gardens – Wanderlust and Wonderment

Posted on March 8, 2021March 8, 2021 by amoralegria · 4 Comments

FOTD: Buttercups

For Cee’s FOTD 3/9/21, here are some bright flowers for spring, taken at Chicago Botanic Gardens.

Posted on February 28, 2021 by amoralegria · 3 Comments

FOTD: Blazing Star

I had many of these in my garden at my old house. This one, though, was taken at Chicago Botanic Gardens in May 2019.

Cee’s FOTD 3/1/21

Posted on February 25, 2021February 25, 2021 by amoralegria · 3 Comments

Loving S Words

Catch-up time for Paula’s February Month of Love challenge!

And what do you know?? All my loves for this post start with the letter S, which is the subject of /Lens-Artists Photo Challenge!

Feb. 23: I love…sunsets (and sunrises, although I’m hardly ever awake for those! 🙂 ).

The wires are unfortunately visible, but I like this sunset against Chicago’s skyscrapers.

I took this on a walk a few days ago – it’s not quite sunset, but the sun is low in the sky, casting shadows from the tree.

Icicles glow orange and golden in the sunset.

Both of these were taken on our community’s campus, featuring West Lake – the first is in winter, and I was trying to capture the reflection of the sunset on a sheen of ice; the second was taken on a summer evening near the same location.

Feb. 24: I love…spring! I already included summer as one of my loves, but the spring is special too, because it is the season of hope and anticipation. The cycle of life begins, emerging from winter snow and cold, producing new life in flora and fauna. Last spring, I took photos of my daffodils on the side of my house in March, from shoots to blooms.

Feb. 25: I love…singing. I never had good manual dexterity to play an instrument but I’ve always loved to sing. When I was a young adult and needed a spiritual outlet, I turned to singing by joining a community choir. After moving to Des Plaines, I joined the choir at First Congregational Church and still participate in that! It’s rather hard during the pandemic to do group singing, but we use Zoom and a music software called Upbeat to practice and then record the pieces we sing. So I’d like to end with a song about singing (with a virtual choir that may also use Upbeat software!):

Posted on January 25, 2021 by amoralegria · 1 Comment

FOTD: Delphinium

From my archives at the Chicago Botanic Gardens

Cee’s FOTD 1/25/21

Posted on January 19, 2021January 19, 2021 by amoralegria · 2 Comments

CFFC: Nature’s Patterns

Patterns are everywhere in nature. Indeed, humans have imitated nature in creating patterns. Patterns in Nature is the wonderful topic for Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge this week.

Flowers make many patterns.

I love photographing mushrooms, which appear in many shapes and sizes.

Tree branches, leaves and trunks make their own complex patterns.

It is always worthwhile to stop and admire small leaves and plants – often they surprise you!

Some animals have patterns on their skin, tail, or feathers.

Layers painted rock formations over millions of years. In Arizona, there are many examples of this, at the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert and in Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona.