Spring Beauties
These pretty blue flowers are always the first to bloom in my yard every Spring. They are called Spring Beauty Scilla or Siberian Squill.
Grown from hardy bulbs, these clusters of tiny slate blue flowers originated from Russia and Eurasia.
Spring beauties are very resilient to snaps of cold weather and snow. Fortunately, they recover nicely.
They are a great choice for naturlaized gardens like mine, because they tend to show up in unexpected places, like in this picture of my woods.
Blurring a background
One new thing that I have learned lately is how to blur a background, but keep the subject sharp. This picture of my cat Bree is the original.
I like the way Bree pops out in this picture. The sofa in the background has been blurred. This effect was accomplished with the help of my open source photo editing software called The GIMP. I cut out Bree with the scissors tool, and then selected only the background to blur.
Weird tree friday
Ben and I went for a walk in the park and came across this tree. It really reminded me of one of those scary apple trees from the Wizard of Oz, that threw its apples at Dorothy.
Here’s the comparison.
Here is a look at its gnarled trunk.
T his is a close up of the tree bark.
Daffodils
My daffodils have had a slow start this season. Usually they are farther along by this point, but anyway, here are a few pictures of the different types that are blooming in my yard right now.
More animations
I think I have conquered the process of the two frame animation, I am still trying to master three frames, but at this point it’s still too confusing.
I still need to get better at taking two pictures that are exactly the same, except for the movement of the subject. I have a little problem with the backgrounds jumping around, because I didn’t keep my camera still enough. I wanted just the beak of the cardinal to open and close, and the little sparrow’s head to move, but the tree is moving too! I’ll keep trying, I love a challenge.
Lady cardinals are pretty too!
Everyone talks about how pretty male cardinals are. Here are a few pictures of the ladies. They are quite attractive too, though in a more suble way.
Weird horoscope Friday
Yesterday was my son Ben’s 24th birthday. But he’s not the only one of my children with an early April Birthday. My Daughter Megan will be 22 on April 7th. This Picture of Ben and I was taken on april 6th, 1987.
I had slept over my parent’s house because Chris was playing soccer, and I didn’t want to be alone that night. The next morning, I sat at my mom’s kitchen table and read my horoscope. That is something I almost never do. Megan was born at 7:11 that evening. Both of these items were copied from Megan’s baby album.
Twisted
This Downey Woodpecker has to work hard for his food!
∗ Happy 24th birthday Ben!!! My son turned 24 today.
