all of you.

This is my first post in the month of August so it seems like a good time to remind you about the August Ends of the Earth Photo Hunt.  Please pop over and have a peek if you haven’t already.

As Summer Wears On

Hard to believe it is nearly August.  Summer is passing too quickly!  A friend posted this on Facebook recently and I couldn’t agree more:

Four weeks from today I will be back in school, so I’m trying to remind myself to enjoy every moment.  Here are some moments I’ve recently enjoyed:

We celebrated my younger daughter’s 15th birthday with family and friends.  Her actual birthday is this Thursday, so I can’t help thinking about how 15 years ago at this time I was so huge and uncomfortable.  It was a nasty hot summer – kind of like how it has been around here recently – and nothing I did seemed to feel better.  15 years ago!  Wow!

Then:

And now:

We got some much needed rain this past weekend – unfortunately during Sarah’s birthday party.  I think the absolute heaviest was exactly when my husband was cooking at the grill:

Police department issued rain gear came in really handy!  Photo credit to Meghan and her iPod – she was more on the ball that I was.

In the quiet moments between shopping and cleaning and otherwise preparing for the party, the butterfly bushes provided more photography opportunities.  A couple of yellow tiger swallowtails have been happily cavorting:

I found this species very interesting too:

I think its Latin name is “collius buddlejollius”   (okay who remembers that obscure reference from an earlier post?)

July has been pretty full of good summer fun – check my archives if you’d like to see what I’ve been up to – and August has plenty more to offer.  Meghan is going to have her senior portraits taken next week (YIKES!  I’m having a really hard time wrapping my head around the fact that my older daughter will be a senior in high school in 4 weeks!  How the heck did that happen?) and our family vacation to Maine comes up in less than 2 weeks.  And don’t forget – the “Ends of the Earth” photo hunt is in August too.

What I’ve Been Up To

I’ve been out of school for a week now and I thought it was about time to show you what I’ve been up to and what’s going on around the yard lately.  Of course we had recital this past Saturday, so getting ready for that took up time but I’ve been puttering around taking care of other tasks as well.

The garden is progressing along nicely.  I’ve had one major weeding session since planting everything a few weeks ago and I’ve been pretty good about remembering to water in the morning when needed.  Fairly low maintenence so far, and I’ve got…

baby cucumbers,

baby summer squash,

baby zucchini, and even

a baby cayenne pepper!

The raspberries are coming along too..

..I’ve already eaten a few!

As for those flowery-type thingies that I love so much, the bee balm is back..

..and I’ve purchased and re-potted a few others, like this geranium,

and this cute purple, puffy algeratum:

In addition to weeding, watering and repotting, I’ve been scrubbing and conditioning too. No, not me! Well, okay, yes me, but I was referring to this:

After quite a bit of opening work, the pool is finally ready for use.  Just in time too!  Here in the northeast, as is much of the country, we’ve been experiencing our first official heat wave of summer with temps in the 90′s for 3 days in a row.

I’ve also been taking care of this little patch:

This past spring, hubby finally finished burning all the debris that was left behind by all the violent weather we experienced in these parts last year. Unfortunately, we had to use a spot in the middle of the lawn to do it since the fire had to be a certain distance from the house but within reach of the garden hose.

I shoveled out the pile of coals, loosened the earth beneath and planted this patch of new seed:
Scott’s tells me I’ll have nice thick grass here in about a month.

I won’t let you think I’ve been doing nothing but work over the last week.  I’ve had plenty of time to enjoy myself in my happy place, too:

Happy summer everyone!  So what have you been up to lately?

S.P.D. – Seasonal Photographic Disorder!

Almost a year ago, Mr. Scott Thomas challenged those of us inclined to do so, to participate in a year long photo assignment.  The challenge was to photograph the same location throughout all four seasons of the year.  I had read about something like this in a book Scott had recommended to me, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson, and thought it was a great idea.  When he announced the assignment last December, I thought to myself – I already have a jump start on this from some photos I took in the fall, in an easily accessible location, that I was pretty happy with.  At the time of the announcement, I also made the decision that I’d feature two locations throughout the year by including the view from my favorite lounging spot, my oft mentioned backyard deck.

Now you might be wondering why I’ve titled this post the way that I did.  One reason was that the assignment reminded me how unorganized I am about my photo archives.  I use Photoshop Elements to load my photos on to the computer which organizes them by date.  That’s the only organization I have – no tags.  So, just like for Scott’s favorite photos of the year assignment, I had to scroll through a year of photos to try to find the shots I took for this assignment.  Another reason you shall discover closer to the end of this post.

I’d like to begin with my winter photos.  Locals might recognize my first location as humble little Spec Pond:

Winter took us by surprise this year and piled on more snow than we’ve seen in these parts for many years.  Teddy enjoyed it at least:

Spring came around and thawed us out:

The deck furniture was unwrapped, but only my Mother’s Day hanging plant was in bloom and the pool was still closed:

Ah, summer!  My favorite season.  At the pond, extra life guard stands appear and the diving floats are in the water:

Back at home, everything is lush and green, flowers adorn the deck and the pool is open:

This is one of the photos I jump-started Scott’s assignment with, fall at Spec Pond:

This is also where you’ll find out the other reason for the title of my post!  I never took a fall photo from my deck specifically for this assignment!  Yep, I’m admitting it, I messed up a bit.  In my head, fall was taken care of; however, at the time I decided to add the deck to my year of photos, it was already winter.  This past fall came along and I never took a deck photo thinking it was already done.  Scrolling through my archives, I chose two alternative almost-fall-from-my-deck photos.  There was this one that I did for my Picture Fall class last October:

Not really the view I’ve given you the rest of the year. OR we have this monstrosity:

The view from my deck on October 30, 2011 after the Freaky Freakin’ Snowstorm - technically this is a fall photo of the view from my deck!

