Favorite Memories of Summer 2014

Today - the traditional ‘last day of summer’ - I am savoring the memories of the past 3 months. It has been cooler than usual in my area (Maryland, near Baltimore) so the outdoor activities have been especially pleasant. Here are my top 5 memories from this summer:

The Deck Garden. The plants on the deck are a daily draw to go outdoors. There is always something changing - new flowers blooming, a tiny tomato forming, sweet potato vines spilling over the edge of the pot then the deck…and blooming, and all the associated insects and birds enjoying the plants (sometimes causing some damage) and the water in the birdbath and the pot saucers. I may change some of the plants next year - but using every available pot for something is definitely something to continue from now on.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. The place made my list because it was a new experience. I still enjoyed places I have been many times this summer (Brookside Gardens and the National Arboretum and the Howard County Conservancy Mt. Pleasant Farm) but the lotuses at the aquatic garden with the dragonflies that abounded were a high point of the garden visits this season.

Josey Ranch Lake. What a pleasant surprise it was to walk around the small lake near the library in Carrollton TX! It hosts such a variety of resident birds (although I did wish the nutria were not there).  It became the high point of ‘sights’ for the two weeks I spent in Texas this summer.

CSA Veggies. This was my first participation in a Community Supported Agriculture farm and I’ve enjoyed the enhanced flavor of fresh-from-the-field vegetables. I will do it again next summer!

Classes. I become more aware all the time of just how much I enjoy being a student. Whether the classes are online (Coursera and Creative Live) or ‘live’ at the Howard County Conservancy…classes have the effect of broadening my horizons and tweaking what I do. It may not be healthy to grow larger physically but growing mentally is always a good thing.

Happy end-of-summer 2014!

In the Forest Shade

I stayed in the shade as much as I could for my morning at Howard Country Conservancy yesterday. The plants that are under larger trees are lush with their summer growth. The redbud pods are thick on the trees; their edges are a darker green than the paper sides where the seeds show through as small bumps. The heart shaped leaves are darker green.

The insects were active - but none of the seemed to be the biting kind.  This one seemed to be posing for me. He seems to be looking right at the camera!

The wild blackberries are still mostly red. Do you see the one ripe one in this picture?

I looked in the place I had seen jack-in-the-pulpit in the spring and was rewarded with the still green seedpod on its stalk almost hidden by the other plants that have grown up beside the path.

There's a lot of green out there!

Water Lilies at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

I’ve posed previously about the lotuses, dragonflies, and a Great Blue Heron at the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens. Today’s post is focused on water lilies.

There are far fewer varieties that when the gardens were a commercial concern in the early decades of the 1900s, but the ones that remain are still beautiful. The storm had caused some damage to the lily pads but not as much as the lotuses experienced; there is an advantage for not being as far out of the water.

I found myself trying to capture images of dragonflies and bees on the flowers…..and trying to capture all the different colors. I picked the best images I captured for the slideshow below.

And I can’t resist included this golden dragonfly. It seemed different than any of the others.

Dragonflies at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

The lotuses are blooming profusely at the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC; I’ll post about them later this week. The dragonflies are the focus for today. There were so many of them when we were walking around the ponds yesterday that I managed to capture quite a few images. They like to perch on dried seed pods,

Folded lotus leaves and

The tips of lotus buds.

The sun reflects off their wings giving them a metallic gleam.

Sometimes their color is jewel like: powder blue, deep green, black veined gossamer.

Sometimes their thorax looks muscle bound

And sometimes it looks it has sub-segments.

This one has droopy wings.

This last picture is my favorite - the color of the uncurling lotus and the dragonfly perching for a few seconds before flying out again over the water.