The color yellow

I thought that I'd go with another color. I picked a really difficult one.

Yellow.

This is one of the pumpkins that grew as a volunteer plant in the pasture. It isn't truly yellow, but it is yellow and orange. Maybe orange can be the next color I target.

I chose to go out very early in the morning and look for yellows. This was a very hard task. 
Below is a macro of a yellow cosmos. These cosmos are both bright yellow and tinted orange.

I took a shot of the seeds below. They are so easy to collect and then simply reseed anywhere. 

For years, I wasn't a fan of any yellow flowers. I avoided orange and yellow flowers in my garden but the colors have really grown on me. Next year, I think I'll be adding many more yellows. I'm eyeing marigolds. 

Below is a pumpkin flower.

This one decided to grow in and among my Nasturtiums. So far, this plant has provided us with 3 small white pumpkins. [I gave out as many extras as I could to the little neighbor kids for their fun]

Finding the color yellow got harder as I left the porch and garden areas. I went out to the meadow to see if I could find some Golden Rod.

Most of the Golden Rod was too faded to provide a colorful photo.

But...

The Orb Weavers were Back!

This one was wrapping up her breakfast which was a grasshopper she had captured. When I shifted my position to 'get' a better and closer shot, she left her breakfast and sat still on her web. She didn't drop off the web like others, but waited patiently for me to leave.

The second shot is the first one I took of her, it is a close up of her wrapping up her meal. Does the yellow and orange colors on her count as Yellow?

I don't really love spiders. I do appreciate the work they do. They are absolutely fascinating to watch. When I worked in Security, I recall the nights I spent in the guardhouse watching an Orb Weaver create the most beautiful web. She showed up each night for weeks. 

We called her Charlotte.

The fog and mist were lifting as I headed back towards the house. I saw the box elder showing off some yellow and headed out towards it. The box elders really put out the seeds this year!

I checked the old oak tree and found just one or two leaves that had color. They usually don't change first so I was surprised. The branches must be damaged in some way to produce dying leaves right now.

Sunday promised another HOT day and it produced it. By late afternoon, it was 90 in the shade and even hotter on our porch which gets full sun through the fall and winter.

This last shot was up through the old oak, I was going for a sun star flare and got one.

The yellows were hard! I need to walk up into my neighbor's woods where he girded some maples which are showing off some great colors right now. This week is going to be a hot one. 

Stay cool.

It should have been

 ...a good day to stay inside and do...

Well. Read, nap, lounge, make chili ..or maybe even go through things and purge more crap out of drawers and the basement.

But by mid afternoon I was climbing the walls. I took Charlie out for a walk with me and he made it about 40 steps before his feet froze. I carried him back to the house and let him in. 

I thought I'd go finish breaking a trail up through the summer meadow and grab the trail camera down in the woods. With the subzero temps, I figured the batteries would be dead.

The wind chills were still in the - Below Zero Range, so I covered up. Since I live in a hilly and forested area, I can walk into the woods and avoid the winds. But covering my face and eyes is by far the most important thing for me to do.

I got down into the woods and retrieved the trail cam. Of course there was this shot of me walking during the snowstorm. 

And here is a shot of me coming to get the camera. In both of these photos I am using snowshoes. The more often I break trail, the better it is to walk on. During the storm, I was  up to my knees even with snowshoes on.

It was pleasant in the woods, but my feet did start to get cold since I'd neglected to put on my snow boots. 

The walk was beautiful. I'm not going to kid you. I did not march with great speed up and down the hills. It is very hard work with snow shoes and deep snow. I walked, I rested, I looked around and admired the scenery.

I do love shadows on the snow from the trees. Out in the meadow there were oak leaves sticking in the snow like this. I always find it amusing as to how they ended up that way.

I have to give a nod to Aurora  at equine expressions and her beautiful winter photos that are always inspiring! Where there are oaks and snow, there will be those oak leaves doing their cool winter things!

The sunshine is so welcome to see after what feels like months of dreary skies.

