Heucheras, Hostas and More, Oh, My!

I was out in the yard again today. All the leaves that had been piled under the maple tree, on the west side of the yard, made their way to the curb, where they will be picked up by the city.  When I moved to the east side of my lot, I became distracted by the Mop-head Hydrangea bush, which still bore last year's blossoms, now skeletonized and dried to a pale tan. Those had to go, so I worked for some time getting the 46 year old shrub trimmed back into a semblance of order; lots of new growth there. That task 'shot my wad' and I had to retreat inside without raking the east half of the yard (but see end of this post.*)

I wrote yesterday that  some of my plants are up/newly leafed, etc., among them my Hostas and Heuchera, or Coral Bells. The photo above shows one of the Heuchera with Hosta shoots behind and to the left. The next photo is a closer look at the Southern Comfort Heuchera. The copper-colored leaves are beautiful, I think.

All photos should enlarge with a click, if you're interested.

I actually stopped to count the Hosta clumps today; I think I said yesterday that there were ten of them, but I counted only seven while I was mulching around the plants with pine needles (generously contributed by my across the street neighbor whose back yard is full of pine trees.) Right now, all that can be seen of the Hostas are these spiky shoots, but there will soon be leaves.

 Before I came back into the house after taking the above photos, I thought I might get some close-ups of the blooms on my Japanese Maple tree. Although quite small, I think they are pretty.  In the process of taking the photos, I made a discovery about my camera. Why this particular effect occurred, I do not know; someone with more photographic experience than I can probably furnish a simple explanation. Both the photo to the left and the one below were taken within seconds of each other. There was still light in the sky, as is evident at left.


My camera was in Macro mode (I was not using my Macro lens, just the camera setting). I activated the flash to take a photo of the same group of blossoms, and .... huh?  It looks like it was taken in the dead of night. (Photo below.) I love the effect, but I don't understand why it happened.

I tried it again on another cluster. Photo to the left - no flash. Photo below - flash.

Inquiring minds want to know -- and they really would like to know without having to read a photography manual (can you say "lazy?")  Anyone out there who would care to explain? Preferably in words of no more than two syllables?


* The east side of the yard: When I returned from a Friday evening church service (we have more services than usual during Lent), I found that the east side of my yard had been raked clean. ??  Some good fairy had been busy.  Making a guess at the person to whom I should be thankful, I phoned Gardening Daughter. Yes, it was she that I had to thank for finishing this tiresome chore. Now I can concentrate on the back yard.


Tomorrow is also a day.

Ecclesiates 1 - Post 90

Hi! I'm still around, but have been having some "Ecclesiastes 1" moments for the past week or so (I've been reading Eugene H. Peterson's contemporary language Bible, The Message, although I grew up on the King James Version.)

Politics (bah and double bah!), the financial markets mess (bah!), unrest in my chosen religious denomination (not at my own small church, thank you, Lord) and a variety of other disquieting goings on are bothering my brain and robbing me of my rest. I have to keep reminding myself that I need to 'let go and let God.' Also, I had let myself get involved in too many things at one time, and sort of wore myself out. While I might like to think that I'm not "old," and the Good Lord has seen fit to let me live past my three-score years and ten, I'm paying the toll for the physical mileage I've racked up.

Weekly Wamblings

(I don't want to steal rhymeswithplague's Tuesday Ramblings)

I've enrolled in a Basic Photography course hosted by a local retail camera & video establishment. The instructor is quite knowledgeable and the presentations are excellent. The students range in age from late 20's (I'm guessing -- mothers of young children who want better photos for their scrapbooks) to two of us who are over 70, and all seem as interested in learning as I am. I'm enjoying it immensely. I'm hopeful that at some point I'll be able to do more with my digital camera than just take snapshots in full "automatic" mode. The photo below is the one I submitted for my first homework -- an easy task since the only requirement was that it be the sort of photo I like to take. I photographed this group of colorful leaves outside the library where we have stamp club meetings.




