Wonderfulicious Wednesday - Happy Thanksgiving

Wonderfulicious Wednesday end of 

November nuggets.

Gotta love cloud shapes!

On my desk.

For the love of blooming Cereus.

Agave blooming Stalk.

This is the first time a blooming stalk of

this stature has bloomed in the yard.

The variegated Agave is in a pot

that often falls over from the

sheer weight of the Agave. 

I hope that it's weighted 

down well enough

while the stalk

blooms.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wonderfulicious Wednesday

Photographing what presents itself in the yard continues . . . .

Night-blooming Cereus photographed at midnight.

Definitely Queen of The Night!

For the next 7 blooms 

 I need to find the tripod!

The image below was taken with the iPhone. 

And of course I have to blend

and manipulate  . . .

Backyard residents. 

I have been known to venture outside

of the backyard. 1997, Arles, France.

Wonderfulicious (wordless) Wednesday

Wordless is often better than writing about what 

is going on , , , ,

Cactus blooms that only last  few hours in the brutal 

desert heat. (almost wordless  . . .)

Vignettes from the garden

Often I dream about leaving the house with the camera and driving to

new places, but then reality sets in and I once again find that it's 

better if I stay home; safer that way.

I'm a believer that photos are everywhere if we look at our 

surroundings with "new eyes." Some times it takes looking through

the viewfinder to see the ordinary in a new way. 

A pot of Agave is interesting enough

but what if the image is layered with a photo of barrel cactus?

Two daily visitors in the yard are more interesting with

multiple textured layers subtly done.

A blending of various cactus and textures.

Every spring a few Orioles arrive. They're particularly fond

of the hummingbird feeder and let me know when it's 

empty. I've probably photographed around a 100 shots of them

and finally got a different one today. Eureka! Getting a side

view this good has taken years. 

Extracted from the boring background of

the hummer feeder and layered with a succulent image followed

by texture layers and my Saturday has gone from

bleak to one full of Joy!

11/1 Happy Birthday to my oldest daughter

111 is said to be a magical number for making a wish. Birthday wishes to my oldest daughter who is 47 today. At 8 months of age we were told she wouldn't see her first birthday. She's beat the odds many times. Kidney failure being right up there with a high fever that left her brain damaged. Last month marked the 6th year since the kidney transplant and two years since the last round of chemo I had. For some reason I decided to have an October health breakdown and ended up in the hospital for a night with intense vertigo. The world wouldn't stop rotating upside down. I can finally say that the health crisis is over. Done!

Fall in the desert isn't exactly spectacular: leaves don't turn colors but a 

little color has shown up.

 The sunsets have been glorious!

Sometimes the sky looks like it's on fire.

A finch on the water fountain looks decked out in Fall colors.

And the occasional dry grape leaf is wind-tossed into a tree.

White doves may be the symbol for  love and peace

but the gentleness and serenity that this daily visitor provides

never fails to delight.

Playing with some of the sun-prints that I created

over the summer. 

Friday Fotos - End of the Calla Lily and Sea Urchin Season

 Just as expected, the Calla Lily isn't faring well in the heat, but then neither am I. Hopefully, it

will return next year so that I can create more images of its sculptural magnificence. 

In the meantime, I will continues to play with the few images I was able to capture. 

 It's also the end of the Sea Urchin Cactus season. 

 The bee kept buzzing my hand while I was taking this photo; he wanted

the bloom all to himself.  All I wanted was one great

shot of the bee and I ended up with three. 

We both were blessed.

 Zoom lens photo of the Sea Urchins in the garden.

This image fascinates me. Roger and I often visited Hakone Japanese Garden in Saratoga, CA.

 Unhappily, I never got a decent photo of the Koi ponds or the bamboo gardens.

 I recently ran across an image of bark on a Eucalyptus tree that I blended with

a bamboo image; both images were taken at Hakone

And now I finally have a photo that feels like Hakone always felt to me, if that makes sense.
While watching this video of Hakone I was able to once enjoy the small garden
and remember areas that I had forgotten.
Gotta love armchair traveling.