Walk In The Neighborhood, P365 Extra Credit

Took my little Nikon out tonight, and here's what I caught:

My house:

"Mary rays" from the setting sun:

My favorite, evidence of turtle hatchlings at a neighborhood pond:

And my second favorite, a hawk feather. I saw the momma hawk, chasing a little green heron. She must have a nest somewhere in the swamp - the hawk, not the heron.

Project 365 Catch-up

A little behind on project 365, so I'm going to do a couple of catch-up posts.

Thursday, 7/14, Akron Zoo Members' Night. The tiger was restless, probably late for dinner, pretty thrilling to see her running through Tiger Valley.

7/15: Had a lot of trouble with the full moon - couldn't see to focus. Two days later, I realized the viewfinder diopter was messed up. Durr...

7/16: Do I look pleased with my iPad? Oh yeah!! The Apple Store is geek heaven, a giant shiny uber cool toy box. The iPad is fun - it's light, does a lot of stuff, and, yes, it's pretty. I am obsessed.

7/17: Homemade vanilla ice cream with fresh strawberries. Heaven!

The last three are from 7/19: The technique above is called "shooting through" because the focus is on the background, so the foreground is blurred.

Mysterious bug on the slider screen.

Last one - a geranium slowly unfolding. They have such graceful forms.

iPad2 Obsession

I need one of these (64 gig):

Don't I?

Green Mystery & P365

I've driven past this green tunnel almost every day for six years. It's only a half mile from my house, so today, I decided to check it out. Still don't know where it goes, but I did find out that most of the mosquitoes in Kent live here. 07/11/11

This view of the upper deck makes me happy. Shot through the slider screen to get a nice texture. 7/10/11.

Shiny new blinds in the master bedroom - and Sootie, of course. A tiny little plastic piece in the rail broke, so the vanes wouldn't close. Sunday evening, too. Fortunately, Lowe's was open, and Chuck put the new ones up in no time at all.

P365, July 8 & 9

Backlit geranium from last night.

The Lowe's bargain strawberries are growing like crazy. And the strawberries are really good!

Home P365

More P365. July 5, looking down at the chaise on the lower deck - looks like a comfy, summery place to hang out.

July 6, the newly installed mural in my kitchen. It's a test for work, printed on a pressure sensitive fabric. It's designed for custom wall coverings. Looks pretty good. It'll come down in a month, to see how well it removes from decent paint. We tested it at work but the paint is cheap and applied over dirty walls, so it's hard to judge performance. Also, my office wall has been used as a test substrate a thousand times.

Anyway, pretty sweet to have this giant heron photo in the kitchen.

Today, one perfect sunflower, growing in a pot on the upper deck. Must have been planted by a chipmunck or dropped by a bird. Lovely and cheerful.

More Macro: 07/04/11

These were shot with the 20 mm extenstion tube and a Sigma 17 - 70mm lens and manual focus. It's really hard to get a sharp focus - between hand holding and the breeze, it's amazing anything is sharp.

New strawberry with the fading petals still visible.

This is another syrphid fly, a drone fly. The big, googly eyes are the "not a bee" giveaway. If you didn't look closely, though, at first you'd think it was a bee. I did.

Nemesis - and on Grandma's peonies! Did you know these rats are scarab beetles? They are pretty, but if they go after the sweet gum again, they may be doomed.

Spotted lady beetle - they like pollen in addition to garden pests, and the daylilies are full of pollen (I was kind of annoyed, thinking it was chewing holes in the lilies, but BugGuide.net said it's a good bug).

Here's the link to BugGuide, have fun: http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740

And yesterday's P365 shots, the cherries Chuck brought home for today's cookout with my family.

They were really good!

Fireworks, Kent Heritage Festival, July 2, 2011

And, they got the show in before the thunderstorm.

June 30 & July 1: P365

Happy July - Summer is going way too fast!

Worked on the lamppost bed last night. This morning, I finished the planting and more mulching, but ran out of newpaper and mulch. The newspaper is to keep the weed and grass down. The plants include a 'Miss Kim' lilac that's been on the deck for two years, a Japanese maple and honeysuckle which wintered on the front porch and a pale yellow rose, a pastel daisy, and 3 bright yellow coreopsis - all bargain plants. Wonder if I need a 12-step program for plant addiction??

Lisa gave me some cute plant markers for my birthday - this one's guarding the tomato plants on the upper deck.

Sunset tonight, from the upper deck.

Project 365 (a photo each day for a year) always seems easier in the summer. More flowers, bugs, festivals, and get togethers.