This week's homework, which has to be turned in tomorrow, Wednesday, the day before class, was more complicated; not because I didn't know what to do, but finding a suitable subject to photograph was a challenge. I don't care to go off very far when I'm alone, and what I had in mind was a bit hard to find locally. I took 52 shots this afternoon, and am not completely happy with any of them, and have to turn in only one. Ah, well.... if the critique session Thursday evening doesn't beat me up too badly, I'll share it, but I can tell you ahead of time it's not nearly so colorful as the one above.

Last weekend I attended the 50th Wedding Anniversary party of a dear friend and her husband. It was a joyous occasion in a beautiful venue. Both my friend and her husband are in general good health, have a wide variety of interests and are delightful to be around. I was happy to be invited to share this occasion with them.

I've also been on a reading marathon, and while not stamping, blogging nor reading (many) blogs, I've managed to go through 10 books in the last 10 days, and I have a stack of nine more sitting on my desk ready to pick up. Most of them (all, actually) are literary bon-bons; all sugar and no substance, not mentally nourishing but mind-occupying, which is what I've needed lately.

I've picked up my crocheting, again. I finished one prayer shawl and started on another, but have only ten rows or so done, so far. Our church maintains a cabinet of prayer shawls which are available for members to give to others, such as new mothers, new brides, persons who are ill or distressed. Each shawl has been blessed at our altar with a special prayer asking God's blessings upon the recipients in whatever circumstance they may find themselves. Since this ministry started last fall, I have completed 15 shawls. I think cooler weather may be more conducive to having a lap full of yarn.

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Photography - Post 16

I've been absent from this blog for a few days, but not absent from my computer. I've been traveling to many other parts of the U.S.A. and the world each day through the joyous discovery of Photo Blogs. Many of the sites I've visited can be found by clicking here: City Daily Photos . Other wonderful photography sites that have quickly become my favorites can be found in the sidebar on the right hand side of my blog.

There was a major downside to my marathon sitting and browsing , however, not limited to puffy ankles and total abandonment of daily housework. I am afraid that the sins of envy and covetousness entered my heart. I currently use a Kodak D4530 camera for all my photos, having only within the past two years abandoned film cameras. For any number of reasons, I really, really need to be content with what I have, but over the past few days I became convinced that, given a wonderful-state-of-the-art digital camera, I could be transformed in the blink of an eye into a wonderful photographer!

Sigh! What a delusion! I need to get over it, use what I have (point and click) to the best of my ability, and pray for forgiveness.

To say that I have taken a lot of photographs in my lifetime is an understatement. I have boxes and boxes of photos, some of which date back 60 years (and most of which need to be consigned to File 13.) I've been snapping one thing after another since one of my uncles gave me a Kodak Brownie camera in 1948; you know, the one with the square view-finder in the top. I'm sure my parents limited the amount of money I could spend on film, but I had a great time while it lasted, and a few black and white photos taken in those days have survived. Sadly, I have no remembrance what became of the camera.

One of things I always aspired to do was to take a photo that would be good enough to be in The National Geographic magazine. I (perhaps) have come close a couple of times in that I was completely satisfied with how the photo turned out. Both were taken with a Minolta SLR camera (now gathering cobwebs), and were complete accidents, since f/stops and shutter speeds were the same as Ancient Greek to me. Both those photos are on slide film (a passing fancy), and I have no idea how to convert them to a digital images.

I was browsing Digital Photo Challenge earlier this week and read that the person who took a winning photograph had taken one hundred ninety three (193) shots of the same thing before she came up with the one she entered in the challenge! Guess it was worth the effort; she was mightily pleased with her peer-conferred blue ribbon. If that's what it takes to be a wonderful photographer, I'd best just sit back and admire the work of others. Which reminds me -- I need to see if Abraham Lincoln , Hilary , and my French friend whose site name I cannot pronounce, have uploaded more wonderful photos!

Ta!