I’m back in the garden again today and the flowers are blooming. It’s the best time of year – all the colours of the rainbow are starting to appear in the garden.
Tiger Lily closeup
First up is the Tiger Lily. We have a small patch of these lovely ladies on the side of the house. When they show their colours I have to get my camera out to try to get that elusive great shot of them.
Clematis closeup
Then there is the lovely delicate purple clematis vines. Flowers cover the whole wine as it twines around the lattice fence. The luxurious looking flowers, almost velvety to the touch grace us with their presence in the patio garden.
That’s all I have for today but expect to see more soon.
My friend Nigel and I decided to head out for a bike ride on the Etobicoke Creek trail. The trail takes us along the edge of Pearson airport, although you wouldn’t know it for most of the ride. The trail takes you through some beautiful meadow and forest with the occasional glimpse of the road and airport beyond it. As we rode along I noticed that my brakes weren’t working the best and when we hit a larger hill I realized that the brakes were going to be an issue and the ride needed to end before I broke my neck…lol
Etobicoke Creek forest floor
I did make it safely to the bottom of the hill, with both front and back brakes engaged, and found this gorgeous scene to my right. It was worth the slightly stressful ride down the hill. After this we decided not to continue the ride down the path so I didn’t get any more photos from the trail. We checkout out some side trials we missed but it wasn’t too long before we were back at the car and heading home for the day. A bike ride cut too short but better to be safe. Once the brakes are fixed we will attempt the trail again.
You can find more about this portion of the trail by clicking here. (This trail is broken up into a few sections on this site to make it easier for us non-long-distance bikers.)
Yellow Bloom
Even though my bike ride was cut short I still got out for another walk later in the day in my neighbourhood and captured this lovely image above.
I was in Claireville today with my friend Nigel shooting some macro photography. Mostly it was a hike where we took a few photos and chatted. It’s harder to get inspired once autumn begins to fade. It hasn’t gone yet but here in Claireville, autumn has mostly moved on.
Elfdock
But sometimes you find something interesting to photograph, if you look hard enough. These Elfdock were dried up and standing tall in open fields. Using a shallow depth of field, I was able to focus on just the one grouping and blur out the rest in the background.
Milkweed
It had rained a little this afternoon so this Milkweed still had some raindrops on it. This gave it a little more interest. I used the same technique as I did in the first photo to blur out the background, keeping the focus on the one plant. That’s the benefit to using a macro lens. When getting up close and personal with a small object the background becomes much softer allowing the focus to be on a specific part of what you’re photographing,
Common Blue Wood Aster
Deep on the forest trail we found these small blooms. Up until now I’ve predominantly seen the purple aster but this is the Common Blue Wood Aster. It seems that asters really like the fall weather. In my research, I found out that these small flowers are important food sources for butterflies, bees and other insects in the fall months. Once these flowers go to seed the birds will also be able to benefit in fall and into the winter months. Nifty little plants and another nice walk around the park.
My parents have a large garden in their backyard. Over the years, as they got older it got a little smaller in size. It’s still a large garden but we don’t have as many different things growing. One of my favourite things is our tomato patch, usually consisting of 3 different varieties including the grape tomato.
Grape Tomatoes
And these yummy tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. Too slowly for me, but I am still snatching them off the vine as they turn so I can instantly pop them in my mouth and enjoy, After grabbing a small handful, I headed out for my neighbourhood walk.
Rose hips
On the Dogwood rose bush I discovered these gorgeous red rose hips growing. These red jewels are full of vitamin C when consumed fresh, (just don’t eat its seeds) and when dried can be brewed in your cup of tea. I will be leaving theses ones for the local squirrels, rabbits and birds to enjoy.
White Aster
I came across this cluster of White Asters. Only one flower has opened so far in this bunch. Did you know that each flower is actually a group of flowers? The white petals are ray flowers that surround the centre disk flowers, which are yellow. And here I thought it was just one single flower. I’m learning so many new things on these walks, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
On today’s installment of my neighborhood walk, I decided to look for groupings and patterns in nature. My first grouping of flowers is these fluffy little puffballs that have obviously moved onto their next stage of life. I have no idea what they might be but they are soft to the touch.
Fluffy Balls
I guess that they may have been a type of thistle or something.
I then came across this Queen’s Anne Lace whose pattern was broken by a little petal from the sumac.
Sumac petal on Queen Anne’s Lace
I don’t know if they call this little nub a petal or not but I’m going to refer to it that way.
Zucchini leaf
Walking back home, I noticed these leaves poking out from a backyard fence into the creek area. I think they either belong to the zucchini plant or possibly a cucumber plant. Either way, I was intrigued by the veining in the leaf. I created a black and white image to accentuate the contrast between the veins and the rest of the leaf.
There are a lot of patterns in nature, and when you make an effort to look for it, you’ll find it everywhere.
