Dirty Business

Yesterday was a rainy, blah and grey day. When the rain finally eased off, I thought it would be a good idea to try to get some macro shots of raindrops before it started raining again. We have a small area right near the side porch where there is a big stump which is slowly falling apart, and it is surrounded by dwarf Nandina shrubs. When a stump is falling into decay, all sorts of small little plants grow on it and it develops neat hills and valleys. The Nandinas have lovely colored leaves in the fall and winter, red, reddish-green and different shades of green. The shrubs are about 2 feet from the stumps, and in the past we have had that area planted in impatiens and it looks lovely.

I thought through what I would need. I put on an old pair of capri pants, so I wouldn't have the bottoms dragging in the wetness. I attached my camera to a tripod that is only about 2 feet tall, and put on my 100 mm lens. I attached the remote to the camera, slipped on some plastic shoes and picked up an old packing blanket in the garage that I could fold up and sit on. I was set.

Having folded the blanket into 4 layers, I sat down by the stump. It didn't take me long to find out that the tripod wanted to sink into the wet earth, the leaves of nearby bushes were heavily laden with water, and even through 4 layers, the seat of my pants were soaked and muddy. My shoes slid around and my body did not like bending and unbending. Trying to make sure the tripod didn't move, and then doing manual focusing was how I spent most of my time. I was wet and muddy by the time I came back into the house, but overall, I was pretty pleased with my first try at getting raindrops. The picture below is of raindrops on Nandina leaves, and look at the tiny little face which was waiting for me! It is a reflection of the surrounding leaves. I have some others too, so I will share them with you in later posts.

The first picture is the shot in its raw state, the second is my final processed cut. What do you think?

Blooms ! :)

Before I start this blog post, I want to thank those who have responded to my last post about our dog, Abby. We are encouraged by the suggestions and comments and look forward to finding a way to help her (and us!) out of her current situation.

On to today's post - Blooms! Spring is here, and even though on the calendar it is still winter, it seems that many things here are tired of waiting! And the pansies, which have been around all winter to give us color, are vigorously cheering the warm weather.

I have two of these waterfall pansies hanging pots on our front porch and they are so pretty. Next year, I hope to get 6 of them to hang all around the porch.

Cheerful faces in an old Hungarian baby bathtub; we have some smaller pots of pansies scattered around the house.

We went to Martin's Nursery on Saturday to get some help with planning what to do with the ugly bank behind our house, and came home with a drawn planting plan and several suggestions by the owner of the nursery. I had taken photos of the area and printed them out. She did all the rest. How great was that!?

Yellow Jessamine for the arbor we'd had built, the state flower of South Carolina.

I received ten tiny trees from the Arbor Society last fall, planted them and held my breath. Now nine of them have sprouted leaves! (The 10th one was eaten by our daughter's dog, Kit) These are the Hawthorne trees.

We have several Forsythia shrubs - one full grown bush given to me by a friend, which we divided into 2 plants; both are doing well. I rooted several cuttings and now we have lovely little shrubs growing in front of the fence, as well as the two in front of the barn. Only one did not make it.

This is Loropetalum, also referred to as Chinese Razzleberry or Chinese Fringe Flower. There were 6 of these around our back porch when we purchased the house, which was not a good place for them to be, since they grow to about 6'! We moved 3 to the outside corner of the fence (shown here) and 3 on the side of the fence, last year. They all made it!

This is the Ugly Bank, with some puny Juniper plants (we will have someone help us put the plants in, since I have fatigue issues) ....

..... and these is the arbor where the Jessamine will go.

And besides flowers, all of the birds are busy claiming their territory. The bluebirds built this nest in the bluebird house last week and started laying eggs.

So far we have 3! I expect them to lay 5 total, as usual.

I hope where ever you are, you are enjoying the weather. I feel richly blessed!!

Click on any picture you want to see closer.

Come see my latest postcards I've received on Postcards Buffet!