The camera gave me an incredible freedom. It gave me the ability to parade through the world and look at people and things very, very closely. Carrie Mae Weems
Some spring blooms have a delicate and short lifespan. One of these are the flowers that bloom on Magnolia trees. They are so beautiful, and the fragrance is wonderful, but all it takes is for the weather to go a bit awry (a lot of rain, sudden temperature drop, high winds) and they are gone!
On an almost perfect day this past weekend (overcast but mild winds and temps in the 70’s) I dug out my trusty macro lens and went to the park. I spent a lot of time with the Magnolia trees. Here’s an example of doing a darker edit. What do you think of it?
By the way…I do have other macro images of these flowers that are fully in the light. Will post them later.
Happy first day of Spring! I don’t know about you, but I am no fan of winter. Last time I was a fan of winter was when I was a child in school and looked forward to snow cancellation days. Now, I am looking forward to warmer temperatures and the spring flowers, birds returning, and starting my vegetable and herb garden. Not looking forward to the pollen returning but we can’t have it all!
Here’s a little crocus quietly singing Me and My Shadow to celebrate the day.
There was a nice break in the not feeling my best action and then it was back to the appointments and blood work. The one good vein in my arm is demanding Girl Scout Cookies to make amends for all of the needle pokes.
My story – sticking to it!
The weather was pretty nice, almost spring like, one day when we decided to get out of the house and go visit the annual Blooms and Butterflies exhibit at the Franklin Park Conservatory here in Ohio. Unfortunately, I did not read everything on their webpage because when we arrived there was a LONG line waiting to get in. Turns out the first Sunday of each month is community appreciation day and everyone with the proper county ID gets in free. We do not live in the get in free county.
Lesson learned – believe me!
But we made the best of it even if we didn’t stay as long as we normally would’ve. We will have to return when it’s not such a busy day. I also learned that since I switched from butterflies to birds, I can name birds, but I’ve forgotten butterfly names, save for a few. So here are a few of the little lovelies from the exhibit. I can only identify the Blue Morpho and the Tailed Jay – the first two butterflies.
If you can identify the others, I’d appreciate it. Hope all is well in your world.
Snow and ice in Florida and Louisiana, subzero temperatures (it was -6 degrees here just two mornings ago) and gloomy grey skies…it has been a winter wondering what’s going to happen next land. As I type this, it’s snowing again here.
Actually, the high temperature in Anchorage, Alaska was 20 degrees higher than here in Ohio just the other day. I wonder how the bears are doing? They’re probably all nice and cozy in their sleeping areas (I have no idea where the bears in Lake Clark winter) dreaming of when they can come back out and eat the bounties of spring and summer. I’m with you on the salmon and berries – the clams and sedge grass are all yours!
Teri 🐻
Coastal Brown Bears in Lake Clark National Park, Alaska. All but for the one sitting down were busy looking for a nice juicy razor clam to fill up on.
Hello everyone! I’m still around, just not here on WordPress/the Blog. Life reached a point where I just couldn’t (and still really can’t) keep up with many things I used to, so some things fell by the side of the highway… one of them being this blog.
That’s not to say I didn’t think about you. A few of you I’m still in contact with in real-time as well as on Instagram (Seriously! If you have IG you can see what things I am up to over there @imagesbytd ) Instagram is so much easier for me to keep up with and post to. I can do it on my phone while sitting on the sofa, sitting in a repair shop, sitting in a waiting room, sitting in a doctor’s office…etc.
Mentioning medical stuff, last year was NOT fun for our household. Between DH and I there were entirely too many doctors visits, loads of blood drawn, medicine on top of medicine, four emergency room visits, four surgeries and two hospital stays. You know you’ve been to a facility too many times when a nurse says “Hey! I remember you. You wore those cool overalls the last time you were here!”
See what I mean…
And then there was life that left and life that entered. My sweet, adorable mother-in-law left this world, and we became great grandparents to a new baby girl – my first born’s first born first born (did I say that right? you get the point!) Circle of life and all that.
To say I’m low on energy would be highly accurate. We are both on the mend now but treading a bit cautiously although my doctors would be highly upset with me with all of the “comfort” food I’ve been eating. I am trying to make amends, but the call of cheese popcorn and pizza is hard to resist! If I could make a decent biscuit I’d really be in trouble.
