Wordless Wednesday - Assorted Alliums

Summer Flowers and Tomato News

The other afternoon we went to the Peabody to get tickets for an upcoming performance of the ballet Sleeping Beauty. Well, for some reason they were not sold at the box office but in the dance department. Because of that, we got to take an interesting walk through the Peabody. When we went through their courtyard to get to another building I noticed that they have a nice little variety of summer flowers out there already. Besides these, they have hollyhocks and pincushion flowers.

I’ve been a little busy this week but thankfully there were some tomato related news stories I could write about for Examiner. First, late blight was reported again this year. Also, cold damage is now plaguing home gardeners. I found out about both of these issues through the Grow It, Eat It Page on Facebook, so I am finally convinced that Facebook has some use after all.

In other Examiner news I continue to edit old articles. This seems to be like bailing out the ocean with the tin cup but I do a few every day.

Wordless Wednesday: Roses are in Bloom at the Flag House

The Flag House

Photographing Nature – With People in the Way

On Saturday afternoon we took a ride out to Catoctin Mountain Park. Well, it was very busy on a sunny Saturday afternoon, but well worth the trip. I would like to come back at a time when it wasn’t so crowded, though. As you can see, people were climbing all over the place and it was impossible to take serene nature pictures of places like the falls.

I don’t always like people in my photographs, but I know I have to have them in there sometime for both visual interest and for size comparison. I particularly like this one below, which I took of a little boy at the cherry blossom festival but never got to use. I think it is because I didn’t want to imply that people pick the blossoms or damage the trees. Yes, I know that sounds crazy but if I write for the public I have to try and be a little responsible at times.

Part of the problem with people is that they don’t match the colors of the subject that I’m photographing. For example, people will wear screaming red or orange. This makes them appear as a bright blob in the background when I don’t want anything detracting from the color of nature. I think I’ve become a bit redundant with my close-ups of pretty colorful flowers, but oh, well. For my “What’s Blooming in Baltimore ?” slideshow this month I tried to give some of the photos more of a sense of place. I stuck them in the middle of the slideshow, though because they are not as splashy. I’m working on it, though. I’m also disturbed that the photo at the top of my article appears so green on my monitor, but Examiner is fruity this morning so I don’t want to try and remove it or I may just frustrate myself.

Flowers From Eden

I’ve been a little bit under the weather these days. Besides my arm problem (which is slowly going away) I have this weird tiredness. I have a friend who went though this and can only assume it must be a virus of some sort.

The flowers above came from How Sweet it Is, which is located in Eden, Maryland and on the way to Chincoteague. I always look forward to getting a flat of plants from there each year. They have annuals we don’t have in the city such as double petunias and pink stocks. Some of these are destined for the front of my house, but others I don’t know what to do with yet. They are just so appealing I had to buy them. Also, they have good produce and I got some excellent strawberries from them.

Wordless Wednesday: Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

Sunflower Seedlings

I was happy to see these sunflower seedlings on a recent walk around the neighborhood. This particular neighbor had a beautiful patch of sunflowers here last fall and it looks like they've reseeded themselves.

I'm taking it easy this week, and expect to do only necessary writing until next week. My arm is still a problem and typing too much aggravates it. I'm also having problems gardening because I can't use tools too well.

I did do a quick piece on Flowermart trivia and have another article on something else ready to go up for the weekend. I would like to hunt up a decent picture of some iris today.