Should I stay or should I go? Decisions...

This is another image that will be included in my gallery show in February, 2010. At the time that this photo was taken, I'd gone out to the garden to photograph flowers... but this carpet beetle just HAD to be captured on camera and I'm so happy with how it turned out. (another image that hadn't made it onto the blog yet because it was taken before starting this blog... the previous image is quite chilling (temperature wise) so thought I'd post a warmer one to counteract it)

Robin in Holly tree... December snowstorm...

Another image from the "great" snowstorm of December, 2009... at one time... I counted 12 (or more) robins going after the berries on my holly. Since we had the tree trimmed last year, this year the crop of berries was HUGE and there are still many left for the birds to continue their dining.

View to the southeast out my kitchen window... SNOW!

This image is from the "BIG SNOW" of December 18/19 and was taken through my kitchen window during the height of the storm. I like this image for several reasons... one of which is the TV antennae attached to the neighbor's chimney... thought everyone had cable these days but I'm in an older neighborhood and with a high enough antennae, one can still get the main channels for viewing.

Female Cardinal in Dogwood... December 2009 SNOW!

Another one from our record breaking snowstorm... birds visiting my garden included cardinals, house sparrows, house finches, starlings, Carolina wrens (saw three at the same time), blue jays, robins, juncos, mourning doves, chickadees, red-bellied and downy woodpeckers... think that is all. Some came for the holly berries and dogwood berries (although most dogwood berries were gone) and some came to the feeders and cleaned me out!

Happy Holidays Everyone... Holly in sunlight and snow!

By the time I dug my way out to the holly tree in my back yard, snow had already been flying off it... I took quite a few photos but like the effect the sunlight had on this one... the lights on the right give this a holiday feel to my thinking!

Woodpecker stopping by my bird feeder today...

So far, we've had about 19 inches of snow in the past 22 hours... it's not often I see a woodpecker at my bird feeders but this one kept stopping by today to help himself to the safflower and sunflower seeds. Between the wind and his weight, the feeder is not hanging straight up and down. I feel lucky to have managed to capture him on camera!

Pink Petal Perfection... another summer bloomer for you...

It's been snowing for a couple of hours now and the world is white outside my window... maybe tomorrow I'll have a chance to get some snowy photos... but tonight I thought I'd post a lovely pink rose!

Shall we have a threesome? Spring bloomers wet with rain...

Another image from spring that will be in my photography show. These flowers were planted in my yard YEARS ago by my great Aunt Alice who lived in this house from 1937 to 1981. When she had to go to a nursing home, I was fortunate enough to be in a position to buy her house because she didn't want it sold to a stranger! Every spring I'm reminded of the good fortune I had in knowing her for many years because she was able to tell me many stories about my grandmother (her sister) who died when I was an infant.

Spring beauty... Dogwood blossom beginning to open...

Just realized I never posted this spring photo of a dogwood blossom starting to open because it was taken well before I started this blog. This image is already framed and ready for my photography show in February... now if I could just figure out the rest of the images! (counting this one, 12 down and another 20 to 25 to go)

Big Sky Country... Absaroka Mountains near Fishtail, Montana...

Just finished an Adobe Photoshop Elements class so have been combing through my photos to find some that need work... want to practice skills learned before I forget them all! This image is from a couple of years ago and was taken with my first digital camera... a Nikon Coolpix P1... and shot through a quite dirty car window. So I used tools to clean up the smudges... cropped the photo to get rid of the hood of the car... and wound up with this "panorama" of the Absoraka Mountains outside of Fishtail, MT.

Panorama of Pilot and Index Peaks of the Absaroka Mountains... Wyoming

Am not at all sure how well viewing a panorama in this blog format will work... but we shall see. This was assembled from several images (about 14) and then cropped down to include only the central, most interesting (to my eye) portion of the panorama. I've learned a few things since taking and assembling this first attempt at a panorama and hope that future efforts reflect what I've learned. In the meantime, I'm quite pleased with this first effort!

Aloha Rose (that's its name) in snow... my December Bethesda, MD garden!

I have a closer crop of the top rose on Flickr... but I decided to post this view to show that I still had two roses blooming in my garden... after Thanksgiving... in growing zone 6B (min temp as low as -0 to -5° F)... the wet snow we are having made for some lovely photo opportunities so of course I grabbed my camera and headed outdoors... may have to go back out before the day is over! (bird photos didn't turn out as well as the flower photos... those rascally birds just don't hold still for me like the flowers do)

Stanley Idaho... Sunset from the Bridge Restaurant...

We were the only diners who chose to sit on the rooftop deck at the Bridge Restaurant in Lower Stanley, ID... we had spectacular views of the Sawtooth Mountains... and the setting sun provided lovely light for this view across the Salmon River. The food was great too!! (from September, 2009... still working on image selection for my February gallery show and finding some I'd forgotten to post here)

Calibrachoa 'Caloha Orange' still blooming... Dec 3, 2009

Our hardiness zone is 6B which means our winters can be as cold as 0 to -5° F ... yet this flower is still blooming. Million Bells is one of the other names this flower is known by... because of the many tiny, bell-shaped blossoms all varieties of this plant produce. This particular variety is actually more red than orange in spite of the variety name of Caloha Orange. (am still working on photo images for my February, 2010 gallery show and this is one image that I was experimenting with Adobe Photoshop Elements to clean up the image... it probably won't be in the show but I like it anyway)