Garden Poppies

Image November 21, 2022November 21, 2022 mlizabtflowers, fujifilm, garden, macrophotographyLeave a comment

Playing around with evening light and the poppies growing in my garden.

(Also realizing it’s time for me to figure out how to clean the sensor on my camera.)

Sam’s Knob

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Went out to my favorite spot over the weekend. Dodder has taken over the high spot above the meadow below Sam’s Knob.

Flowers in the meadow.

Lots of sweet bee balm in the meadow.

Meadow grasses.

Meadow ❤️

Black Balsam in the distance.

Views from the short trail up to Sam’s Knob.

Views from the top of Sam’s Knob.

Trail Critters.

Garden Critters and Blooms

Image November 21, 2022November 21, 2022 mlizabt35mm, appalachia, beginner gardener, flower farm, flowers, fujifilm, garden, macrophotography, monarch, monarch butterfly, pickles, westernnc, zinniasLeave a comment

Flying Cloud Farm is only 6 miles from my apartment. They have community UPick flower fields, so I find myself there with my macro lens pretty often.

Here are some shots of my garden from earlier in the week. The tomatoes in the front bed are about two feet taller than I am right now and I think collectively they threaten to bring down the stakes. Next year I’ll opt for metal instead of wood.

My first dahlia bloomed! (!!!!!!!!)

Ammi and zinnias.

Not pictured below: the squash and the cucumbers that won’t stop growing.

Pictured below: very tasty pickles.

Garden critters – including a monarch caterpillar! There are at least 5 of them nestled in the milkweed and we’re all really excited about watching them pupate.

Rainy June Parkway

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Appalachian Spring Wildflowers: Part 1

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Some photos from a few different walks in the woods in April. Jack-in-the-pulpit, more spring beauty, trillium, fleabane, more ragwort, dutchman’s breeches, tons of violets, and a beautiful swallowtail I encountered on the trail one evening.

Moon shots

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Some shots of the moon as we lead up to a (hopefully clear) full moon weekend – the first full moon with my new lens.

Soft mornings

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There is magic in quiet mornings. Mary Oliver sums it up in one of my favorite poems, ‘Softest of Mornings’. (Okay, every poem Mary Oliver ever wrote is my favorite…)

Softest of mornings, hello.
And what will you do today, I wonder,
to my heart?
And how much honey can the heart stand, I wonder,
before it must break?

This is trivial, or nothing: a snail
climbing a trellis of leaves
and the blue trumpets of flowers.

No doubt clocks are ticking loudly
all over the world.
I don’t hear them. The snail’s pale horns
extend and wave this way and that
as her fingers-body shuffles forward, leaving behind
the silvery path of her slime.

Oh, softest of mornings, how shall I break this?
How shall I move away from the snail, and the flowers?
How shall I go on, with my introspective and ambitious life?

Weekend Wandering

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Newry Mill

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An unexpected day off last week led to exploring an abandoned mill in South Carolina. I was alone, and it was too spooky to go inside, but hopefully I’ll go back soon on a sunny day to check out the inside.

Mulatu of Asheville

Image November 21, 2022November 21, 2022 mlizabt35mm, fujifilm, fujixt30, macrophotographyLeave a comment

Global pandemic aside, 2020 has been a hell of a year. To add to the craziness, the new hobbies, the personal growth ventures and goals, and the challenges, I decided to adopt a cat! Meet Mulatu. He found me at a “cat cafe” in Brevard, NC. I named him after an Ethiojazz artist I’m really fond of. His name means “complete” or “full”, and like Mulatu Astatke, kitty Mulatu jumped around quite a bit before finding where he needs to be. Welcome home, Mulatu.

Enjoy the cute kitty pics! 🙂