Sunflowers when they still looked good

Summer of 2007 was our first year in this house. We had it built the year before.
There had never been any structures on this 2 acres, of a large farm.

We had one of these sunflower plants come up on it's on last year.

This year we had 20 plants. Just think next year. The only thing about it is, the flowerbed they are coming up in is the one between the sidewalk and the front of the house. Not exactly my pick of where I would have sunflowers. But I could have pulled them up before they got big if I really didn't want them.

Notice the last one has a caterpillar feasting on it.

This is all we have left (photographs) since they have been pulled up, gone for this year. Not sure how many thousands of seeds are now under the new mulch.

Goldfinch in the Crepe Myrtle

I had the hardest time trying to catch these Goldfinch in the Sunflowers, but there they sit for me in the Crepe Myrtles. They did fly, but they did watch ME first. Sometimes they are as curious of us as we are of them. The sunflowers are now gone. Pulled them up and tossed them on the burn pile. If there are seeds left I am sure they will find them, we have been waiting on some rain before burning them. The rain did start Monday afternoon, it has been a slow steady rain, which we need so badly. This is our 2nd summer of drought.

Bridal Veil Falls in North Carolina

These photos were taken at Bridal Veil Falls located between Highland and Franklin, North Carolina on July 4, 2008. This waterfall is on the side of the road, with great parking, you cannot miss it. I was playing with the shudder speed, but hand holding the camera. I still liked the difference. Please don't be too critical.

Wildflower Chicory

This wildflower is along the side of the roadways here in East Tennessee. We are usually zooming by it. This is a close look at it.

Eastern Kingbird in front yard

This was the first time I had actually seen the Eastern Kingbird in the front of my house, or in the grass.He has usually been in the back and in the small fruit trees, or on a post, or wire. He went into the thick trees at the front of the house.

Tiger Swallowtail at the daylilies

These photographs were taken in my front yard earlier in the spring and summer.

The pale yellow daylily is Leedra's Delight that I have had several post about.




I had prepared these for post before I learned how to make them larger. On occasion I will still be posting this size until I have used all the photos I had previously prepared. Remember I am still on dialup so I probably have some preparation most of you don't have. All future preparations will be the larger versions.

Squirrel taking hand outs

These photographs were taken at the same time I took the Blue Jay in earlier post.
I didn't feed them, I don't feed the birds or animals in public parks.

But this was very close to the campsites at Cherokee Lake.

I guess the campers must feed them.

I wasn't going to pass the opportunity by.

Sparrows in the yard

I need a more powerful lens.

Goldfinch in the yard, not at sunflowers

More photos of the Goldfinch in the yard, just not at the Sunflowers. I keep trying.

Pink Calla Lily

This pink calla lily does not have speckles on it's leaves like the white calla lilies.

Laurel Valley Community Church

This church in is Southwest Virginia. I wandered across it while traveling the back roads looking for birds, butterflies, and flowers to photograph.

This is the most unusual outhouse I have ever seen. It has a door at each end, and each end is a "2 holer". The doors were not marked as male or female, but maybe the church members know which are which. The farm equipment was also in the church yard.

I did turn these photographs to Sepia using Picasa. I still have not loaded the Photoshop Elements I bought 3 months ago, but thought I would try this.

White Lupine

Naturally, my up close one of the leaves. Notice how it looks like the water would fall between the leaves, but it is still there. And how the water acted as a magnifier.

Open Comments

I've decided to enable open comments, out of curiosity. If I start getting spammed I'll either go back to registered users only or approve all comments. Part of the reason I started the blog is to get input about my photos. Sometimes I ask for help with identification of my birds, butterflies, dragonflies, etc. It has come to my attention the person that could help me with some butterfly post does not have a google password. So I am going to try it, if I don't like this I will change it back.

For info, google passwords are easy to get, even if you are just going to use for blog comments I would at least know if the comments are coming from the same person, or from different people.

Chickadee on the move

This Chickadee was moving, trying to get closer to the seeds I had just left on the wall.This branch was a little small even for this small bird.
She wobbled around some.

Then settled down for this one photo.

Then she was back to the treetop, where I couldn't bother her taking her photograph.

Spicebush Swallowtail on zinnia

The photographs of the Spicebush Swallowtail speak for themself.

It was fun to follow him around.

Praying Mantis

My neighbor called, come quick. He had this Praying Mantis in his screened porch.He moved it to the flower for me.
Then outside, where he really blended in with the environment.

Here the Mantis had seen enough of me and my camera.