Friday, September 12, 2008

 

Some of this year's yard flowers

Pat was called in to work today at her on-call receptionist job at the school district, so I said I would water the plants in the back yard. When I finished I thought it would be good to take some photos, so I got my camera, tripod and a reflector and got to work (play?) out there. I took close to 50 photos and have selected these five to prepare to post here. My process is to work a bit on them in Photoshop Elements version 6, then re size them to about 800x600 pixels before uploading those smaller ones to my site on Flickr. When they are there, I can write a post and add some HTML code that brings the photos into the blog. I read on others blogs about having some problems with photos posting correctly on Blogger but I've never had any problems with this method. Anyway, here they are:

Yard flowers 01
I think this first one is a mum. It isn't one of the gigantic ones you sometimes see but I do like these. These are planted on our patio outside the sunroom in a giant pot. We like to eat lunch at the Garden Cafe at Skagit Gardens, where the Skagit Valley Mum Society has their gardens, which are beautiful and includes many of those very large ones.

Yard flowers 02
Yes, I know this is a zucchini squash and probably not technically a flower, but isn't a flower really up to one's definition? I like the flowers these have and this view also includes one of the fruits (are they fruit?) We were wondering if we would ever have any squash from any of the three plants Pat set out. The little hill they are on is made up mostly of cedar bark that was put on as a ground cover over the years. She started feeding them with Miracle Grow and watering them regularly and there are now nearly half a dozen of a decent size. So, I have included it here, flower or not.

Yard flowers 03
I don't know what this one is, although Pat does. It is also on the patio in another of those giant pots. I think it is getting close to the end of it's blooming season. I had to pull off quite a few of the dead petals or whatever they are before I took these photos. But it is bright and colorful and pretty large.

Yard flowers 04
Last year Pat was asked by the manager of our park if she would plant four hanging baskets with fuchsias and other flowers to hang on the gazebo in the common area behind our house. This is the gazebo where our wedding ceremony was held April 28, 2007 and those hanging baskets in the photos were these that Pat planted. In the fall they were brought to our house and just left outside along the south side of the house. This spring she thought they were done for so replanted four others and just left the others there. We later noticed they were flowering so she moved them to a table on the patio and started taking care of them. As you can see from this and the next photo, they have done very well for flowers that we had not expected to grow.

Yard flowers 05
Here are some of the other fuchsias that are of a different color (variety?) These have really surprised us. I wonder what they will do next year?

I have fun taking photos of flowers even though I have a black thumb when it comes to growing them. I also don't know what many of them are. I had to send Pat a text message on her cell phone to ask what the fuchsias were called as I couldn't remember. These photos were just taken with my 18 - 200mm zoom lens which will focus pretty close. I used a reflector on most to add fill light but think flash fill was used on one of the fuchsia shots. I also used a tripod and set the camera on aperture priority so that I could stay with f/11 for better depth of field. My macro lens is being used by Pat's daughter but maybe I'll retry these with it later. Our great "Indian Summer" weather seems likely to continue for a few more weeks, so the flowers should also be good for awhile longer. Of course the lawn also grows and has to be mowed, but we can't have everything perfect, can we?

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Comments:
The first one is a dahlia, silly!

Someone really puts a lot of work into your yard. Pretty.
 
Hello! We are Taiara/Gilberto and Junior Sanches. We are Brasilian. We live in Santa Cruz do sul city, Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil. Do you speak portuguese? My family want be your friend! I explain right? Sorry, my English is awful. I use dictionary. Good bye!
 
The flower pics are beautiful, Dick, especially that dahlia. The second fuchsia is really pretty too. The big red flower is a canna.

And yes, the zucchini flower counts, and they do produce fruits.

This has been a busy week, plus I'm still not feeling well with my diabetes so I haven't posted anything new since last Sunday's Sunday Dinner post. I'll try to catch everyone up on my happenings on tomorrow's Sunday Dinner post.

Have a great weekend! :o)

Love and hugs,

Diane
 
Beautiful shots Dick! You can tell Pat I think she does a wonderful job in her garden. :-)

My hubby uses Miracle Grow too, and boy does that stuff work.
 
Hello Dick,
I sat with my coffee to have a look at your new posts, I was not disappinted at all , your pics are so beautiful as always !!!Loved the tag along with Pat! you always do such a great job on here , I really enjoy seeing all the areas esp since I am sure I will never get the chance right now so it is a bonus to see it all through your eyes , so thanks again .
Take care mr Mocha and Mrs mocha too !

greeneyes
 
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zucchini flowers are flowers. a flower is a flower is a flower and it along with all the others are exquisite!
 
I wonder if fuschias will grow where I live? I want those....
 
Beautiful flowers...
 
Hi Dick !

What gorgeous flower photos ... you have a brilliant camera ... these shots are just stunning.

I do believe it was your birthday a week or so ago (or is my calendar telling me fibs !!) ... huge apologies for not getting in touch to wish you a Happy Birthday. Hope it was a wonderful day.

Have a great weekend, please say HI to Pat.

Take care, Meow
 
Gday Dick OHHH I love the colour of the dahlia. and fuchsia are among my favorites I have quite a few growing and blog them now and then, I think i showed a couple in my spingtime. . The big red flower is what we call a canna lily..
 
Okay Dick, you have to listen to me and listen good. These pictures are good enough to be at a show, in a book, somewhere, but I have never seen such beautiful photos in my life. I don't know what you're doing to them but they are bigger than life. What a pro you are!
 
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