Crabapple tree

Taken this evening in front of my home. Frost warning tonight. 

From the Dixboro garden

 

Tzarskoye Selo

Someone with more photographic skills than I (Suby) suggested straightening one photo and making another b&w and sharpened. Your wish is my command. Thanks for the suggestion. What do you think? (Original posts --still posted-- are from Monday April 24.) Precise information on the palace from Nina: "That blue palace is called Tzarskoye Selo. It is outside of St.Petersburg. It is where Amber Room is. The building which is attached to the palace is called Tzarsko-Selsky Litsey. Alexander Pushkin graduated from it. "

Spring came early in Michigan

I am fortunate to have friends who really know how to garden. Barbara is both an adjunct professor of marketing and a master gardener. Carol is a physician assistant with three kids. They have very full lives and beautiful gardens as well. These three pictures (and the hyancinth below) I took last Saturday out at Marty & Dorothy's place. They scheduled a two-week vacation down in Georgia, planned well in advance to precede the first spring blush. Last weekend was the middle of their two-week vacation. We have had an unusually warm spring here (although it is supposed to freeze tonight). They emailed me before they left and said that I might as well drop by and see their garden in bloom; they would be gone. So I took 173 pictures. To compare talent: I have four tulips almost opening; they have hundreds of tulips and daffodils and hyacinths and pansies and flowering shrubs -- look for yourself. So I took the pictures for them (I made a CD) and for me. Maybe I will print a few out and take it out to my sorry garden and tell my flowers to start putting out!

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Be sure to check the hyacynth below, also from the same garden.

Hyacinth

Signs of spring. Probably no one will notice this one because I posted 5 others just after I did this one, but I really love blue and these hyacynth look so fragile and yet here they are. Notice that with all the grand sweeps of color in Marty & Dorothy's garden, I posted this one first.

Tzarskoye Selo

More pictures taken by my friend Nina near St. Petersburg, Russia two months ago.

Ice palace

My friend Nina returned to Russia for a visit. A Muscovite, she visited St. Petersburg and took some pictures of the Hermitage and the ice palace. She allowed me to share them with you. I will share three to begin. If there is interest, more.

 

Getting the flannel up.

When we lived in New Zealand (1980), we were told that there were three million humanoid bipeds and fifty-five million woolly quadrepeds known as "ovis" in Latin or "oi" in Old Irish. (So when Paddy calls out to you and says "oi!" he isn't exactly being complimentary.) If you are driving in Auckland (population one million) and turn a corner and there in the road is a flock of sheep, they have the right of way. And if you hit one, there will be mutton to pay. "Getting the flannel up" was an expression used at Cambridge University and is the equivalent to the expression "pulling the wool over someone's eyes."

New Zealand beach

Maori bay is northwest of Auckland; this is the south end of Muriwai beach. The white outcrop is a gannet colony. Maori bay is a popular surfing spot, too rocky for swimming. (Thanks to Bob Scott Anderson & esp. his wife Heather for the identification. I took this picture in 1980 and did not recall the name of the beach). New Zealand is God's gift to the world.

Wild thing

First wildflower this spring in nearby woods. Shot at dusk with a telephoto lens. f5.6, 1/60 sec., ISO 220, 300mm.

Victoria Regina

I was a bit startled to see a Maori sculpture and Queen Victoria's regal bust on top. New Zealand, 1980. I am not certain what the symbolism of the carved face means, but maybe "Heavy white woman speak with forked tongue."

Roses from my garden

Just a few roses cut from my garden a few years ago. I go for the fragrant kind and that often means old roses that are not in the modern hybrid tea shape. 

Make burgers not war

Blimpy Burgers is a great burger spot in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Started by "Crazy Jim" in 1953, its slogan is "Cheaper than food." That may have been true, once. All sorts of burgers, made to order. Over a billion possible combinations, they claim. If your cholesterol is low, this is the place to go to build it up! When the new owner took over, he started a tradition of snow polar bears, different every winter and every storm sometimes. These bears do not want to be in Iraq. 

On the way to Squamish, British Columbia

 

Near Squamish, British Columbia

 

Assiniboia in 1916

This is the bigger picture (as requested by Ali) for the post below. I deleted the smaller picture, but Blogger would not replace the picture I had deleted. So this post and the previous post go together. And then my fellow photoblogger Wolf has pictured a combine at My Pic a Day: Rusty Combine

And now for something completely different . . .

This is a picture of my Dad (in the middle), a neighbo[u]r Helen, and my grandmother in front of a combine in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan in 1916. I have not taken the time to restore the picture in Photoshop (have to learn how--I am very much an amateur with PS), but it is an interesting piece of history. Blogger problems with uploading larger replacement, so I put in another entry with the larger pic.

Forget-me-nots (thanks, Nicola)

So far, all that I have seen blooming around Michigan are crocuses and daffodils. I took this picture last May -- it is hard to wait for Michigan spring, especially when I have lived in more temperate climes.

Near Portage, Michigan

In November 2005, I attended a planning conference at the one-time Upjohn Conference Center near Portage, Michigan. The grounds were rustic with an almost pre-Raphaelite beauty; the accomodations were good; the food was great. 

Grand Traverse Bay shoreline

Taken on the western shore of Grand Traverse Bay, Michigan, during Christmas week, 1974. I love the way the sun catches the mist rising by the shore & trees. Tom Brooks was trying to teach me a bit about photography -- he became the professional. Good friends are the breath of life.

Dusk on the Oregon coast

Taken in the 1970's when I was just starting with photography. Some things I would do a bit otherwise now, but I still like the picture. North of Depot Bay, Oregon. The sky used to have more red and orange, but the slide has faded some.