Shades of green at Green Turtle Pond. Taken two weeks ago.

And so it begins. The slow slipping down of summer. At first it’s the little things you notice.

The sun. It’s lower in the sky and rises later and sets earlier. It seemed like just the other day we were swimming at dusk which happened around 8:45 p.m. Now it’s around 8:00 p.m. It’s strange that you don’t notice at first, then all of a sudden it hits you: the change of seasons has begun.

There are other indicators. The pool temperature drops by about two degrees and becomes on the edge of swimmable. The cooler nighttime temperatures and the slight change in the angle of the sun are to blame.

The hummingbirds are feeding voraciously at the feeder stocking up for their big flight home. They haven’t been bothering with the feeder and have left it to the bees for the past month and half. Not now.

The other birds seem to be feeding a lot too. More so than usual. I’ve had to fill the bird feeder every other day.

The turkey with her two babies has started showing up every day at the bird feeding area in the front yard. Soon the hens and the toms will all band together and instead of three I’ll have twelve or fifteen turkeys coming.

And they aren’t the only ones. This cute little fox showed up the other day.

My garden spider is still around. I check up on it every morning. I’ve never known a spider to have a web in the same spot for so long! Don’t you think it’s strange? I call this photo Dance with Death.

It’s been a real summer this year. Very warm and humid. Not a lot of rain but enough to keep everything green without watering. The nasty storms over the past few days have pretty much passed us by, growing stronger as they move eastward, leaving us with only a little rain to show for it. We could use more.

I think I’m ready to embrace a different season. Although I hate to lose the pool, I am looking forward to autumn. To opening the windows wide instead of always having the air conditioning on and sleeping cool for a change. To cozy fires in the wood stove to take the chill off a damp day. To stews and chile bubbling away on the stove.

I have no idea if the trees will have good color this year or not. I kind of think they will. Last year was so disappointing with all that moisture we had because the trees just gave up and dropped their leaves without ever really changing. Will not quite normal moisture make for a poor showing as well?

The are predicting a very snowy winter for us which I am not quite ready to think about yet. After last year’s non-winter it could come as quite a shock!

Only time will tell what Mother Nature has in store for us!

I had an intense urge to take some photographs (thinking mostly flowers here) and what better place than Skylands Botanical Gardens only ten minutes from my house?

I always enjoy going over to Skylands because I never know what I am going to see. Every season varies with different blooming cycles.

I did a lot of experimenting with aperture and shutter priority and various lenses. I’m never quite sure how they are going to turn out. Sometimes I come back with not much to show for my visit but a bunch of disappointing images. But sometimes I come back with several good images and a few surprises thrown in.

It was hot hot hot on Tuesday when I decided to go. The bullfrogs were croaking in their slime-covered pond. There were a few cicadas making noise and lots of different bird song. I heard a wood thrush (my particular favorite). And this cardinal with his equally as beautiful song was my constant companion as I made my way through the perennial beds.

I didn’t even realize he had something in his mouth until I downloaded the photo! See? A surprise! Also proof that you can still sing with your mouth (or in this case, beak) full.

The perennial beds were glorious!

But it did seem that everywhere I pointed the camera I captured bugs! See the little green bug on the flower above? More surprises. And in the photo below features a tiny bug as well.

Other creatures were also enjoying the blooms like this Snowberry Clearwing Hummingbird Moth.

And HUGE bees.

Not sure if this is some kind of monster mosquito or what, but I was really trying to get the texture of the cone of this flower. I love the honeycomb texture.

Color, color everywhere I looked!

I loved the tiger lilies!!

I went on to spend about an hour with the water lilies but those shots are for another day. I was sweating like crazy by the time I finally gave in and walked to my car. I’ll be going back again soon but maybe on a a day when the humidity and heat aren’t quite so bad!

Okay, first things first. My old camera was a 35mm Canon Rebel XSi. Without the ability to really research cameras from the road we just replaced it with the next generation: a 35mm Canon Rebel T2i. If you bundled the camera together with a nicer lens (55 to 250 zoom) you got the nicer lens (normally a $400 lens) for only $150. A sweet deal for a sweet lens. I normally use the 18 to 55 lens and fill in with my big zoom (75-300). This new lens will bridge the gap nicely.