So anyway…I don’t know when I will post again but maybe I can try to reintegrate myself back into WordPress land by at least popping in to read what you are up to. Time will tell. So for this post here is a photo of a Northern Shoveler duck staring down its nose at me. Sums up how 2024 and I glared at each other.
Lake Clark National Park, the beach on Cook Inlet, tide is out and all the bears are out digging for Razor Clams. The hoomans are all out photographing the bears digging for the clams and the Glaucous-winged Gulls are in force waiting to snatch some nibbles from whatever the bears leave behind.
Hello everyone! I haven’t been around (obviously) for a very long time. Life has been lifing (is that even a word) the heck out of me this year… and DH too. This has not been the best year for me health wise and it seems there’s always another appointment and another test/procedure the medical folks want to do.
We’ve experienced emergency surgery and emergency surgery. But there have also been some beautiful moments like the birth of a great granddaughter – that one still boggles my mind. Me? Great grandma? And I passed a milestone of a birthday (thankful to see another year and NO I am not revealing the number) by taking a bucket list of a trip to Alaska.
Bears, puffins, whales, glaciers, three national parks and all the seafood I could handle! Yippee!
We practically lived with Coastal Brown Bears in Lake Clark National Park, as you can see in the photo where a 4 year old male took a stroll through the lodge we stayed at. He behaved like a big toddler but one with big claws and teeth. There was never any danger as long as you used common sense and followed the guides directions.
I will try to post more photos from Alaska but I cannot promise when or how often. I do post regularly on Instagram (@imagesbytd) as it’s easier on me… mostly. Hope all of you are doing well.
Most of the early spring flowers, such as crocus and daffodils, are gone now. But the tulips are in full bloom with us although I fear that the storms that have been coming through lately might blow all of their petals away any day now.
While I am no big fan of winter, it is nice to live somewhere where there are the four seasons and all of the nature that goes along with that. After all of the spring flowers have had their moment on stage, then it will be time for roses – they are my favorites! In the meantime, we enjoy the tulips and all of the trees that are just beginning to bloom like Dogwood and Magnolia.
Unfortunately, this also means that allergy season will be upon us (if not already in some places) giving us the sniffles and sneezing. Oh well! Enjoy your weekend and whatever is blooming in your neck of the woods.
With diamond. In this case, I’m not sure where Lucy was at the time, but the diamond ring was definitely there. During an eclipse, the diamond ring phenomenon occurs just before the Sun is completely blocked and the very last rays signal the moment to see a magical Diamond Ring around the Moon.
This happens twice. Once when entering totality and again when coming out of totality and it is very very quick! Blink or look away for a second and you can miss it. I missed it entirely during the 2017 total solar eclipse but was able to capture this image when totality was over on April 8th.
I hope you got to see some if not all of the solar eclipse that happened this past Monday, April 8th. We lived in the path of totality which meant that unlike when we drove from Ohio to Kentucky in 2017, we did not have to deal with a dreadful traffic jam when leaving where we viewed the eclipse.
It was horrible!
But we chose to drive a bit over an hour north of our home to get to a wildlife reserve that was closer to the center line of totality. Why? Well, it meant that we had a bit less cloud cover and over three minutes of totality! Mentioning cloud cover, the photos from this eclipse were just a bit softer and the corona wasn’t as prominent as it was in 2017. I am not complaining! We were still able to see it and take photos.
We had very very minor traffic slowdowns heading north, and our GPS took us through some very scenic side roads (through parts of Ohio we had never seen) to get us back to the main highway to get back home. The only downside to where we picked to set up for photographing the eclipse was – as we later found out – ticks!
Yeah! We had to pick off a few when we got home. Mental note to self…next time you are out in a wilderness field, USE TICK SPRAY! I should’ve known better to check before we packed up the car considering I watched a man pick them off his dog before they left. I was so hyped from the eclipse I didn’t think. Won’t do that again!
One day I hope to learn how to make a composite image but until then, here are some images from right after first contact to totality. I was elated to capture sunspots, prominences, the corona and to witness nature doing amazing things like the birds all flying away to their resting spots (and then coming back) and the temperature dropping around 10 degrees. Things went from 70’s to low 60’s.
Images by T.Dashfield Photography 
