Butterfly on flowers

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
   If this be error and upon me proved,
   I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

--Sonnet 116, Shakespeare

Dandelion Wine

Dandelions...the bain of so many land owners, and yard lovers...and yet, they hold a special place in my heart. I remember rubbing them on our chins when I was little and then laughing because of the funny-looking yellow residue they would leave behind. I remember blowing the seeds and watching them dance on the wind. But, I LOVE watching my daughter do these things now. It's all come full-circle.

We had so many in our yard this year--probably not helped by my daughter grabbing each "blow flower" she saw and scattering the seeds with her breath. But, I joked that we had enough to gather and make dandelion wine. Shoulda, coulda...

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge, Week 21 - “Yellow”

I love mountains and wildflowers, and my husband. When you combine all three . . . *sigh*. This is one of my favorite pictures from our Smoky Mountains vacation in 2007. The crazy thing about this picture is that my husband (who is 6'3") is standing straight up, and I'm standing on the trail that is actually a bit higher than where he's standing. These crazy wildflowers were taller than him! So fun!

Nature's Fireworks

Queen Anne's Lace

(Daucus carota)

I'm not a Photoshop expert, but I'm working at learning the in's and out's of the program a bit more. And, no, I don't intend to turn this into a PS tutorial blog. The original of this picture was taken on a hiking trip in our area. When I was playing with it in PS, I ran a couple of PW's actions, then added a sepia tone. Love it! I was surprised to see how much these steps made this flower look like fireworks against the night sky.








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Wildflowers in the Smokies

These Black-eyed Susans (I think) were on the trail up to "Ol' Smoky" (a.k.a. Clingman's Dome) in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Some of them were as tall as we were! Whenever I see wildflowers like this, I always think of these verses from the Bible . . .

Matthew 6:25-30

For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these.

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

White Trillium

Trillium grandiflorum

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

—Claude Monet

Bee & wildflowers

Queen Anne's Lace

Queen Anne's Lace

(Daucus carota)

Just this past weekend, we visited Raven Run Nature Sanctuary (just outside of Lexington, KY), and went on a nice hike. Part of our hike included a beautiful meadow. We stopped so my husband could do some birding, and I snapped wildflowers. I've always like Queen Anne's Lace, so capturing this image was a treat. I don't have a camera with the kind of resolution I would like yet, but this one does the job for now. Wildflowers are so beautiful, aren't they?