Unexpected Gems

Sometimes when the view from my window draws me outside with camera in tow I come back excited and eager to share. Then there are days like this where I come back and every shot is like one I've done before and even if they're beautiful photos they're all boring and uninspired. I honestly didn't expect to find anything inspiring or interesting in the whole batch.

I'm not a professional  I've never taken classes and I don't even take my camera everywhere I go. I take it out when I'm inspired or I'm going somewhere I really want to take photos of. I only share them here when I feel like they are worth sharing, and even then I don't always get them into a post. I'm a procrastinator you see and if I don't post them right away after I get them on the computer they aren't likely to make it here at all. I expected this batch of photos to be doomed to a forgotten file on my harddrive, never to see the glow of a computer screen again.

Then I actually looked at them. A lot of them were pretty mundane I'll admit, but there were still a few gems mixed in. Maybe not diamonds, but garnets at least.

Apple Blossoms

Apple tree blossoming

climbing rose

Apple tree in bloom

Blooms on an Apple tree

Strawberry plants

Lilacs 

More lilacs

Violets

I guess sometimes things don't have to be spectacular sometimes its alright to just have something good. I suppose that could apply to more than just photos; most of the time my life feels like the same thing day after day but when I take the time to look at it there really is always something different. Maybe nothing big, but something good. The idea seems a bit over the top but I'll leave it any way. Maybe someone else can find a way to say it without sounding cheesy. 

Anyway, I hope you all have a good day, even if its not very exiting.

Catching After-Rain

I've been waiting for the skies to clear for a few days now so I could take more pictures. Spring is possibly my favorite season, I love watching the world wake up from winter's sleep. Unfortunately we've had several overcast skies this week and gray skies are not the best for photos. Yesterday we got hit by rain and then the sun broke free at sunset and gave me a chance to capture the fresh washed world for you all. 

The plum trees bloomed a few days ago, they didn't fair very well in the rain 

I couldn't get a photo that really showed the way the rain caught the light but this comes close

Or rather I tried to capture that world, I really only got a glimpse. A photo can only show a part, it can't hold the smell of an orchard full of new opened blooms or the mix of rain and recently cut grass. You can't feel the cool grass against your feet or the after rain chill on the wind when you look at a photo. I'm sorry you weren't there and that I really didn't capture much of it at all.

Sunrise, Camera, Coffee

I always said I'd never be a morning person but I think I may have fallen in love with sunrise photography....and coffee but that's nothing new.

When Life Smells Like Spring

Dare I say it could be spring? That winter may indeed have let us loose from his chill grasp?

Forgive the dramatics but if you've been following the weather in the Minnesota area lately then maybe you can understand where I'm coming from. If not I'll put it simply; winter would not END. Every time it started to warm up it would snow again. This last time it snowed on May 1st, May Day, we woke up the next morning to around 18" of snow and no power. Now I like snow well enough, but really that was too much.

I have been starved for life and color. I drink in every blade of grass and devour the sight of anything flowering or even just looking a little greener than it has for the past several months. I've started several blog posts on this topic but the reality of a gray, or even white, world stifled my efforts each time. Not even last years spring photos (which never got posted here when they were new) could spur me on past the first effort.

But now there is life in the world again. Fresh grass and the strong new shoots of tiger lilies and daylilies spread green across the lawn. Daffodils proudly display their colors, first of the year. The magnolia is in full bloom, white but living, not cold and lifeless as the snow it resembles. Even the sky is bluer.

Its been warm this week, more like summer than spring, but it was the sunlight this morning that stirred up my spring fever more than anything else. I'd taken pictures earlier in the week but everything was still so gray then, today it's bright and alive.

I know I've rambled a good bit here but its spring and I can't help myself. So thanks for enduring all that, enjoy the photos and your own spring, or whatever season it is where you live.

Magnolia 

Daffodils 

May Photo Vote

May is over now, so as goodbye, I thought I would post some of my favorite pics from this past month's posts and ask for your vote. Which one is your favorite? Did you like one better that I didn't post here? What do you like/think about them?

http://fromyesterdaystomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/magnolia-buds.html

http://fromyesterdaystomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/violets.html

http://fromyesterdaystomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/spring-is-like-child.html

http://fromyesterdaystomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/raspberry-shoots-and-such.html

http://fromyesterdaystomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/bee-autiful-day.html

http://fromyesterdaystomorrow.blogspot.com/2011/05/raspberry-shoots-and-such.html

Thanks for doping in! Hope you had a lovely May and Hope you have a better June!

A Bee-autiful Day

While I was geting photos for my last post, a couple of bees found their way into my shots. I rather like bees I think, so long as they don't try and land on anything that isn't a flower. ;D  Any way I hope nobody gets stung this spring/summer! oh and forgive the puns if you can, I'm feeling silly today!

 

'Here's a dandy looking flower! And all mine too!'

'I havvve alwayzzz lovvved lilaczzz....'

'I zhould go tell the otherz...hmm, maybe it can wait a minute or two...'

Spring is like a Child

    Spring is like a child, new and fresh and alive. She wants to do everything at once and the world lights up with her efforts...

      When you walk out the door you can smell the lilacs, every time you just want to bury your face in them. The ditches are turning gold with dandelions and all their yellow heads. A soft mist of violets is spreading in the cool shade. Apple blossoms and those of the plums are turning the orchard in to a white garland' fairy hall. The sky seems bluer each day as the rain washes the fading of winter away. A green mantle slowly settles over the trees and new planted fields. The mushrooms are popping, drawing hungry searchers from their daily tasks; they bring their bounty home to join asparagus and chives in bringing new flavors to their tables. Windows are thrown open to the sound of birds and children rejoicing in this season so filled with life.  

~*~*~*~

Lilacs are one of my favorite things about May

Follow the yellow bordered road!

Apple Blossoms

'Goldfinch in the Birch,' taken by a friend

Violets

I needed to post to satisfy my conscience. So enjoy the violets.

Corel Photo edited 

Original

Raspberry Shoots and Such

More spring photos for you all. I have some ideas for some more creative posts that I hope to get done this week. Until then I thought you might like these.

The raspberries are coming back, these are new shoots but many of the old canes are reviving as well. Last year they were bent over with dozens of berries each. I can almost taste them...

In the spring I always find myself devouring whatever color I can find in the world. When the land changes from dirty white to faded brown and gray, repeatedly between November and May, it is little wonder we crave something more vibrant. 

The cattle panels are still up from last year's tomatoes, waiting for their new charges. The tin man looks a little worse for having stayed at his post the winter through, but then he never complains.