Thursday Challenge: Trees
This week’s Thursday Challenge theme is TREES
(Leaves, Branches, Bush, Forest, Pinecone, Seeds,…).
photography
Ruby Tuesday Tulip with Reds
I took this photo a few weeks ago. Since then, the azaleas are still in bloom but the yellow tulip with touches of red has shed its petals.
In camera news, my new Canon 75-300mm zoom lens was returned to Adorama last week because I kept getting err_99 on the camera. On the third day of using the lens. The first two days were an absolute joy; I could capture bokeh (the fuzzy backdrop with clear subject) like never before. Well, a new one is being shipped, and UPS tracking claims it is somewhere in Edison. I am impatiently awaiting its arrival. One of my friends was glad he has a Nikon.
There’s an expression in Hebrew: Marbeh nechasim, marbeh da’agot. Loosely translated, it means the more stuff you got, the more worries.
For more photos with a little or a lot of red, visit Ruby Tuesday, hosted by Mary:
Today’s Flower: Pink Shrub
My neighbor has this lovely pink shrub that overhangs into my backyard. Guild-rez has just written in a comment that the shrub is weigela. According to Wikipedia, the genus is named after the German scientist Christian Ehrenfried Weigel.
I enjoy photographing all these cascades of pink bugle-like flowers.
Dainty, isn’t it?
For more flowers, visit Today’s Flowers:
Nature Notes: Bee, Squirrel, Basil
Bees were happily flying all about the andromeda shrub in front of my house. My daughter was afraid of the bees, but I told her they were much more interested in the flowers than in her.
I look forward to making pesto with all the basil I have in my tray. I put in some oregano seeds, too; I do not know what I am going to do with this much oregano. I am working on converting all of my front yard into perennials (with some annuals each year, some shrubs already there) and doing away with trying to establish grass without weeds. Maybe I’ll plant some of the oregano there. Some of my neighbors have no grass at all in their front yards (and instead have ground cover and perennials); others dutifully maintain the green, bright strips of lawn.
Week in Review with Azalea Blooms
On My Blog
The Rabbi, The Mayor and A Blue and White Parade in Edison, NJ
Today’s Flowers: Today’s Flowers: Chives, Columbine and Bleeding Heart
Sweet, Bittersweet and Painful
Upcoming in Highland Park: library book sale and the annual street fair (see my post from last year of the street fair)
Elsewhere in the Blogosphere
Robin of Around the Island is starting a new photo meme called Summer Stock Sunday. First edition will be Sunday, May 31. Get those summer pics ready!
I want to wish my friends recovering from surgery the strength and patience to heal. Ilana-Davita wrote a bit about her experience with recovery in this post. For another friend, who is here in Highland Park, I wish recovery and healing and growth and renewed energy.
A useful link that came up because we were talking passwords: How To Create a Tough Password That Cannot Be Cracked By Anyone
A Riddle in Prose
Inspired by Mottel’s riddles, I decided to write one of my own, but in prose. (Here’s Mottel’s latest poetic quiz).
Someone is coming to visit me today. Someone I once interviewed for this blog. The name is in my Twitter stream.
• • •
In other news, the jury duty I mentioned in my Twitter stream got called off. I called last night, and my number was higher than the ones that had to show up. I felt like I had won the lottery. I could write a whole post on jury duty, but I don’t think I want to commit some of ideas to writing. I feel un-American if I say I don’t like the idea of a jury. Really, it’s that I don’t like the idea of my having to serve on a jury and listen. Besides, I have too many other responsibilities to be a good jurist. I think next time I get called for a jury, I will work on the elderly father excuse. My father (finally) got a new computer; I set it up for him on Sunday, and every time he touches it he has another tech support question.
And my brand-new 75-300mm Canon Lens had to get returned to Adorama yesterday, because I was getting an “err_99.” Taking a pencil eraser and rubbing the gold points on the lens did not do the trick. This was the lens that allowed me to captured the robin and swallow in my Nature Notes this week. I hope a new lens comes, without any error messages appearing soon after I get excited about how wonderful the lens is.
• • •
And in yet even more news, #themethursday this week is Typography. You don’t have to have a Twitter account to benefit. Go to http://search.twitter.com and put #themethursday as your search term. Enjoy the typography links! Love well-done typography. Something I’ve always wanted to learn in greater detail.
Watery Dianthus
Last week it rained and rained and rained here in New Jersey. My plants were very happy.
For more watery photos, visit Watery Wednesday:
Nature Notes: Birds
Michelle at Rambling Woods writes:
I am going to challenge myself and hopefully you to take a look at nature. What is going on in your area? Is it spring in your part of the world or are you heading into cold weather. Take a little walk….. look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?..Step outside and close your eyes. What do you hear? …take a deep breath…What do you smell?
I’d really like to know how my blogger friends feel about what they observe in nature. Post a photo..a poem..artwork or a even few words about what you see and how it made you feel…
I finally got a 75-300mm zoom lens for my camera, and I can photograph…BIRDS! I sent my “exotic” bird photos off to Michelle, and she told me I had captured a robin and a sparrow. Well, at least now I know what an American robin and a house sparrow look like. Thank you, Michelle, for your inspiration! And a local birder expert just informed me: “The house sparrows are both males. Females don’t have that black in front.”
Today’s Flowers: Chives, Columbine and Bleeding Heart
Who would have thought that chives up close can produce such pretty purple flowers? I look forward to my sage plant blooming as well; it also produces lovely purple blooms.
This was what I photographed of my columbine plant one week ago.
Here’s the same plant one week later, with an open white bloom.
The bleeding heart plant (dicentra spectabilis) on the side of my house is showing its little pink hearts. After a while, the greenery of this perennial plant dies down, and one has to be careful to leave it alone so it will bloom again next year.
For more flowers, visit Today’s Flowers:
Week in Review with Maple
On My Blog
Today’s Flowers: Periwinkle, Lilac, and Dogwood
Thursday Challenge: Andromeda
Watery Wednesday: Sandy Hook Bay
Pros and Cons of Self-Hosted WordPress
20 Twitter and Blog Links to Give Your Friends
A Design, For Fun! (more of this design, coming soon PLUS can you answer the question I asked in that post? Dhaval got the answer.)
Upcoming in Highland Park: bring your used books to the Highland Park Public Library starting on Monday. And in Edison, there’s an upcoming mayoral primary.