One morning walk...

I do love morning walks, although they are more erratic than they used to be as I have my husband's things to attend to before I can go. I don't get to hike out for morning sunrises any more. That was such a huge pleasure for me for many years.

An interesting result of that is I've noticed a tree/bush that I have missed somehow. 

It has the most amazing flowers and wonderful scents in the spring. How it came to be here is a mystery. Probably seeds spread from birds?

The flowers are tiny but profuse and the smell is heavenly. While I was trying to get a good shot of the tiny flowers I kept hearing a noise. I looked around for bees, then recognized the sound.
Humming birds, they were darting in and out of this bush like little bombers.

The best I can figure it to be is the Sweet Olive Bush  Autumn Olive.

 

I searched for other flowering shrubs along the gravel road and found that the Nanny Berry Bush was starting to show blossoms.

I have actually enjoyed following this bush through its phases last year. The hard part was being able to recognize the leaves and shape of the bush which is crowded in among other brush along the ditch on this dead end gravel road.

By September the berries form and are bright red against the green leaves. By fall, the leaves turn read and the berries turn black-purple.

Last September--->

Nanny Berry Bush when the berries turn black.

The Highbush Cranberry bush is slowly opening its flowers. It also is located in the ditch alongside the dead end drive.

Even the grasses are flowering.

And the Dandelions are fading away sending their seeds flying on the lightest of breezes.

A missed sunrise
new surprises...

Dandelion Wishes....

And BAM...Summery Spring has arrived...

Almost all of the trees are leafed out by now. The undergrowth of the forest which includes Barberry bushes, Honeysuckle, Raspberry, Gooseberry, and other prickly things all are in blossom or getting ready to blossom.

The grass and weeds in the Meadow have sprung to life this past week. The yard grass has a life of its own seeming to grow inches each night.

Our friend Jason came out for Mother's Day with his fluff balls...

his intent was to give me time to do what I wanted on Mother's Day.

This next series of shots is from my morning out in the forest. The last shot is of one of my favorite trees that flowers. The Hawthorne tree. The flower buds still weren't quite open. I was able to spend a little more time by this tree to discover that there were six or seven little ones growing under the forest canopy.

Color me happy.

Whoops...an Allosaurus???

Jason had come to give me coverage for Rich on Monday night. Olive's Track Team had a Conference Meet at their home field and I had volunteered to come and photograph the kids doing their things.

It also meant that Rich had to be comfortable enough with Jason to allow him to help him undress and put him to bed. Rich and Jason said they had it covered and off I went.

I donate my time and the photos. I give Olive the shots and she hands them off to the Head Coach who lets the kids have their photos. 
The last time I did this the Head Coach received feedback from the students. They asked to have my name and wanted to know how much I charged. 

I had set up the ground rules ahead of time.

I remain anonymous and they get their shots.

I did get to see a few students that I'd seen the last time I'd done this. Six hours of running about on a hot spring night 'shooting' action shots was pretty fun.

My favorite event to photo is the hurdles. I only tried them one time myself, but never quite got the hang of it.

The meet went on until after dark so the 'shooting' got a bit trickier as the night went on. Still, I had great fun pushing the limits on my camera. Even with a high ISO and panning, I got a bit of motion blur. However, this was the last event and it sure was an exciting one.

Another coach suggested I try photographing the triple jump and pole vaulting ... along with some of the other events if I wanted more cool action.

I'm game to try it one day.

I probably pushed the boundaries of activity and sleep a bit. By Tuesday I was totally wiped out between being up long hours doing fun things, farm things, and having fun at the track.

When Shay came out for 4 hours of Respite care, I went to the upstairs bedroom and turned a fan on high and slept for most of that time.

Below. A photo from the Meadow back to the forest pasture. I'll be opening this gate and letting the gals out onto more grass for the summer.

[Taken in Infrared...well, because it is that time of the year!]

I have a lot more work to catch up on the outside and yard.