9 posts tagged “flower”
Oh boy what a mess! Mom-In-Law's (MIL) sewer line plumbing problem required a complete replacement of the 50-year-old line from a corner in the back of her home's basement all the way across the floor and to the front foundation wall! Expensive, really hard work (for the Roto-Rooter guys), and a huge smelly mess. It also meant destruction of the house's tile floor, laid by MIL's late husband back when the house was new. That's actually the sad part.
It's a really bad thing to happen but, as it turns out, once the poorly-installed, broken-down pipe is replaced from the house, through the front yard, and to the street, MIL's drains will work much better and a "mystery odor" will likely disappear.
Since the plumbing's out, MIL is staying with us for the duration. I took an emergency day off from work to help clear the MIL's basement for demolition work and to look after her for the afternoon.
A beautiful part of the day was the blooming of She Who Must Be Obeyed's asiatic lilies -- large, lovely, sweetly-scented blooms. The mid-afternoon sun backlit one of the flowers and I excused myself from a conversation with MIL in order to record the image before the sun sank behind our garage.
Turning my back on the mess, I photographed Her lovely garden. There were more spectacular flowers in the garden this morning, but this pale yellow bloom caught my eye. I'm taking the day off as my July 4th holiday comp. time which will allow me to tend to Tasha who will be going in for teeth cleaning at the vet's shortly. Vets give cats general anesthesia when cleaning their teeth. With all those needle-sharp teeth contained within a ball of claws, muscle, and fury I can't say as I blame them!
Expecting not-very-nice weather for Sunday, we skipped our Saturday morning errands and headed for Hinckley Lake to rent a canoe. It had been a while since we last paddled around the quiet waters of the park but we set out confidently, She in front with a canoe paddle, I in the back of the boat with a kayak paddle. We actually did fairly well, pretty accurately controlling the boat and maintaining good speed when desired. Of course wildlife, most especially water fowl, are a big attraction for me at Hinckley so I carried the little Panasonic Lumix DMC-LC43 -- I did not want to risk getting the Canon SLR or its expensive lenses wet. Of course there are risks of another sort to not carrying one's best at all times!
Cruising along the shoreline (and trying to avoid morning fishermen) She spotted a smallish great blue heron nabbing minnows from water's edge. Judging by its size and its failure to flee it was a young bird we approached close enough to bean with a well-placed toss of a stone! So we circled out, I retrieved the little Panasonic from my pocket, and we passed by the youngster repeatedly as I shot photos. It's actually not a bad little digital snapshot camera but I have grown used to SLR speed and quality. I missed several shots due to shutter lag, got blurry results from others, and had very little telephoto reach. Still, in all, it was quite an experience to observe a truly wild bird in the open at such proximity. One of the barely-acceptable photos was kind of fun... young heron is apparently wet and all ruffled up, seen nearly straight-on. Kind of comical, in fact!
We left the bird in peace and continued our travel paralleling the shore. I'd wanted to get a nice on-water opportunity to photograph a water lily and finally got one. Just one. The only water lily we could reach (due to shallow water boating restrictions) was all by itself, floating in dark water amongst the lily pads -- no other blooms anywhere. We took the boat in very close, nearly floating over the flower, I made my shots (three, one fairly good), and headed back out.
It was a pleasant morning on Hinckley Lake.
It was a beautiful day today. Before we left on a pleasant drive to other beautiful places, I stopped to admire the beauty found literally at our front door. A flower, viewed from different perspectives, is a thing of beauty rediscovered. I've got to revisit this one, better prepared to fully lay down for a better vantage point! Thank goodness for tall flower stems and flexible knees.
I was uninspired in the morning and it felt like the day off might be a waste. After doing some routine Web stuff and catching up on email, I finally determined I would go out and do a few things including playing "vulture" at a Ritz Camera store that is closing and taking a photo walk. Here's what transpired:
- Went to the bank and dropped off deposit.
- Went to the Post Office and dropped off mail.
- Realized it's the Ritz Camera 20 miles away that is closing, not at a nearby mall!
- Drove to Hinckley Lake for a photo walk (brought heavy camera bag).
