It's Trillium Time!

Could Ontario be represented by a more beautiful flower?!?!?! I took these photos while I was visiting my parents yesterday. I didn't want to miss my chance since the next time I'm there they'll likely be done for the season. For some reason, the red ones never look as healthy as the white ones. Apparently, it's not because they're 'unhealthy' but because they tend to turn pink as they age. Who knew?!?!

In case you're interested, there are ~43 known trillium species - I'm pretty sure the ones shown above are of the T. graniflorum spp, meaning they have large flowers. Everyone thinks it's illegal to pick them but according to wikipedia (great source, I know - haha) that's not actually the case, except for one species.

Home Sweet Home

I went home to spend the day with my mom, and she showed me this little treasure. Sadly, she had to remove this nest from inside of their boat lift. Not necessarily because they didn't want it there but it's a dangerous spot for the nest, with the boat being lifted up and down so often. I never thought to ask what kind of bird is responsible for this incredible craftiness but it's pretty impressive! It's full of grass, moss, feathers, twigs, and even has the odd thin little piece of plastic. I love how the outside is completely covered in moss, although you might think it would be more appropriate inside for 'softness'.

Here, you can see the feather incorporated into the nest.
I like how you can see how absolutely perfect the circular opening is, and how the materials are distributed!

In my back yard

I swear none of these buds were in bloom yesterday but when I looked outside this morning this is what I saw. When the rain ceased for a bit I ran out with my camera and took a few shots of the pretty trees/bushes. I love raindrops on leaves!

This is the serviceberry/juneberry bush we got from the city of Ottawa last spring. We weren't sure it would survive the winter but it has! It turns out we have another one too, but it was done blooming by the time we moved in so we didn't realize it.
I really like how different parts of the plant are in and out of focus...

We have a lilac bush!

I'm not actually sure what this shrub is but it's part of our 'living fence'.

Temple's Sugar Camp

So, as I said yesterday, we went to Temple's Sugar Camp with Brannon's family. His cousin Todd, his wife Allison and their son, Charlie, were visiting from the GTA so it was a nice excuse for a trip! I would highly recommend this establishment; the food was nothing short of amazing. They have a lot of variety and have pancakes/waffles/breads made with everything from buttermilk and buckwheat to cornmeal and pumpkin (with lots of choices for sides)! It's also fully licensed for those of you who like a beer with your brunch!! lol
Anyway, I didn't have a lot of time for taking photos as we preferred to visit but here are few nonetheless :)


Lines that the sap runs through.
Charlie *trying* to enjoy his taffy. Unfortunately, it kept dripping on him and eventually led to a bit of a freak-out :)
Sap dripping into a pail :)
I'm not sure what it stored in these, I'd like to think it's syrup :)
The sap POURS into gigantic vats!
Steamy :)

They're Baaack!

Ladybugs, that is :)
I used a 70 mm macro for this but with the short focal length and the fact that the d@mn bug wouldn't stop moving, it's slightly out-of-focus. I still like it though :)

Dirty Thirty

Brigitte's 30th birthday came and went this week and we celebrated last night with a surprise dinner at the Absinthe Cafe, followed by a party afterwards at Tracy and Chris's place.
We decided on a 'polka dot' theme.
We had flowers (as 'round' as possible, athough I'm not sure that party really worked out)...

...balloons....
...favours that included smarties (keeping with the theme of course)...
...oysters to keep it 'dirty'...lol....
...surprise dessert at the restaurant....
...and some absinthe of course (my photos of the drink on fire didn't work out)!!We arranged to have polka dots on the cupcakes (with matching polka dot napkins) and mini eggs too!

Since our dearest birthday girl LOVES games, we played a game of Twister! It all goes downhill from here so this is where the photos end! :)
We finished off the night with a dip in the hot tub!
We hope you had a great night (and end to a great birthday week!)!
Love you lots!

Baby Jacob

Meet the newest addition to Liz and Alex's family :)
He's 7 weeks old, so he slept a lot during our visit but I still managed to snuggle him away from his mom as often as I could :)

I love baby yawns :)The men of the family :)

When his big sister Danielle was born, I took almost this exact same photo of her with her mommy - I thought it was appropriate to take one of Jacob this way too. Liz is the BEST mom!

Sleeping with his tongue out - kinda reminds me of Barnie (family dog) who, in his old age, always has his tongue out a little bit :)I'll be seeing Liz, Alex and family again in April and we'll do a real family shoot then; I can't wait!

Symbolic

I know this isn't a new trick for the photo-bloggers but I'd never tried it before until this evening. I like! I opened up the book I'm currently trying to finish to a page somewhere around the middle but didn't pay any attention to the words...notice the 'puppy love' comment on the left?!?!

Three Guesses

Both photos are of somewhat random objects; any thoughts as to what they are? The second one actually hurts my eyes a little :(

Stems

Just a random shot (to say I actually posted something) of my beloved Vera Wangs.....

For the Love of Orchids

~My mom has some gorgeous orchids~
Meanwhile, I'm waiting to see if mine will ever decide to bloom again :)

Focus Fun

Saturday Stroll

Here are a few more I took yesterday with the macro lens!

I like this first one because you can see a woodpecker hole in the tree behind the (lonely) leaf! They've really done a number on the trees that line the road that goes to my parents' house.
A little bit of bokeh in this one :)
The road has quite a number of log fences and there's always something great to photograph on them, the older the better! Here is a gorgeous blue lichen covered in snow/ice.
The end of a log fence; again I love the blue lichens and green moss!There's no shortage of snow mobiles in the area either. There were six of them racing around the lake all afternoon yesterday.