Day 331

Today, we headed to the Philadelphia Zoo. We've been to Philadelphia many times, but never to the zoo.

While waiting for the trolley to pick us up, I saw this monarch butterfly in Logan Square.

While at the zoo, I found this butterfly and some plants in bloom. I took photos of the zoo animals too, but of course those don't fit the "natural resident" rule I created when I started this project.

Day 307

I noticed berry like buds growing on the Cherry Blossom trees. The leaves are starting to change colors. By the cherry trees, was a thick blanket of various nuts. Of course, there were a lot of squirrels enjoying the bounty.

Day 289

Today, Hurricane Irene brought us a tropical storm! It was scary to watch the largest tree sway around in a 20 foot radius! Thankfully, we know that trees don't get that large without being strong. It's nestled with several other tall trees. I took photos from safely inside my house. We are supposed to stay away from windows during the storm, but honestly, it wasn't that impressive of a storm compared to others that we've had. However, it knocked out the power lines in mass for several day. This my friends, it a back dated post. We didn't have power from Saturday night until Thursday evening. I frantically had to use my parents house, Friendly's and Noah Scalin's house during that time to recharge electronics and access the internet for my business. Craziness! Ok, on to the photos and videos!

Day 219

Today, we went to the Vegetarian Festival at Bryan Park, to see our vegan friend cook in a competition. On the way back to the car, I took a few photos.

Day 212

Today we attended the wedding of two friends. Before the reception and the rain started, I took a few photos. I took a few between bursts of rain too.

Wild berries

Rose

Storm clouds

Rain drops on car window

Day 150

Today, I brought my camera with me while picking Alex up from Girl Scouts.

On the way to the car, I noticed several ants on the yellow flowers along the steps of the pathway.

While at the church, I photographed new growth on some plants.

Day 133

After Alex headed to school on the bus, I walked around and took more photos of new plant growth.

These are new leaves on a Dogwood tree. The leaves were wet with rain.

This is a Dogwood tree in our front yard. I like seeing the concentrated colors of the flowers as they grow larger. 

I wanted to play with the panoramic setting to better photograph the trees.

This is from my neighbor's house (connected to mine) to the trees on the other side of us.

Same trees, but different angle of panning.

These trees are ones I've photographed a lot in the past, but never in this perspective. These trees cross over the main path to my house.

This robin was nestled in a pine tree. The camera is focused on the pine tree, so the robin is a bit hidden. It's like the "Where's Waldo" of bird photos...sort of.

These bushes have small yellowish buds. They might be berries later. I'm not sure.

This bush has small pink and cream flower buds.

About an hour later, the sun shown brightly, making the creek glisten.

Then a few minutes later, we had a quick (about 10 minutes long) hail and rain storm. After it passed, a Common Redpole landed in the holly tree This was taken though a rain drop laden window. 

Day 126

After school, Alex and I took a walk through part of our neighborhood.

This is a squirrel eating a nut.