366: Daily Archive Photo

(5 more in notes above) Living in rural southern Oregon has shown me that even on my own property, some of the most beautiful flowers in the world can be found. This is a close up of a Henderson's Fawn Lily, which blooms during March all over our hillside and lower forest. This lovely blossom faces downwards, so getting a proper picture requires one to flop onto the ground and angle your camera up for a "face" shot! These flowers are usally lavender-purple, but some species are creamy yellow to bright yellow in color. There are a few of the creamy yellow ones along our ridge top, a wonderful surprise for me to find! If you roll your mouse over this picture, you will see other pictures I've taken of Henderson's Fawn Lily, and a couple of Oregon Fawn Lilies too! :)

I found this lovely mushroom just two days shy of exactly two years ago. It's always such fun to find them, and one of the things I most love is how they all look like little fungus people with a story to tell. This one, for example, seems to be peering down at me with a mixture of curiosity and boldness. Perhaps it's thinking, "Just what are you and who do you think you are, stomping around in my forest?" Staring down at me as I lay on the leaves and moss, I could imagine it continuing with, "Why, you're disturbing the serenity and frightening all the creatures into hiding! Do please go away from here this instant!" :D I have folders brimming with wonderful images like this to share...how will I ever get to them all?! But at least I can share a few, and I hope that you like this one! :)

When I decided to work on a garden a couple of years ago, one of the things I wanted was pumpkins. I got lots of varieties and it was a lot of fun to watch them sprout and grow. Pumpkins grow on vines, which means tendrils! I love the way these look, and how incredibly strong they are! I captured this one clinging to the deer fencing that enclosed my front garden. Explored on February 28, 2016. Highest placement, #46.

After a wildfire raged over one of our meadows, through our shop and up our hillside, I finally had the courage to take a closer look. With camera in hand I wandered up the ravaged hillside and took pictures of what I saw in the aftermath. Here is a heat-scorched madrone leaf laying on the burned soil.

Steve and I went to Cottage Grove a couple of years ago so we could ride our bikes on a 30-mile tour of the covered bridges there. We had a wonderful day, and as we were making our way back at the end of our ride, we saw this handsome train bridge lit beautifully in the late afternoon sun.

(+1 in a note above) There is a town near our home called Shady Cove, and every year during March, people come from far and wide to visit Daffodil Hill. On each side of the road that leads to the top are acres and acres of daffodils in every variety that you can imagine. What a sight! Steve and I went up there three years ago and I took hundreds of pictures. After we left, we ended up driving around taking pictures of flowering trees that were in full bloom as well. When I got home I was so exhausted that I processed only one picture for my 365 project (see the image in the note above), and I've only finished a couple of other images...what a shame!! Along with this one today, I'll be sharing other pictures when I can in the months ahead! :)

One of the coolest things about having a garden are all of the insects that come to visit. Of course there were plenty of pests, but lots of beneficial insects as well. Wasps don't spread much pollen, but they do a little bit, and they certainly are fun to observe and photograph! This one spent a lot of time slowly crawling around this fallen morning glory blossom before finally flying away.

The year 2013 was a special one because that was when I decided to do my 365 photography project. I'd thought about it a lot before I committed to this challenge because I didn't want to fail. I was successful but I didn't expect to end up with so many pictures I was happy with. In fact, I wasn't able to show lots of the ones I finished, and there were and are still hundreds that need my attention. It was during the year that I became unhappy that I had so many unfinished pictures which really deserved to see the light of day. And now, every day I post a picture for my 366 Archive project, it makes me so happy! Here is a picture I took in January that year, a beautiful mushroom covered in frost in lovely morning light!

Growing poppies quickly became a mad love affair to me because they give so much and require so little in return. From happy seedling to freaky looking hairy bud, and then to breathtaking blossom and finally to their alien-like seed pods, these flowers are a feast to the eyes! I discovered the Poppy Game soon after they began blooming in my garden the first year, which is where you try to catch a poppy blossom opening up before the outer casing falls away. It happens fairly rapidly so you must be outside as the sun hits the flowers or you will likely find blossoms opening with the outer husk laying on the ground below. Sometimes the flowers seem to want to pose for me, and this particular June 1 morning in 2014, I managed to find an opening poppy with its casing AND a lovely poppy bud in the background fading into soft bokeh. :)

This is a close-up of a stump I found while wandering around on my property. I love the intricate pattern and interesting texture.

Our property is covered by oak forest which is divided by a large meadow. There is a huge variety of plants and animals to photograph, and with a macro lens, there is no end to all of the subjects to discover and capture. One of my favorite types of plants are the lichens, and we have many that grow here. I love these shrubby lichens, and their name, "Fruticose," means "shrubby"! :)

The first time I saw one of these flowers, I exclaimed out loud, "WHAT IS THAT?!!" Love in a Mist comes in blue, white, pink or pale purple, and a couple of years ago I planted a bunch of seeds of mixed colors with the hope that one of them would grow. To my delight, a couple of seeds sprouted and I got flowers of both blue and white! Explored on March 8, 2016. Highest placement, page 3.

A couple of years ago, just a day before my birthday, Steve and I got to go to a special event near our home. The show specialized in a type of horse which was bred by Romany people in Europe. They are generally spotted and quite short--the height of a pony--but sometimes the size of a normal horse. The show also had a few of my favorites, the enormous Drum Horses, which were originally bred by the Royal Stable in London for the Queen of England for parades and processions. Think of a spotted Clydesdale or Shire and you've got it right. This stunning stallion did not win his class but I thought he was incredible!!

Bearded Iris are truly stunning flowers and come in a rainbow of colors. A friend of ours has hundreds of them growing on her property and invited us to visit in May of 2013. I was not prepared for the amazing sight of all of those flowers! We had a marvelous day taking pictures and I got to practice my skills at capturing these blossoms. Breathtaking! Explored on March 10, 2016. Highest placement, page 2.

This darling baby frog was a rescued tadpole from our seasonal pond. It dries up before all of the tadpoles can transform into frogs, so before that happens, I transfer them to a plastic wading pool and give them the extra time they need to finish developing into frogs. I adore these little guys and what awesome photography subjects they make! :)

When we think about daffodils, the first image that pops into our heads is usually the solid yellow beauty that is so popular and grown so profusely everywhere. I didn't realize that there was such a huge variety of types and sizes though, and I love the unusual types like this "double" blossom with its delicate buttercream-colored petals. If you want to be stunned by the variety of daffodils, here is a google search for hybrid daffodils ! You won't believe what you will see! Explored on March 11, 2016. Highest placement, page 4.

One of my favorite things to find are leaves that have been caught on the way down to the ground. It seems so improbable that it would happen, but when you think of the zillions of leaves and zillions of chances of such an occurrance, once in a while it happens. And, with all those leaves and all those chances, it's not all that uncommon! Here's an Oak leaf caught in a fence! I discovered this cool find a couple of autumns ago. Explored on March 12, 2016, highest placement #116.

Did you know that this flower is also called a wild carrot? While the roots are young, they are edible but become too woody as they mature. I love the flowers, which really do look like lace, don't they?! :) I think the opening buds are very alien-looking and interesting to look at. Steve and I found these flowers when we visited Cottage Grove a couple of years ago.