Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!!

Breakfast with Friends

Yesterday on the way to work I stopped to have breakfast with friends:

 

The Diana Butterfly

Female Spicebush Swallowtail

Swallowtail

 

 

Ending with some of my favorite flowers - a Miltoniopsis in bloom now and the Helleborus early in Spring.

 

Miltoniopsis

Helleborus

 

I have been neglecting my favorite creek this year -  here is one of my latest photos from a few weeks ago.

Wickechoeke Creek





Ranunculus March 2013

Ranunculus in bloom

Ranunculus and bud

Ranunculus in the early morning

Ranunculus in the sun

Yellow tint Ranunculus at high noon

Young Ranunculus flower

Ranunculus just right!

Ranunculus is one of my favorites - especially when I find them in bloom at this time of year.  Here are my latest photographs.

Sunday February 3, 2013

The past few weeks have been bone chilling in the northeast usa!  Lots of winds and scary storms. 

To ease my impatience for spring, I spent the afternoon, both yesterday and today, with a delightful planting of dwarf irises in bloom, a Paphiopedilum Pacific Shamrock x Paphiopedilum Yosemite Moon 'Ching Hua bud just waiting to explode soon and a few other friends as well.

First the irises:

 

 

 

 

 

Here the irises look like they are dancing!  I'm geting dizzy.

 



 

Irises are so graceful and light and the color - spectacular.  Unfortunately, though, the color is not captured correctly by the Nikon camera that I use.  Actually, all blues, reds and purples are never captured correctly using Photoshop.  Seems to work well with the point and shot Nikon cameras but not the D80 that I used here o rthe D300.

 

Now the orchid bud!  This paphiopedilum hybrid only had a single flower last year - starting in April of 2011.  This bud is growing quite large and taking a very long time to mature.  It seems quite content in its surroundings of blooming phalaenopsis everywhere and irises.  It will be the star of the garden in another week or so.

 

 

 

My next surprise this winter is the cattleya hydrid - just one flower this year too.  But it has been peaking out over the past few weeks and now it is starting to display its flower.  And it is lovely.

 

 

 

And there is always the phalaenopsis - so beautiful.