I had to get a camera on the road. I just had to. Not having my camera (and especially up here) is like having only one arm. I would probably prefer to break my arm than be without a camera.

And, I am loving my new keyboard/cover for my iPad. It works great! A little on the expensive side (from Brookstone) but worth every penny. The keyboard is removable so I don’t have to use it with the cover. Very cool.


After settling in yesterday and giving the dogs a short walk we sat down to a glass of wine and dinner. We sat on the front porch even though it was on the chilly side and listened to the hermit thrush singing. It’s one of my favorite birds and we’ve only ever heard one up here. No owls though and no coyote concert.

I’ve put out bird food and peanuts for the stellar jays but as yet have not seen even one. Usually they show up right away and greedily carry off all the peanuts.

Rick put out the hummingbird feeders this morning and within one hour of hanging them we had hummers. I had forgotten how much bigger this species of hummingbird we have up here (broad-winged) is than the tiny ones that visit our house in New Jersey. Plus, they make noise when they fly and ours at home are pretty much silent.  He’s out there on the front porch steps with the slow motion camera we brought along trying to get some footage. We’ll see how many show up. Usually we have to fill the feeders every day due to heavy drinking at the sugar bar!

This morning he made bran muffins for breakfast. They were delicious! Here they are upside down cooling straight from the muffin tin. They have so many good things in them: yogurt, golden raisins, brown sugar, bran cereal, molasses, vanilla.



After breakfast we took a walk to the top of the sage-covered hill opposite our driveway. From up here you can see pretty far, all the way to the Snowy Range.



This section of land is almost like tundra. Little flowers grow here that don’t grow in other places. It truly is an alpine environment.





This tiny cactus is about to bloom soon.



There were several of these moths flying around. This one landed and we weren’t sure if it just didn’t like flying in the wind or it was at the end of its life cycle.



Happy free range dogs!


These evening primroses love disturbed soil along the road.


The furry seed pods of pasque flowers that have finished blooming.


We have tons of larkspur!


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I just came in from listening to our froggy chorus outside. The rain over the past few days has helped our peepers in their peeping progess. Wow. Try saying that a few times in a row! It’s peaceful and restful and makes me wish I could just sleep outside under the stars with the peepers as a musical backdrop. Sadly, I prefer my bed thank you very much.

I was gone most of the day, but as I sat and looked out towards the deck around 4:00 p.m. tonight I saw the first hummingbird! Looking back on my blog in 2008, the hummers first arrived about two days ago. So, I guess they are right on track. The one hummingbird must be a baby because he has not yet figured out how the feeder works. When I saw the hummer fly by I got excited and immediately went to fill the feeder and hang it on the hook. The bird came to the feeder but was hanging around the bottom and never quite getting to the feeder holes above. We watched this bird struggle time and time again; never quite getting it. We saw two others that were fighting with each other so we know we have at least three and one is a bit slow. It’s nice to see them back again.

When the Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks arrive I know it’s Spring. We only have these lovely birds for a week or so, then they move on to wherever they live in New Jersey besides our back yard. Here are two males.

Each of them has a slightly different rose pattern on their breast. Take a look.

Beautiful, aren’t they? They just arrived on Wednesday as our company left. Now I have to keep a keen eye out for the hummingbird’s arrival which usually happens around Mother’s Day which is coming up on the 13th of May. I expected them early this year because of the earlier than normal Spring, but maybe they will come exactly on time.

But our weather has been a bit strange. One day we had over 90 degrees F, then we’ve had chilly weather for the past week with rain and temperatures barely reaching 60 degrees F some days. Last night at 1:15 (or should I say this morning?) we had our first thunderstorm of the year. It’s having a hard time making up its mind.

On Monday we took a walk in Skylands Botanical Garden. Here are a few blooming things that we saw.

The azaleas were magnificent!

Breathe deeply and you might catch a whiff of sweet lilacs! Sheer heaven!

Peony Power!

I don’t know what this is, but I like it.

The forest ferns had a good start; better than mine!

And these unique and lovely Jack-in-the-Pulpits were out on the forest edge all by themselves. It looks like they are having a conversation. They are truly interesting looking plants.

I do love Spring—even when it’s fickle!