Both of my trips to Florida presented a wonderful floral welcome home in my yard, the first with the cherry tree in full regalia, and the second with my "wild azalea" showing its lovely yellow and orange colors. In this photo, you can see the pollen lifting in the wind too (it was quite windy for this shot). I loved how the morning light also brightened the petals. Best viewed large. :)
I'm in recovery mode from my chaperoning duties. As soon as I returned home, I went outside to check on my bird nests. After seeing a hawk last week scoop up a bird, I've been worried that the chickadees in the bird house and the robins on the side of my house in the gardenia bushes would possibly meet a sorry fate. I saw Mrs. Robin on her nest and Mr. Robin nearby and the chickadee was in the house (you can see her tail feather going up the wall of the house when she's in there). Phew! All is well.
During my trip to Orlando, I decided to take my Canon Powershot and use my Samsung camera phone. What I learned is that I have come a long way in using a camera like my Canon Rebel because I missed being able to really manipulate the settings. My powershot had focus issues and the phone camera was pretty decent, but hard to use (especially since I was trying to save the battery life being a chaperone of 5 girls). I really enjoyed looking for "signs" for the "give me direction" challenge on 365. Once again, this site provides a new way to open my eyes to all that surrounds me!
I'll be looking in on everyone's photos as I can, but work comes first this a.m.
Magnificent blossoms Daryl ! This is lovely large and one can see the pollen letting go. Great color. I so enjoyed all your "sign" photos but lagged well behind in my commenting last week too. Funny your sharing your experience with your powershot. I just bought one of the super-zoom bridge cameras, and a couple of days with it shows me all of its shortcomings. Think it's going back, and I'll have to finally make a decision on a a new dslr. : 0
@foxsparrow it's really weird how much I used to love my powershot--now, I'm just not happy with it. When I recorded the live performance, the zoom literally creaked in and out and could not stay on the subject. The sound is horrible as a result. A point and shoot is really necessary for certain situations (like being at a theme park), but I'm so glad I love lugging my DSLR around now. :) Let me know what you get!
@pflaume@judis@amrita21@jo13@darylo@danette@elisasaeter@darylo@ruthmouch Sorry for the mass reply--have to run out and get to soccer. Welcome home lasts only for so long. I loved the color on this shot and the catch of the specs of pollen. The wind was whipping, so I'm lucky to have had any of it in focus.
What a gorgeous welcome home - a beautiful plant! Sounds like all is very busy in your garden - I love this time of year! Put your feet up in the sunshine and recover from your trip! : )