Even the mules enjoyed it.

The photos are soft because I took this shot through the window and screen.

Today's menu includes chicken veggie soup with rice. I have to go tomorrow to town and get some groceries as the cupboards are getting a bit thinned out.

Charlie and I finally got a nice long walk in this morning. I walked along our plowed road and out to the ridge and back. I figured Charlie would get cold feet, but he didn't. He trucked right along and chased as many smells as he could.

We noticed that the deer had been out in the soybean field digging up snow like crazy. I imagine the food is harder for them to get now that they have to contend with deep snow.

Stay warm and enjoy the sunlight if you have it!

And bam! It got fun!

May rolled in with hot weather and high winds. Our fire danger was Extreme which is unheard of in our neck of the woods. The land of steep valleys and plentiful streams.

But it was true. Our stream banks were dry and the water levels were low. Mosses had turned brown and had gone dormant in the forest. I found two types of fungi in the woods. A Pheasant Back and one lone Morel.

Pheasant Back. I've heard from others that these are eatable. And since I am grew up hearing that all mushrooms would KILL you from my grandmother, the only one I am confident on in the wilds is the morel.

88 degrees with winds that howled and tossed branches around was a summary of May 1st.
We watched dust devils whirl about in the winter pasture. The interior of the house was at 65 degrees and felt cold when we went inside. I read on the porch most of the day. So the 1st was a bust.

I got up at dawn for some reason on Sunday and decided to go for a morning walk. The hot weather made the wild apple trees burst forth with blossoms. I decided to go for a walk up through the old meadow and woods to get Saturday's mail in the early light.
In spring I feel that need to be out every day and watch in wonder as trees that have been so barren and stark all winter burst forth with leaves and flowers or catkins. It is Fall in reverse. 

I pulled out my books on trees and wildflowers and set them aside for when I got back from my walk with Charlie.

Knowing my trees is important while hunting morels. So after years of putting off learning about trees and ID'ing them from their bark, shapes, and leaves, I have decided to make another attempt at it. Maybe if I can figure out my trees, I can find morels faster? I don't know!

My husband said there were NO elms left because of Dutch Elm disease. Imagine my surprise when I ID'd this shot below. Classic elm tree shot, right? I think so! I've seen several of these in the woods. After the seeds drop though, the leaves look so similar to the Ironwood tree that litters our forest.

This one could be a slippery elm.

This one is obvious. The oak tree. But what type? 

I'm pretty sure this is a red oak. 

There were several types of maples leafing out. I think this one is a Red Maple. 

I know the neighbor on the ridge taps the 'Sugar' Maples but I'm not even sure if I can tell the difference in them until they fully develop leaves. As I said, I'm no expert but am curious to see if I can learn the difference.

Below is where I get all my apples. They are wild apple trees probably planted by the cattle that used to roam these woods and pastures or the birds? I even named this tree after my mule Opal. Opal Apples. This tree makes the best apple jelly of any of the wild trees. Opal used to rise up on her hind legs and pick apples. 

It was a sight to see!

I have many photos to go through. I have a possible cherry tree and perhaps a Prickly Ash and any regular Ash trees I can find. 

There were some bushes along the road that perplexed me. I've noticed the flowers before and the bush but never could figure out what exactly they were. 

I'll save those for later.

My all time favorite tree is the Hawthorne Tree. It has sharp spikes and interesting leaves and flowers.

I went through the meadow to the edge of the woods to see if the Hawthorne was blossoming yet.

I love its structure and its leaves.

It generally has blossomed out by the first of May.

I'll be going back every day until I get the blossoms. Walking through all those wild apple trees is like walking through a Pez candy container. The air is sweet and delicious.

Charlie went with me in the afternoon ... but decided he'd had enough of tall grasses. He simply sat down eventually in the grass and refused to move.

He decided when we got home to take his place on his throne, also known as the porch bench and rule his world from a more comfortable place.

His underbite gets me all of the time. His expression is priceless.

