Red

Mystery Flowers

I snapped these in a city garden last week thinking they were columbines. I was sure of it. Then I started searching around for the variety and now I am thinking not. They have fine, feathery foliage like cosmos, but the flowers don’t look like cosmos at all. They are quite tall and a bit weedy looking but the flowers are very photogenic! Any ideas?

Foxglove Love

Wow, cheesiest title ever….most of my loyal readers will not believe this, but I used to be a decent writer.  In college, a couple of professors even suggested it as a career path. But now, a mere fifteen years later this is what you get – Foxglove Love – because it rhymes and I can’t think of anything else. My apologies….

Hope your Monday was at least tolerable….

Spring

It is cold. It is raining. I am sitting next to a warm, cozy fire. Not your typical May in Mississippi. I took these last week before Mother Nature forgot it was supposed to be Spring….

Randomness……

As a friend and I were talking a few months ago, the conversation turned toward personality types- specifically introverts vs. extroverts.  When I observed that I was an unusually talkative introvert, my friend made the insightful point that introverts are not necessarily shy people, but are just people whose batteries get recharged by being alone.  The opposite being true about extroverts, they are not always talkative types, but thrive when surrounded by others.

Makes perfect sense to me.  I love being around people- I coach, I teach….but honestly, it sucks the life out of me if I don’t get some “away from the world” time.

I say all of this to explain  that  right now I am completely drained dry of any creativity.  It has been months of constant going and giving and I am just tired.  Therefore today, as I reach down into the depths of my soul to come up with a post, all I can muster for you is randomness.

These are shots that I have been trying to fit in for awhile now, but have lacked the imagination to put together in a cohesive fashion…..

What a tornado will do to a once-majestic, century old tree….

Winter Sage Grass….

White iris, the earliest bloomers around these parts….

Pine tree pollen cones, currently causing havoc to sinuses all around the South….

A slew close to my house at sunset….

Told you it was random! Hope your day is a little less aimless

Spring. Sort of….

Spring had sprung.  The weather was wonderful with temperatures settling in the 60s, low 70s.  Buds and blooms were bursting forth from every tree and bush, including my favorite spring bloomers, the pear trees.  Their beautiful pink buds open up into white flowers within a few days….

The roses are budding out, including my six new bushes that I bought for $10 at a local nursery last fall at a they-have-blackspot-good-luck! sale. I nursed them back to health and they all seem to be doing fine.

The redbuds had exploded….

The birds had arrived….

It was spring.

At least until last Sunday night, when temperatures dropped into the upper 20s at night and with highs only in the 30s during the day. My father reminds us most years that his grandfather, a cattle farmer, always warned to have enough hay to get through March because there is always a brutal, cold snap that comes late and fools everyone. It is good to know that some things never change!

Hope your Spring has been a bit warmer than mine!

Snow in the Blue Hour

Ok, I am really going to drag the whole snow thing out for awhile because….

1. It snows so rarely here in the great State of Mississippi,

2. It has been raining so much the past few weeks I can’t get out and take any new pictures!!!

While these are not my favorite shots compositionally, I quickly snapped them during the “blue hour”  right after dawn and really love the blue light and how crisp it made the snow look.  Notice how the blue changes as the sun starts to come up from deep indigo to a light blue to white with just a hint of blue.  It is also amazing to contrast these shots to the warm whites from my previous post, where the photos were taken at midday. A few short hours can make a world of difference in the world of light!

It was a comical scene- me out in the blowing snow trying to protect my camera with an umbrella and Ziploc bags (hey, whatever works !) while fighting off our new little lab puppy trying to bite my rubber boots! Hope you enjoy!

P.S. Please use your imagination and pretend that I cropped the edge of the children’s playhouse roof out of this picture so I don’t have to redo this post! Thanks!

Snowy South

It doesn’t happen often….snow in Mississippi.  It didn’t last long-only a few hours in the morning before it melted- but my camera and I made the most of it!