In my back yard

My tea rose is blooming!
A weed; but a pretty one :)

Whatever this thing is (a grub of some description) is killing my lilies :(
Yummy raspberries!

We were airing out our tent when I saw this little guy...

Perfection

The title says it all....I don't know how else to describe the colour of this flower. These photos are straight-out-of-the-camera and that's exactly what it looks like. While I've always loved the colour blue (and would tell you it's my fave colour) my mother can attest to the fact that I'm always drawn to this colour (as can be explained without a viewing of several dresses I've worn in the past - har har!) - there's just something about it...

This is the flower from the bud in the previous post.

Is this what attracts the ants?

I noticed the peony buds in the back yard all have little droplets on them (and it's not rain!); I wondered if maybe whatever they're producing/secreting is meant to attract insects, namely the ants that always seem to accompany them. Some kind of pollination strategy, perhaps???
Regardless, this peony plant is doing very well and will have a number of blooms in a few short weeks! It would have been really handy to have a macro lens at my disposal for this shot. :(

Rise and Shine :)

Instead of heading straight to work today, I took a detour over to Dow's Lake to snap some shots of Ottawa's famous tulips during sunrise.

Beautiful warm light and unexpected flare :)

Real flare (unlike all the fake photoshop stuff I see so regularly....)

Not the nicest of shots, nor the prettiest of the tulips, but I LOVE the orange and purple flowers together!
I spent some time trying to capture the spider webs strung between flowers. These next 2 shots are about as good as it gets (sadly). Something to work on in the future!
I love how the sun is shining just on the tips of the petals. It was pretty in colour but I preferred it in B&W.

Quick Visit to Florida

So, my Florida photos aren't particularly creative or exciting but any excuse to make a blog post 2 days in a row is good enough for me!

I wish we had palm trees in Ontario!

And whatever this is too!

There's nothing like vibrant colours on the beach!

I was too wimpy to swim but I got my feet wet!

Sandpipers are so much fun to watch! They do everything in unison!

Graceful egret

Pelicans fly slowly enough that they're relatively easy to photograph.

Don't want to be gator bait!

A fern in the shadows

Lookin' out my back door....

It must have been really cold last night.....

Amaryllis

Barnie's flower :)

Birthday Flowers

So pretty-much everyone knows that yesterday was my 30th birthday. Yup, I'm officially older than my 29-year old mother :)
I had a pretty busy day - I worked, went out for thai with my colleagues, did a super-fun engagement shoot with Sarah and Mark (teasers to follow) then came home and had some drinks and Italian food (YUM) with Jeremy & Marsha and Riley & Kathryn (our neighbours) and Brannon, of course. Then slept for 12 hrs!
Perfection :)
While we were outside having some drinks a van pulled up with a special delivery for me. Three guesses who they were from?!?!?

Thanks Mom :)

Some garlic each day keeps the vampires away!

Our neighbour Jeremy grows his own garlic (700 plants!); he just harvested a bunch of it last weekend and he has some hanging outside on his porch. He told us to help ourselves....he should be careful what he wishes for!
Regardless, this is the first photo I've taken with my new 70-200 f2.8 lens and so far I'm liking what I'm seeing. I only hope I can get used to the weight of it -it's by far the heaviest lens I have.

Sprouts

I've been keeping busy with our flowers and veggies; here a few pics I took tonight. I've been photo-documenting all along but I didn't really think anyone would care!

The fruits of my labour - literally!

Hairy litle buggers aren't they??
I hope this provides lots of butternut squash - for soup!
And because I didn't want the flowers to be left out, here's my pretty hydrangea!

Mom's Flowers

I went home yesterday for Father's Day and, like I always do, I dragged my camera around with me all day. Here's a small sample of mom's flowers. Peonies and irises :)

In the garden....

I seem to have a knack for finding weird ladybugs - check this one out! It looks like he's trapped under a contact lens :)


Just one of one of the flowers in my garden :)