I think this is his imitation of being 'The Godfather'.

More Olympus Stuff

This should give you some ideas of the details that I can get with the TG6. It requires some maneuvering about on the ground, but it is easier than using a larger camera. I could try it with my regular DSLR Olympus and the macro lens, but being able to go into microscope mode is pretty fun.

It was still pretty dark in the creek bottom when I took these shots so they are a bit 'noisy'. Still, I can live with that because it is so fascinating to see the frost this close!

Perhaps they would have turned out better if I'd had the little LED light attached to the front of the camera. Well. I can always try that again!

Meanwhile, these next few shots were taken last week during the big freeze. I just never got around to posting them.

Olympus OMD EM Mark iii with a kit lens 14mm-150mm
It is sort of an all around lens that can take the wide angle and use a zoom also. It cuts down on the amount of 'gear' I take along with me. It is the camera on the right below.

I do have a macro lens for this camera, but getting those shots under the leaves are nearly impossible unless I dig a hole in the rocks next to the leaves.

The above shots were taken with a Neutral Density Filter and I used a tripod for the long exposures.
When we have a real hard cold snap, I love going out and finding the ice that gathers on twigs, grasses, and roots along the creek.

I need some more time with the TG6 to work out how best to use it on hikes. I certainly won't be taking super long exposures like the ones above.

One more cool and awesome thing. I can remotely operate either camera with an Olympus Share app on my Smarty Phone. It eats up battery quickly on both the phone and the camera. But it is fun to use in certain instances.

One last shot and then I am caught up. On that very cold hike, I took my little point and shoot infrared Canon ELPH camera.
Infrared is not as awesome in the winter. However, you still can get some interesting shots.

Well that was a mish-mash of 'stuff'.
But there you go.

I do like experimenting in photography. It gets me out of the house and keeps me moving right along. All of these photos are within 30 minutes of walking trails around where we live.

I am very lucky aren't I?

So it is March

I think March is more dull than any other month. The snow melts leaving the area with piles of dirty half melted snow and mud. Mud.
If it freezes overnight then I can pull up to the house. If it doesn't, well I can back down the driveway and park at the bottom of the hill.

It is 'bucket' season. I keep a bucket of water at the porch with a brush to scrub my boots off before going onto the porch. It is just how the March Protocol works.

March holds promises of something better than dreary skies and faded grasses. It is also the time to rake the yard and think about connecting up the fences again. Winter is officially over.

Yet oaks that are not in the wind still cling to their leaves.

This March has been a bit of a strange one. Birthdays, deaths, memories, forgetfulness, aging, controversy, disruption, and some sort of hope. I have hope, I always try to have it on my shoulder and never further than my back pocket.

But that is what March brings.

Trees and blossoms

While hunting morels the other day, Rich and I went into our creek bottom and wandered about.  It was fairly early in the day and the light was delightful.
He called me over to see a gorgeous discovery.
This wild apple tree with brilliant pink blossoms.

I've lived on this land for 20 years and this is the first time I've found this tree in all of its pink glory.
How odd, I didn't know this wild apple tree even existed.

I went back in the afternoon and everything looked different in the afternoon light.

Last week we had a very foggy morning and I decided to take a quick walk up to the ridge and see if the 'chokeberry' tree was still in blossom.

The morning light was wonderful and the sunlight cast harsh sideways shadows on one of my favorite trees.

The blossoms wouldn't be around much longer, perhaps only 24 to 48 hrs.  I felt lucky that I got a shot of them this year.

The next tree that will blossom will be the Hawthorne tree.  Rich doesn't like them but I find their blossoms beautiful and their leaves distinctively beautiful. I am not sure that anyone particularly likes the thorns though.

I love adore these little flowers. How can something so thorny have such beautiful blossoms?

These trees are just starting to bud out and will probably be in full bloom by the weekend.

One of the things I keep promising myself each year is to learn how to identify trees by their leaves and their bark or shape.

I am slowly learning.  But it is hard!