What a year it has been.  I think I will be ready to bid 2011 adieu!

Back to the Woods

Summer is slipping through our fingers, I’m sad to say.  Although autumn doesn’t officially begin until September 23rd this year, today, Labor Day, often feels like the end of the season.  It didn’t feel like summer was over to Daphne when I took this picture though!  Let me back up a little.

Saturday morning seemed like it was to be one of those delightful days – a nice one for either summer or fall – with wispy clouds, gentle breezes and a high of 80°.  I hadn’t taken the dogs for a walk in the woods for weeks, mostly because the last time we did so,  they came back covered in ticks or the days had started out just too humidly for me to want to make the trek.  I decided we would avoid the tall grasses and hope for the best this time out.

I was rewarded with beautiful sights along our path, looking so different from when Becky and I went out together back in the spring, or even from some of our early summer walks.

The old tractor path we follow was lush and green, forming almost tunnel-like feeling

This field of tall grasses developed a purply-pink color that I don’t remember seeing before – I think it is just this particular type of grass gone to seed.

Wild black-eyed susans,

milkweed,

and goldenrod were in full bloom

Giant dragonflies hovered above the fields, though I struggled to capture them in a photo:

And just for you, Kathy, I even found a mushroom I could consider a little bit beautiful in its pink color:

The dogs and I happily ambled along the paths, a few times turned around by impasses likely created by Irene, but had a thoroughly enjoyable walk.  A small swamp with a running stream across part of our path was a bit larger at this time of the year, after the significant rain we’ve had recently, which gets me back to the picture at the beginning of my post.  The last time I showed this part of our walk, it looked like this:

It was the end of March, and warm for that time of year, but probably at least 20 degrees cooler than this past Saturday.  I didn’t think it was overly warm out, but then I wasn’t wearing a fur coat!

Hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend!  Have a wonderful week.

Portrait of a Summer Evening

I don’t have to tell you it is hot.  Seems most of the country has been experiencing a heat wave over the last few days.  Thankfully, at least around here, it seems to be breaking today.  Highs should only be in the upper 80′s and we have a chance for showers throughout the day.  Due to the heat of the day, evening has been the more pleasant time to head outside, and it is a nice time for taking pictures.

The girls came outside for a swim and hand-stand practice:

The day lillies glow in the evening:

One of my dahlias showed a deep red that I have difficulty capturing in the daytime:

The sky was painted with swirly clouds:

And some of my favorite summer creatures came around for a photo session:

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly

Hummingbird moth

and my hummingbird took his evening post.

Daphne says, “I don’t care what you think, Mom, it is still too hot!”

A Good Day

School got out last week.  I felt like I’ve been in a flurry of activity every day since.  Today was the first day I really felt like I was out for summer break.  With the exception of my older daughter going to driving school (at her high school), I didn’t have to go anywhere.  Today, I did summery things!

I worked in my garden, which looked so cheerful in the morning summer sunshine:

Everything seems healthy and happily growing.  I added tomato cages to the sprawling vines today. I also noticed my hydrangea is starting to bloom:

 

 I am delighted with all of the buds it has this year.  I have often lamented my lack of luck with hydrangea.  I don’t remember this hydrangea always being pink either; I know that soil pH can affect their color, but I haven’t moved this plant in probably 10 years. It has never been a great bloomer for me, so maybe I just don’t remember!  Lots of buds still to come:

After the garden I picked up the yard for lawn mowing.  I got to use a little chain saw to chop up a large branch that had fallen into the yard – that was kind of cool!  After mowing the lawn, I vacuumed the pool.  It looked nice and sparkly.  I should’ve taken a picture.

My bird feeder has been extremely active since I refilled it a couple days ago.  I also learned today that my squirrel-proof feeder is no longer squirrel-proof:

Industrious little thing, huh?  I couldn’t understand just how the squirrels were getting at the seed.  The feeder is set up so that if something heavier than birds lands on the feeder, that wire covering with the perches on it slides down and covers the opening to the seed.  I went out to investigate.  One of the openings had the plastic chewed away so that the opening was not completely covered when it slides down!  That is the opening our little friend here is jamming his or her head into!  The squirrels broke the other feeder I had put up for them in a near-by tree in the hopes of keeping them away from the bird feeder, so I’m not sure what I’ll do next.

At the end of my busy day, I landed in my second-favorite summer place – my deck with a good book (first favorite would be the beach, but that is a few hours drive away).  And my little hummingbird took what seems to be one of his favorite places these days too:

That is a skinny little branch at the top of a small tree at the side of my property.  I look for him there now when I am outside in the evening.  I thought this made for a pretty cool shot of a hummingbird at rest; not a sight you see all that often.

Let me know about a good summer day for you in the comments if you’d like!  June Photo Hunt re-cap coming soon – I’m waiting on a couple folks taking advantage of the extension.  In the meantime, there are plenty of links to check out in the comment section of that post, so please go check out the submissions when you have the chance and leave them some love in their own comment sections.