Food and Flora!

All right, guess who's back from traveling! The NY-MD journey took nearly 60% longer than usual both ways due to heavy traffic and road construction but being the mellow yellow fellow that I am, I actually rather enjoyed the drive. The past week was hot and stuffy but weather was soon forgotten once I was immersed in work, which in turn was forgotten once I was sitting in front of delicious food!

As hard as it is to believe, I didn't take photos of everything I ate because the food itself distracted me. What was captured though (with my phone camera), could be said to be the highlights of the week's dining experience. We start off with steak with macaroni and cheese prepared to perfection. I ordered the steak medium-rare, which was just right and the flavor really popped in your mouth.

On my last night in MD, we journeyed to a Japanese restaurant in DE. I've only ever had sushi in NY and wasn't sure what to expect down south but was pleasantly surprised. My order comprised of two rolls: a tempura shrimp roll with avacado, eel sauce, Japanese mayonnaise, and breading and a king crab roll topped with tuna. These two rolls, especially the tempura shrimp roll, easily rivaled the NY sushi I've had.

While the sushi was excellent, the dessert was even erm...more excellent! My coworkers and I each ordered a tempura brownie topped with coffee ice cream and caramel. I'm generally not a dessert-person but I'll be damned if I don't order this again! This dessert was so rich that it was effectively a second meal. 

All this talk of good food has me salivating so let's move on to the main event. I arrived too late Friday evening to take any photos so I woke up early Saturday morning and went to work. As with a lot of the recent photos, these were taken with the DMC-FZ35 configured with the DMW-LC55 close-up lens. I can't identify the flowers in the first three photos, so anyone who know what they are, please speak up!

A lot of hover flies were busy swarming these flowers as evidenced in the photo above. These little flies are quick while in-flight so I patiently waited until they touched down on the the flowers to gather nectar.

At night, these flowers actually close up and look as if they never bloomed until the next morning when they re-open to their full glory.

This year, I didn't take as many photos of peonies as I did last year. During my week away, a lot of them opened up and ran their course. A number did remain in-bloom so I seized the opportunity to take some photos. In the first one below, we have a mean-looking black fly perched on a pink peony.

I like the next photo below because it looks as if the peony in focus has a "tail" or "train" of peonies. In the front yard, we have an entire row of peonies that have dozens of flowers in peak-bloom.

 

  

The small flowers in the first of the next two photos are also unidentified to me. They are roughly one-quarter inch in width and grow in small clusters. Again, if anyone can identify it, please let me know what they are! The second photo is of a leek flower head in bloom. We have a couple of these plants growing in the backyard.

The multi-layered clematis that I fondly photographed and posted in the last couple of posts mostly lost their main petals over the week. Nonetheless, the remaining petals retained their porcupine-like spiky appearance.

 

The next flower is yet another one that I have not yet identified so please help me out! I've actually identified this particular flower with the help of Wikipedia. I have photos from last year that have an even closer view of the central structures of the flowers. Since the LC55 lens was attached, I have a longer minimum focusing distance, hence the not-as-close view as last year.

Rosa multiflora

To finish today's post, we have an assortment of roses (actually beginning with the previous photo). Red, white, pink, yellow, and purple - we have it all between the front/back yards!

The roses in the next two photos give off an incredible fragrance that wafted in the air as I moved around to compose the photos. I think they they, along with some other of roses below, may be cultivars of Rosa chinensis.

We're due to have weather above 90*F (32.2*C) over the next couple of days this week and I expect the heat to cause a lot of the flowers to wither quicker than usual. After the roses and peonies finish up, we'll see the hydrangea come out. In the mean time, I'll try to photograph as much as I can before the heat wave takes its toll so stay tuned!

Scorching!

Another post! As it turns out, I took over 1,500 photographs over the Memorial Day long weekend. How I managed to do so, I am not completely sure since for two of those days, I was in the city hanging out with friends. This hot weather of late has really brought out a lot of flowers, which is good timing since I won't be around till next weekend.

Let's start today off with a couple of photos with hidden little critters. Both photos are of peonies, albeit different varieties. An unidentified cricket-like insect was crawling around in the first flower while an and was playing hide-and-go-seek in the second peony. 

The next three photos are also of peonies. It's prime-time for peonies right now and the front/backyards are full of them. Compositionally, the more petals a peony has, the closer the shot I like to take. I'm not sure why but that's the trend I've noticed. How do you guys feel about this? 

Next, we have a few shots of poppy flowers. In the last post, we had the orange Oriental poppy and today, we have a pink one. Last year, there was more of the pink variety and this year, it's the opposite. The pink ones open up pretty much all the way while the orange ones tend to remain like a ball.

Like with the other flowers, we have several different types of clematis in the gardens. The below is a close-up of a variety that has not been shown in the other posts. This variety is relatively larger than the others and has wide, flat petals. 

The next two photos are of a clematis variety presented in previous posts. This variety's intricate petals have a mesmerizing effect one me and I can't help but take more photos of them.

