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. 

 



 

 



 

Saturday in October 2012

Today I want to send some flowers to a beautiful friend.  In my "garden" is an elegant Zygopeladum fragrant orchid in bloom.  Three vibrant flowers with a fourth just beginning to open.  I always find orchids a difficult subject to photograph but here are two for her today.  She deserves something very special.

I also have an Echeveria Ruby, a Mexican succulent, flowering right now.  Mine is a tiny succulent with spectacular colors.  I hope she likes Ruby.

 

 

 

Cattleya Hybrid Blooming in March 2012

A wonderful sight on a cold damp winter evening.  A blooming cattleya hydrid.

I have been studying lighting in close up photography to get a more dramatic effect.  It seems to work very well.

My Christmas Surprise 2011

Every Christmas we seem to have some unexpected visitors and this year was no different.  How I look forward to this company.

New Jersey USA Wild Turkey - Male

For the first time in many, many months, we had a flock of beautiful wild turkeys stop by to say "hello". 

The elder of the clan was quite impressed with himself - ogling his image in our sliding glass doors.  Even a herd of deer seemed to be amazed by the presence of these big birds.  They came close and stood together just watching their antics outside our back door.  They were really curious about these birds, following them through the woods and stopping to stare.

The turkeys were brilliant, wandering about playfully and then one by one hopped on a big tree trunk that had been leveled by Hurricane Irene to roost for the afternoon.   How delightful.