Zooming – February 2017

As I was creating the zoomed images into collages, I was drawn to color in my February collection of photographs.

• Witch Hazel
• Peacock feathers
• Blue jays
• Flickers
• Skunk cabbage
• The light blue of dove eyelids
• Sunflowers

Enjoy the zoomed images from February!

Brookside Gardens with a Cell Phone

Earlier this week it was such a warm day that I wanted to get out and about - chose to go to Brookside Gardens. About halfway there, I realized I had forgotten my camera but then realized that I had my new cell phone (a Samsung Galaxy S7); it was time to experiment with the cell phone camera. I headed to the boardwalk between the conservatories and the Nature Center. The skunk cabbage was still not up under the cypress trees but there were crocus

And some dried ferns that were catching the sunlight (they look like big feathers!).

I walked toward the ponds and saw other early bulbs blooming

And turtles taking advantage of the warm day to come out of the mud at the bottom of the pond. I was beginning to learn about the camera in the phone; it does zoom (8x) but it’s all digital so the zoomed images sometimes look fuzzy.

As I trekked toward the witch hazel I had seen last time I visited Brookside – I saw a butterfly and managed to get a picture! It looks like a Question Mark Butterfly…hope there were others it found that were out and about.

Then I found the witch hazel trees again. They were still very bright with streamers around their blooms.

Some trees still have fried leaves clinging from last fall.

I learned that the camera in the cell phone does relatively well close up too.

As I completed the loop back to my car, I noticed some greenery between rocks (daffodils?) near the stream and wondered how the bulbs got wedged in that location.

Gray Day at Mt. Pleasant

I responded to a request for volunteers so was at Mt. Pleasant last Friday. It was a cold gray day – not raining but looking like it could start at any time. The construction on the Gudelsky Environmental Education Center is proceeding. I’m going to try taking pictures from this angle every time I go to Mt. Pleasant. Hopefully it will be completed by late spring.

The witch hazel along the driveway to the farmhouse added a bit of color. The flowers are not as big as the witch hazels I photographed at Brookside recently – probably not a recent hybrid.

Near the picnic area, a forsythia was beginning to bloom. The bush is protected by its position under an evergreen.

Montjoy Barn is the same as usual. The red on the barn door is more appreciated in the winter – when any color other than brown stand out!

Brookside in Winter

It was a very cold morning when I made the trek to Brookside Gardens last week. I made a very short hike. The first destination was the place where Skunk Cabbage grows – the boardwalk between the gardens and the nature center. The wet area around the Bald Cypress trees is think with it…but not yet. The needles of the cypress cover the ground with the cypress knees breaking the monotony. There are not skunk cabbage sprouts yet.

I headed up to the small rooms of gardens and a gazebo and made some photographs of benches and stone walkways. I didn’t pause to sit on a sunny bench.

The plant I was very pleased to find in bloom was Witch Hazel. I found one in a location I had not noticed before and two others that I had seen in previous winters. They are a welcome burst of color in winter. The petals look like narrow ribbons sometimes curled tight.

And with that…I headed into the conservator where it was warm!