Lavender

Seems appropriate to post a delicate flower picture for Mother's Day. (Anyone know what kind of flower this is? Beats me.)

Our house sure is lucky to have an incredible woman like my wife. Mother of three, teacher of two, cook for all five, kisser of cheeks, healer of wounds, cleaner of messes, washer of clothes, all-around-keeps-the-house-running-glue-that-holds-our-family-together woman.

Yep. Pretty lucky.

Just Dandy

A dandelion prepared to launch seeds and spread a sea of yellow into nearby yards.

Doesn't it take you back to childhood? What kid can resist picking these guys and blowing the seeds to the wind?

Vibrance

I still can't get over how strikingly colorful this flower was--didn't enhance it at all.

Delicate Yellow

Had the pleasure of visiting fields of fragile tulips at the Wooden Shoe Bulb Company's tulip festival this weekend--nearly 80 degrees out, sunny, and clear blue skies. Perfect day for shooting.

Only after we were leaving did I find out that a Canon camera dealer on site was lending some awesome cameras and lenses out for FREE. Sneaky way to get my wanter wanting. Someday I'm gonna splurge big to upgrade to better lenses. I think it's gonna have to wait until some mid-life crisis or retirement.

Pine Cone

Oregon has many more evergreen trees than rural Ohio, a fact not lost on my three-year old son. No trip to the park is complete until he has as many pine cones and sticks as his hands can hold--presents for mommy.

Spring Bud

Someone asked me today how we were surviving our first Portland winter. "When was it winter?" I thought. The plants were budding in February!

Lonely Leaf

A solitary leaf in late afternoon.

Touch of Gold

Tiny yellow flowers by a neighbor's mailbox. I'm sure they thought I was bonkers kneeling down in their yard with my nose to the ground.

Sunshine Reminder

Sunshine in flower form. A vivid reminder that summer will be back eventually. Really, it will.

Morning Dew

Dewdrops glisten in morning light.

Dreamin' of a Green Christmas

Red leaf peeks through green. It's December in Portland with verdant leaves still on the trees.

The Holly and the Ivy

Would you believe I've never seen real holly? Not until I noticed how many of our neighbors have it growing right in their front yard.

White Fuzzy

White fuzzies dress a garden plant with an artificial frost.

Leaf LIght

A flock of leaves flitter around a street light like amber moths.

Evergreen Droplet

A water droplet balloons on the tip of an evergreen needle before falling to its demise. The rainy season seems to have drizzled its way into Portland. It's always a soft rain, with gentle trickles of water bubbling their music as I walk to the bus in the morning.

Black Eyed Susan

What an odd name for a such a nice flower. Who gave Susan a black eye, anyway?

Browning Maple

A lonely maple leaf rests on the sidewalk wet with a morning mist.

Fall is Falling

The photoblog is back after several weeks off as we moved clear across the country from Ohio to Oregon. We're settled in and I'm finding time to shoot again thanks to the encouragement of some photoblog fans.

This Japanese Maple lives in the front yard of a neighbor down the block, shot on one of our first days here before all our earthly possessions arrived by truck. The leaves formed a vivid gradient from yellow-green, to bright orange, to crimson, splashing a warm rainbow of color welcoming us to the neighborhood.

Brown and Green

Crisp brown leaves remind me that all too soon summer will be gone, taking green along with it.

Water Web

A spider web captures water droplets suspended above a dried leaf just outside our front door.

Sunflower

Discovered a yellow blaze of sunflowers by the road the other day.

Plant Symmetry

August rain is restoring green to our little plot of suburbia. (If you can call where we live a suburb. There's not exactly an "urb" anywhere near us.)

Hidden Beauty

Weird how lush vegetation thrives in such a barren landscape as a back alley where no one but the trash guy gets to enjoy it.

Ivy

A few of the buildings downtown are covered in a green tapestry of ivy during the summer.

Thistle While You Work

Pokey plants along the roadside.

Wheat Harvest

Endless blue skies and amber waves of grain--just another reason why it's great to live in northwest Ohio.

Bzzzzzzzzz

There's yet another exotic flower in our back yard that I don't know the name of. Fragrant white flowers hang upside down clustered over a tall stalk. The bees sure love it.

Dew Drop

Dew on a leaf in our back yard. Someday when we have our own house and I have nothing else to do, I think I'll take up gardening and putter about in the yard. There's a lot gardening teaches about life: patience in waiting for change, the need to nurture people for them to grow, the frailty and temporary-ness of things, how we're all connected and need each other.

Flower Collage

Found a great photo op in Fort Wayne, Indiana yesterday at Lakeside Park and Rose Garden. As much as I enjoy taking photos, even I get tired of looking at flower pictures pretty quickly--so I thought I'd get it over with and put them all in a collage. Enjoy!

May Flowers

Peonies are in bloom in our backyard as of today thanks to whoever lived here before us. Makes me think about legacy--leaving beauty behind for others to enjoy long after you've left.

Iris

One of the great things about the house we live in now is that someone before us obviously loved flowers. Irises started blooming this week.