Day 19

It was cold and yucky in the morning. I didn't want to venture out far, so I took these near the house.

Of course, this is my Camellia. The flower is in full bloom. You can see by the browning that it's already starting to decay.

These are the trees right in front of the house. They bend over a path.

These are trees right in front of the house (top of photo) and some from across the parking lot (bottom of photo). I like the optical illusion that they are about to touch. In reality, they are not close together.

Day 18

Today the sky was partly cloudy. The sporadic dispersement of light made the trees black against the sky. These photos were taken on the way to the play ground and at the play ground. You will see the silhouette of my daughter swinging in the second photo.

Day 17

We were on the way to a friend's house. We mistakenly parked on Strawberry near Monument, but there was this beautiful tree there. After taking photos, we got back in the car and drove to the correct place.

Day 16

We went to the city to eat brunch and meet some friends at the Virginia Historical Society. The 1st two photos were taken on Main St. near Delux, where we had brunch. The 2nd two were taken beside the Virginia Historical Society on the way to the VMFA (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts).

Day 15

I was at my parents' house today for another round of kitty duty. I decided to poke around and take photos of some of their other plants.

Fern

Light Pink and Light Green Hydrangea

This plant is starting to brown in parts. This is sort of neat because the brown petals are transparent.

This is an underside view angled up, so the transparency is more evident.

While I was busy taking photos, this little bug showed up. It knew I was above it, because it kept moving back and forth. I like the purple and pink tones of the bug. Perhaps this flower is it's home.

It looked at me, so I snapped this photo.

These are the flowers that are normally in my parents' window boxes, but since dad is repainting the house, they are on the stone wall.

They have a few great pine trees. I didn't want to walk to the back or side yards to take photos. This is mostly because those areas are dark. This tree in the front yard, still had a few pine trees.

This is the Camellia at our house. The blooms are opening up more. The quickness of the blooming cycle is also due to the daily rain we have had.

Day 14 - Thanksgiving

Today was Thanksgiving. We went to my husband's parents' house for dinner. I was enjoying myself so much that it wasn't until evening that I realized I had forgotten to take photos. Not knowing what to do, when we walked outside to leave, I noticed how the headlights of our car lite my mother-in-law's yellow roses nicely. I decided I would take photos using that light.

I know this is a bit out of focus, but I like the composition.

I would have retaken the above photo, had my husband not purposefully backed up the car, turned on the high beams and over lit the flower. That created this photo, which is still sort of neat.

He turned the high beams off and I took another full shot.

Day 13

We had to go to my parents' house today. They have a garden, which is mostly leaf plants. There are flowers too, but I chose two plants to photograph today.

White Dusty Miller

English Ivy

We went to lunch at a near by Mexican restaurant afterwards. They had some beautiful plants.

Hydrangea

Rose

Tree with what looks like berries.

Day 12

I know today will seem like a repeat, but as I have mentioned before, some of the plants develop fast when they are starting to bloom and I like to photograph those stages of growth. My Camellia is the fastest to change. It's currently in bloom and the blooms fade quickly. There will be more photos of this bud to bloom to decaying process, in quick succession of each other. This is just how this plant works. Still, it's very pretty.

The Rhododendron isn't in bloom. In fact, the buds last for months. It will be a few months before it flowers. However, because when it blooms, there are so many flowers per bud, the buds grow very large. Expect a few more photos of the size change in these artichoke looking buds.

This isn't fully open. I love seeing the petals spread open.

I thought it was interesting that there is a fuzz on the edges of the petals. Because of the pale color, it's hard to tell that there are petal edges at the tip of the bud. Remember, I've been observing this plant for years now and my camera doesn't pick up the high detail that the human eye can.

This one also has some fuzz. The petals are bit better defined at the tip, but still it's not as detectable as say, the 1st photo above.

This is a Rhododendron bud. The green is leaves, not flower parts, unlike the Camellia. When this Rhododendron blooms, in each of these leaf sections will be a flower. It's amazing to see something so large and beautiful come from such a complex bud.

Day 11

Today, we woke up to a thick fog. I took some photos of the backyard through our windows.

This is the Holly tree and another tree, viewed from the living room. If you look at past posts, you will notice there are other trees and neighbors beyond what you can see in this photo. I liked how mystical the fog looked.

This other two are from the bed room window. I tried to angle the camera up as much as I could without photographing the window edge. I love how dark the bottom looks in comparison to the top of the photo. In reality, everything was equally lit, but my camera is odd and didn't capture the light that way. Had the photo not turned out so dark at the bottom, you would be able to see the train tracks that run beside the house.

I like the different colors the leaves have, based on the type of tree and at what point of decay they are at. I also like the layers of trees from the foreground to background and at which point the background is faded to white from the fog.

Day 10

Today, we went to Belle Isle as a group outing. I took a lot of photos, here are some of my favorites. There are photos of the James River, trees and plants. Most of the photos are landscapes, but there are some close up ones, like I normally do.

James River view from part of the North Bank

Fern like plant

The Robert E. Lee Bridge, with a walking bridge below it. We have to take the walking bridge to get the island...isle.

View of the James River from the walking bridge

Trees on the isle

More trees

View of the river from part of the south bank of the isle.

This is a view of the main path along the south bank.

A view of the James River. If you look at the other side of the river, you will see little buildings at the top and ones to the right. The ones at the top are Hollywood Cemetery and the ones to the right are the old Tredegar Ironworks.

Belle Isle Quarry Pond

A tree near the picnic tables

James River

The water level is under 5 feet. Therefor, the rocks show more than the water does at certain parts...like this area. I liked how the trees reflected in the pool of water.

Same area of river, but a different view of it.

Fallen leaves in the valley of a large rock

These looked like they were made from paper.

Purple waxen flowers

If you look closely, you will see an animal hair on end of the flowers.

White Dandelion

Purple spiky flower