photography

Thursday Challenge: Flowers

fall flowers
Rudbeckia, marigolds, one white petunia and one pink zinnia from the garden in my front yard

Thursday Challenge: The theme for this week is PLANTS (Garden, Vegetables, Fruit, Flowers, Trees,…).

Creative Photography: Carrot

carrot
Because I like other bloggers that enter this contest, I decided to enter this carrot photo. It’s called Creative Photography. I hope I’m doing this right. I basically desaturated around the carrot in Photoshop and blurred some of the greys. I’m doing studies of carrots for my watercolor painting. Watercolor of carrot coming soon.

Kids’ Books & Carrots

A few recommendations for Rosh Hashanah books for young children:

Children’s books are often a great way to learn a new topic. For example, when I was learning needlepoint about twelve years ago (I was pregnant with my second child and wanted to do something creative that required little clean up and one could sit), I found some nice books in the children’s section of the library.

Meanwhile, I am struggling over a carrot. Did you know that carrots’ leaves, the frilly part anyway, are far from the carrot top?

carrot with piece on top
carrot with piece on top, greenery is broken off top and placed on the carrot

carrot leaves winding around the carrot
carrot leaves winding around the carrot

My plan is to do a watercolor of the carrot. I have the paper set up, and the watercolor nearby. But first I need to decide on a composition. I’d like to have some greenery with my carrot, but I can’t decide on where to place it. I don’t want it on top, as in the first photo.

Note to pomegranate lovers: Not yet in season here. So I either have to work from a Google photo or copy this stamp. Not my ideal choice.

Ruby Tuesday: Begonias

Small Town Reds remind me of Small Town Blues


Do you live in a small town? Do you find that more people are shopping in malls or online, so the stores in your little town are not what they used to be?

I photographed these begonias on Raritan Avenue in Highland Park last month. They remind that while we have some pretty planted flowers through volunteers and through state tax money, we still have empty stores and too many hair and nail salons. Not enough stores that one can really use. We do have a great toy store, but the bookstores disappeared, the bike shop went away, a fish shop closed, and not enough new, interesting stores move in.

To participate in Ruby Tuesday, post a photo (or more) with a little red or a LOT of red. Then visit Mary the Teach at http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/ to submit your link.

ruby tuesday

Sky Watch Assortment


Thank you to R&J for giving me the courage to post this tilted photo. It’s the New York State side of the Delaware River, taken on our recent canoe trip.


I took this one in the Walmart parking lot in Milford, Pennsylvania at 5:30 a.m. I was buying milk so my kids could have milk and cereal. They sell a lot at this Walmart, include fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, and dairy products, but no freshly-brewed coffee. Sounded like the cashiers would have appreciated coffee, too.


In order to represent three U.S. states in this post, here’s one I took in my backyard in Highland Park, New Jersey. I think it looks a bit like Central America and the Gulf of Mexico.

Ruby Tuesday Raspberries



We are fortunate in our wonderful crop of raspberries that grow in our backyard. The bottom photo shows a bowl of these delightful berries that my husband picked. Truth is, these berries rarely make it into our kitchen, as we love to eat them in our backyard, right off the branch. No need for recipes. We get crop #1 in early July on old canes and #2 in late August on the new, green canes. One trick for maintaining these berry bushes is be sure to prune the old canes.

To participate in Ruby Tuesday, post a photo (or more) with a little red or a LOT of red. Then visit Mary the Teach at http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/ to submit your link.

ruby tuesday

Portulaca

Here is a portulaca in bloom. In the upper right corner, one can see white alyssum.
Here is a portulaca in bloom. In the upper right corner, one can see white alyssum.

portulacas blooming by sidewalk
More portulacas blooming by the sidewalk.
portulaca bud
portulaca bud

Portulaca or moss rose, which I grow in front of my house bordering the sidewalk, is one of my favorite flowers. I love watching the little buds grow. I love looking at the flowers in the middle of the day to see which one is in full bloom. They don’t need a lot of care, just weeding around them and sunlight.

Today’s Flowers is hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr. Thank you, Luiz!

Ruby Tuesday Rides the Rapids

or

You can’t please everyone all the time


We went canoeing on the Delaware River between New York State and Pennsylvania. Most of us had fun. My daughter did not. She wanted the gentle course we chose last summer, the one my boys, who are ages 11 and 13, thought boring.


Can you see the tiny red canoe in the distance? Halfway my eldest son and I switched, so he did not have to yell at me to stop taking pictures. It is not easy nor advisable to be the one steering a canoe and taking photos at the same time. On the second half, I sat in the front, my husband in the back, my six-year-old daughter in the middle. Every time we crossed some rapids, she would shriek: “Oar! You have to oar!” I did try to tell her the proper word is paddle, but that didn’t interest her much.

Finally, at some point she refused to do the section of rapids ahead of us. So daughter and I hiked the side while husband did the short stretch of rapids. He waited for us on the bottom. I used this as an opportunity to photograph:


I apologize for including the above photo with no red on a Ruby Tuesday post. I’m sure you will forgive me. If I squint at the stems, I can see slivers of red. Can you?

Yesterday in my haste I mistakenly deleted a favorite red leaf photo from the camera. Has this happened to you? Do you then walk around with a pang in your heart for a day? (quick, someone send me to the nearest photoblogger’s anonymous meeting). This one with its signs of approaching autumn will have to do:

We passed under a bridge with a red dotted sign:

And I didn’t notice what this sign said until we were right on top of the diver, I just saw red:

To participate in Ruby Tuesday, post a photo (or more) with a little red or a LOT of red. Then visit Mary the Teach at http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/ to submit your link.

ruby tuesday

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