The other day, I was trying out some special features on my new cell phone camera. I had been having trouble getting close-ups of flowers – most were out-of-focus, a problem I never had with my previous phone camera. I found a macro setting and decided to try it out – the first thing I found that was easily accessible was a dandelion. I’m happy to say that the photo came out well: I have never looked at a dandelion this close up before!
Lens-Artists’ photo challenge this week is Colorful April. Becky’s April Squares are bright. And Cee’s FOTD is about anything that flowers! (My FOTD is this tiny bright pink one that makes a colorful ground cover.)
April’s colors range from the green of new grass and plants whose flowers have not yet bloomed to bright yellows, fuschias, and whites to the gentle hues of lavender and pink. The first photos (which are square) are of a ground cover flower that is a brilliant fuschia – I don’t know the name of this flower, however. All of these beauties are my daily finds as I take walks around our community’s campus.
Zoom out:
Zooming out further, you can see the entire patch of this flower.
April makes me think of daffodils, which are one of the first flowers of spring. I think of them as miniature trumpets, heralding the arrival of spring!
By mid-month, we are beginning to see the first tulips, in bright hues of red and yellow, as well as many other colors.
Gentler colors are the hues of hyacinths…
magnolias…
and the breathtaking canopies of white and pink of flowering trees – crabapple, pear, and in Washington D.C., cherry blossoms.
Some people add color to the front of their houses with potted flowers, such as these bright yellow and orange pansies.
It is almost time to start planting my garden this year. My perennials are showing new growth and my irises should bloom within the next few weeks. Daffodils still abound. I love flowers but I also like to plant vegetables, because there is no tomato so good as one that is homegrown!
Last year, I had an abundance of cherry tomatoes (I bought too many tomato plants – I’ll have to cut back this year!) and also a couple of pepper plants, which were nearly buried by the tomato plants growing out of control! Even so, I did manage to get a few green peppers. For Becky’s Bright Squares, today I am posting a photo of my first harvest last year – the first tomatoes and the first peppers! They were so bright and cheery, and made me happy as I looked forward to warmer days and more home-grown vegetables!
In December, the Chicago Botanic Gardens has a light show, which people attend at night. Local artists create structures that are lit up one way or another. The show is called “Lightscape” and has become an annual holiday tradition. There is a set path you walk through the gardens, passing a lot of beautiful “bright” creations.
For Becky’s April Squares with the topic Bright, I am posting some “bright” flowers. These beauties were photographed in our community gardens last year.
Becky posted a gorgeous sunrise for her Bright Square today, but I’m rarely up early enough for that! Even so, I have these beauties in my archives – a sunrise in Tanzania and a sunset in the Baltic Sea. In my (limited) experience, sunrises tend to be more subtle than sunsets, but beautiful nonetheless.
There is a saying that all clouds have a silver lining. In the case of this image, the clouds have a tinge of golden lining, lit by a September late afternoon sun. This bright scene is my contribution today for Becky’s April Square: Bright.
For Becky’s April Squares with the theme bright, here are (more) photos of daffodils, those bright and beautiful heralds of spring. They are blooming everywhere and it gladdens my heart to see them!
