Summer on Sequoia

2 Feb '08 3:28 am

What a relief, Faith. Your common cricket sounds a lot like ours! I thought if this is a case of 'Bigger in America' it sure ain't 'better' Laughing

10 Feb '08 9:36 pm

The first is for Liza - a rose that makes me think of her every time I look at it!

The second two are to share my latest macro experiments: with manual focus set to zero distance I can actually press my lens up against the subject: notice how all three Verbena bonariensis flowers (each perhaps 2mm long) have their closest petal 'pushed' by the lens. A further lesson: any dirt on the outer lens glass is then in perfect focus! Sad

Then I thought of back lighting. The next - at this time snapshot and unprocessed - photo is with the lens up against a leaf and the sun behind it. New and exciting possibilities open Very Happy

The last is not very good - I'm still learning how shallow the depth of field is on this setting! - but interesting because of the minute spider I found hiding inside the flowerhead!

11 Feb '08 7:33 am

I did a quick round of supermacros this afternoon - here are three of the better ones. A mosquito on salad burnett flowers, and sticking my lens into an indigenous flower... and then an amazing detail which I have never noticed with the naked eye, and did not realise I had captured until I saw it on my laptop; this must be at most 5x5mm of flower, a dusty pink indigofera that grows wild.

13 Feb '08 1:33 am

Jack, your latest macros are amazing. A mosqueto of all things! And that Osteospermum close-up reminds us how intricate nature's designs are. The color contrast is so striking. Now we are all going to have to try out our macro abilities. As usual some of you are raising the bar (not to mention any names like Dixie or Jack)so that the rest of us are left playing catch-up. Of course, Mary, Liza, Jacquelyn, et al have been leading the way with macros for a long time now, so who am I fooling? I guess it's just little ole me playing catch-up.

21 Feb '08 6:09 pm

Hi, Jack, after such a long time! As I told Dixie, I've been out-of-touch with Moosey's for some time now, so it was great coming back and seeing your beautiful rose pictures.

I just pruned my roses the other day, along with the quince, maples and flowering crabapples. It's THAT time here now! Today I got half of the main garden path swept up of winter debris; tomorrow I plan to get the rest done, and then it will be time to begin cleaning up the borders before any more early bulbs emerge through all the leaves, etc., that will need to be removed and taken to the compost bin. If I wait too long, I'll just snap off the buds while clearing away the debris, so I've learned to get it done early!

The big maple tree that was endangering my roof was finally trimmed (actually, I think one might say that it was "pollarded"). All the branches were cut off leaving stumps about 30 or 40 feet high rearing into the sky. Hopefully it will sprout out this summer so as to continue providing shade for at least a few years before it dies.

I'm becoming increasingly eager for my trip into the Interior in late March to check out the eco-village that I was writing about earlier on. I can hardly wait!!

Anyway, all the best - by the way, have any of the seeds I sent you germinated yet?

Cheers!
gordonf

24 Feb '08 9:10 pm

We are having no weather at all... the rain is soft and gentle,usually at night, enough now to keep things ticking over, but less than we would like. These last weeks, potentially the hottest of the year, have been relatively mild. Mid Feb, as I have come to expect, the first signs of autumn colour started to appear.

I am immensely busy at school, and expect to remain so till mid March. I long for my garden, which has been almost a stranger to me this summer.

Here is this morning's view, with trees that turn red looking darker, and those that turn yellow looking paler... I suppose living with this view I have no right to complain about my garden being a stranger.

25 Feb '08 1:00 pm

Jack,

Your garden will forgive you! I could suggest a gentle retirement, hee hee, but that's not really my business! As long as teaching leaves you enough energy and passion for you, I guess. Keep well, teach those lucky students fiercely and well, and pat each dog at least twenty times a day. See you in March!

4 Mar '08 4:23 pm

... but it does help explain my absense...

This weekend our Interact Club (Junior Rotarias) held their major fundraising event of the year - a 24-hour triathlon, with teams competing in swimming, cycling and running. It was a massive arrangement, and as the sun started coming through we stopped the drudge to have a celebratory relay instead, with all team members running 200m 'to wake up and celebrate that the night was over and we had only two hours to go'. The view from our top field is magnificent. It should be - we had to slice the top off a hill to create it! The first of these photos I took some minutes after the official sunrise, just as the sun broke through the low mists; the second perhaps 5 minutes later. Then we moved down to spend the last two hours at the pool.

4 Mar '08 4:31 pm

Is this the view from above your place or above the school I wonder? Beautiful. I trust you were officiating and not competing? There is no way I could do that.

4 Mar '08 6:48 pm

Definitely not taking part - but one of 8 or 10 people who did not sleep at all all night! In fact I went 31 hours without sleep because of set-up- and clear-up-time, and I also very seldom sat down for more than a few minutes. The view is from school: about 2 miles from home as the crow (never) flies...

Summer on Sequoia

Common crickets!

A few pics

More supermacros

Amazing macros

Late summer

Not quite garden news...

Lovely views!

Answers