- Walked a bit and saw some beautiful flowers -- no camera... it's in the other bag, at home!
- Trails muddy so only walked a bit longer, then on the paved trail a way.
- Turned around and went to the Hinckley Lake shop.
- Tee shirts on sale: $10, nice! None my size.
- Nice spring/fall weather-resistant jackets 1/2-price! Not my size.
- {sigh}
- Drove home.
- Had lunch: Amy's frozen Thai veggies. Good
- Loaded up Styrofoam® blocks for recycling; put camera in bag.
- Headed to Heinen's in Brecksville for recycling. Bought drink and donut. Mmmm.
- Headed out on earthen walking trail in Brecksville Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks, along Chippewa Creek.
- Brown, barren. Nice rocks, river views, bird calls. Good walking. Few good photo ops.
- After a decent walk, turned back and shot a few floral images.
- Headed home* for shower.
- Checked photos, cooked dinner for She and me.
- Met new neighbors! Seem nice.
- Went out for ice cream and groceries.
- Day turned out better than it started; no emergency calls from work. Server project lookin' good!
- Finish blog entry then ... {yawn} off to bed.
- Good Night.
* NOTE: On the return trip home I took the Honda Insight to the gasoline station for the first time since picking it up. The odometer read 397 miles and I put 8.7 gallons of Shell gasoline in the tank. Since we don't know exactly how much gas the car started with or at what odometer reading, we can't be sure about our hand-calculated results but that comes to ~45 MPG overall since I started driving it. The car's internal calculator was claiming 47 MPG and I'm beginning to believe it's pretty accurate. I am quite pleased. By the way... the tank holds only a little more than 10 gallons of fuel and getting 400 miles out of a single tank of gas ain't too shabby.
In my travels home after work, I drove a portion of a nearby parkway. Wet areas in the surrounding woods play host to scores of spring peepers now singing loudly, advertising for sex. An amazing sound from such tiny creatures but the need is urgent for the puddle waters are temporary!
At home the tiny iris flowers (seen below) are shriveling and the daffodil flower buds are swelling. One flower, the first of the year, burst open.
I asked and She Who Must Be Obeyed steadied the bobbing bloom long enough for me to photograph it.
Unexpected sunshine and blue skies greeted us this morning. A quiet thunderstorm had passed over us before dawn. The landscape was left damp with beads of water standing on the fresh green of young spring flowers pushing up to herald spring. After a few errands She decided to root around a bit in the flower beds. I changed the bird feeders, putting away that providing for high demand, leaving only the thistle seed feeder and one for suet -- our spring and summer selection. Tiny and beautiful flowers (Iris reticulata) were in full bloom and posing for admirers and photographers. I retrieved my camera with macro lens and did a little shooting. It was wonderful to be out enjoying the day and to forget about car shopping. I work this afternoon, however, so I heaved a sigh and went indoors for lunch and to dress for the office. It's spring and this isn't a car blog.
After a morning at Mom-in-Law's house (starting the process of getting new storm doors) we took a long loop out east and checked in at the Observatory. Good thing, too, the dehumidifier tank was about to overflow. That's no mean feat, either... I have it set up with a tank that can handle about 20 gallons! It was a nice drive out and back enjoying the early fall colors. After lunch we headed west and, following some light shopping, took a stroll on some of the trails at the Cleveland Metroparks' Rocky River Reservation. It's a beautiful wooded area with wetlands and was so busy, this sunny Sunday afternoon, that we were lucky to find parking a half-mile away. Still, we were there for the hiking and the spot we found was actually quite nice.
As we walked the paved path approaching the Reservation's visitor center, we saw a Great Blue Heron glide in for a landing in an adjacent wet area. We watched the big bird as it began fishing, silently wading along a submerged tree trunk. Saw it catch a small fish or two. Shot many photos of the quiet beauty of the bird and its surroundings.
After a relaxing walk, including a decent workout climbing a crazy-high set of stairs up along a cliff, we set off for the car. The heron was still fishing so we paused to capture a few parting shots (my best of the day, seen above) and stopped again at the entrance to the paved path. There were beautiful yellow flowers glowing against a background of deep green foliage. The last blooms of the season are sometimes the most lovely.
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