Day 140

Today was wet and gloomy, but lots of flowers are blooming, so this weather makes for interesting photos of rain droplets and plants.

 This is a bush with pink buds and...

... and pink blooms.

This bush only has a small amount of buds on the shady side of it.

This bush has pale yellow buds.

This Japanese Maple has new leaves that are still forming. The downward leaves hold droplets where they touch.

Day 139

Today, I drove Alex to school, so she could go to her Running Club before school started.

Before we left, I noticed these clusters of fallen buds.

This is a panoramic of Alex's school from where I was sitting beside the track.

This is some of the trees along the parking lot.

This tree was towards the entrance. It was so far away, that I didn't see the flying bird that the camera picked up.

Day 138

John drove today and I stuck my camera out the window. You know how this goes by now.

John decided I needed to photograph the train tracks in the other direction. If you look far back down the tracks, you will see a bridge. That bridge is used a lot. You probably won't notice it when driving over it, because it's small.

This ivy covered tree, to me, looks like a woman in a dress.

I love the way these clouds looked. The layers of them were neat to see.

Day 137

After lunch, John drove us home and I took photos of the trees from the passenger's side window.

In case you've never seen something like this, these trees are covered in ivy. It's not as bad as kudzu, but it still overtakes the trees.

Day 136

Today, we woke up to a light coating of snow and drizzling rain. The snow quickly dissolved, as the rain continued. Snow isn't uncommon in March, in Richmond, VA (we've had heavy cabin fever inducing snow before), but of course no one recalls that when the snow comes in Spring. Granted having nice days followed by bitter cold isn't fun, but that is what Spring is like here. I'm expecting another 2 months of rain. March, April and May showers bring on the flowers here...so expect a lot of wet flower photos...or in this case wet and frozen.

This is a flower from a Dogwood tree in my front yard. I squeezed this one to see if the water was frozen or not. It wasn't, but that would have been neat. Since the flowers were facing up, they are like little cups when filled with rain.

This Rhododendron had ice melting off of it and rain drops on it.

Some of the Vinca had snow on it. All of it was wet.

The upturned petals of the hyacinth had rain glistening in them. This one is so shiny, you can see me a bit.

Since it was really cold outside, I went back in quickly, to warm up. This squirrel butt greeted me.

Later in the morning, we headed to the city to meet some friends for brunch. After brunch, I took some photos from the passenger side of the tree lined streets. Remember when I said, I wouldn't stick the new fancy camera out of the car window. Well, I lied. Really, I just rested it on the window sill and pointed it up.

As we crossed the main bridge to our house, John said I should take photos of the James River. He purposely drives in the far right lane, so I have a better chance of clear photos. This one has been cropped to exclude the guard rail.

These are the train tracks by our house. They are tricky to photograph, so my husband slowed down when we crossed them.

Day 135

These are trees that I photographed before using the old camera, but the photos have always been blurry. The new camera had a setting for night that prevents blurring. The setting takes several rapid photos. Then, it processes them together into one photo. This gives the photo enough light exposure to show and the combo prevents the blurring.

There are street lamps along the path. I like how they light the trunks of the trees, which highlights the moss.

Day 134

I kept my camera handy throughout the day.

On the way to the bus stop, I took a panoramic of Alex walking and some of the trees along the path.

These purple flowers grew within the last few days.

The moon still showed in the sky, as the sun was rising higher.

I forgot this little creature the 1st time I posted this entry. I'm not sure how that happened. Anyway, this squirrel surprised me. It stayed calm about a foot away from me. I didn't notice it was there until I was that close. It hopped about 2 feet in front of me and then to my other side, just watching me. I guess I'm weird to them, because I don't try to threaten them. Look at those little hands, ears and bush tail! So cute!

John and I went to Carytown for lunch. As we were walking from Can Can to Premiere Costumes, I noticed this dead ivy still clinging to the high wall. The ivy below that had been cut away from the wall, but the trails of it still showed.

I bought some dessert at Jean Jacques, and took a panoramic of the clouds, from the parking lot.

On the way to the playground, I took a photo of one of the many buds that fell during the last long storm.

While at the playground, I took a panoramic of the trees in front of it.

On the way back to the house, I noticed this large fly. It was about the size of my thumb. The close up makes it creepier looking.

In the evening, Alex and I went to a photography show. When we arrived back home, the sky had a reddish glow. I used the hand held twilight setting to capture the trees in this lightened night sky.

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.