This last clematis photo is of the pink variety, which was the first of all the clematis to bloom. As a result, they're also the first to wilt. But fear not, all is not melancholic as even in its end, this flower still commands a certain beauty.

Finally, we have some roses. There's a variety of roses at home - some are rather large while others are tiny. It's hard to tell which is which size in these photos since I have a tendency to take close-up shots. It rained this morning out on the Island, so there was some water droplets on the rose petals.

Well, we've reached the conclusion of today's post. I'm happy to have captured these beautiful flowers in pixel form now and to not have missed them blooming. With any luck, there will be new flowers out for when I return later this week. Till, then!

Hot, Hot,...Hot!

Hello, all! I'm back again today even though we just had a post yesterday. Today's post was rather unplanned but I had the day off and was outside for a few hours enjoying the nice weather. Of course, I had my camera in-hand, giving us today's collection of photographs.

We'll start first with the Oriental poppy, which is a member of the same genus as the opium poppy. The orange-colored variety is the natural form of the flower and a range of other colors have been cultivated over the years. Last year, I saw the pink variety next to the orange ones but didn't see them this year. Perhaps they'll show up later in the season.

Papaver orientale

With the departure of the mudan peonies from the landscape, we have the arrival of other peonies. The most noticeable difference between these peonies is the petal arrangement. The first photo below shows a peony with a single layer of petals, which is a striking contrast to the multi-layered mudan peony.

The single layer of petals appear to be "frosted" along the edge which has quite a beautiful effect. In the immediate vicinity of this peony is one of another cultivar. This type has a couple of more layers of petals that curl in towards the center of the flower.

A little ways away we have yet another type of peony with even more layers of petals. While the previous two peonies have unobstructed centers, this variety has petals sticking straight out from its center. The flower itself is also larger than the previous two but is smaller than the mudan peony.

Remember the "attack of the clematis" from yesterday's post? Well, I couldn't resist and took more photos today. This multi-layered clematis can take over a week to fully open its petals and once it does, it can last for several days. This being said, I'll definitely be taking more photos of these elegant flowers!

Speaking of elegant flowers, here are some iris photos. For some reason, I find myself drawn in by their crests, which look like fingers.

Last but not least, we have some photos of a visitor who might actually be a long-term resident. Over the years, we've encountered a Eastern box turtle just like this one in the front/backyard. This little guy was hanging out under some hydrangea bushes presumable to hide in the shade from the blistering sun. I wouldn't have noticed it had it not been discovered by one of our dogs.

Are you looking at me?!

What struck me the most was the fiery red eyes and unexpected "speed" with which the turtle could move. While trying to take my photos, I had to readjust my position a couple of times since the little guy was trying to get away from me.

Eventually, it did move further and further away from me. Above is the parting shot I snapped. For now, I must do the same since I will be traveling for work next week. Since I won't be home, the next post will likely be in a week or so unless I take more photos in the next couple of days. Until then, happy shooting!

Summer Weather Is Here!

As the title of this post suggests, summer weather has finally arrived! Temperatures have been kissing 80*F (27*C) and my AC has been turned on for maximum effect. I love summer but unfortunately, don't have much heat tolerance; however, that doesn't hold me back from going outside and snapping away!

We'll start off where we left off last time, with the mudan peonies. A side effect of the spring-summer transition is rain...lots of it. This year, the timing seems particularly bad as the warm weather brought about a lot of blooms, only to be followed by rain. This has the undesirable effect of withering the flowers prematurely, which ironically, presents a photographic opportunity in and of itself. Here, we have the fallen petals of a mudan peony:

Near the mudan peony is a clematis bush. I hadn't intended to take pictures of this particular flower but did since there was a bee on its petals. Last year I got some nice shots of bees gathering pollen from a sunflower, which was pretty cool to watch.

All of the photos is this batch were taken with the DMW-LC55 close-up lens installed on my DMC-FZ35. This lens works great in capturing the fine details as seen below. I was also quite pleased to see that the white clematis was not overexposed.

Okay, let's take a break from the clematis flowers. We actually have several varieties of them in the front/backyards but we'll take a look at them later on and give other flowers a turn. I'm not sure what the purple flower in the first photograph below is so if anyone does, then please let me know! The latter two are a rosebud and and iris, which is a spectacularly elegant flower with beautiful colors.

Guess what? It's back to clematis flowers! These flowers are from a clematis bush in the front yard and I just couldn't resist the perfect lighting the sun provided at the moment. The DMC-FZ35 really shines when there is adequate lighting.

The variety of clematis below is different from the magenta and white-petaled ones above in that it has blue-purplish petals arranged in a much more intricate pattern. Personally, I like this type of clematis the most because of its beautiful colors and multitude of layers of petals.

All around the front/backyards, I am seeing peony buds preparing to bloom. There are actually a couple that have already bloomed but the majority have not. I will be traveling for work next week so hopefully they will hold on until after I return home to bloom. Stay tuned!