More purple flowers

Bee on chive

Three different crops of the same photo. Preference?

Purple Buds

White Flowers

Violets and forget-me-nots

Posting early before I head to the hospital.

Sigh

My dad, who is here in Maine visiting, is in the cardiac intensive care unit again. His defibrillator fired twice last night. That's three times in one month. That's not good. I'm sure glad he and my stepmom are here in Maine this time, but boy this is hard. He's currently stable, but we could sure use prayers. Again. Thanks all.

A large-flowered trillium:

Joey Ptilotus

A Joey Ptilotus. I only know that's what it is because the plastic tag with the basket told me so. It's the same thing as in my "one flower, four ways" post from the other day.

Lady's Slipper

This was actually taken at the end of May. I don't know if they're still in bloom.

Bird of the Day: chipping sparrow

Hmm, this photo looks overly sharpened now.


Someone asked how I did the white border on the yellow flower photo below. I used the cookie cutter tool in Photoshop Elements.

Garden spritzer

This little spritzer is only about 6 inches tall. It doesn't work, but it's pretty cute.

Red Dahlia bud

A red dahlia bud after rain.

Yellow Flower

I can't remember what kind of flower this is. I think it's dead now though. :-(

Dog and Bird of the Day

I sometimes have a hard time getting pictures of Baxter because when I move, he moves. He is my Velcro dog. When I got home from Florida the kids cracked me up telling me how annoying they found Baxter following them everywhere since I wasn't here. I guess I'm used to it. I like having my constant companion.
Bird of the Day, a ruby-throated hummingbird. Not that you can see the ruby throat, but I know it's that kind because I believe it's the only kind of humminbird we have in Maine.

One photo, four ways

One photo four ways: original, black and white, with texture and vignette, with different texture.
In case anyone wants to hear what the hairy woodpecker in yesterday's post sounds like:
http://www.junglewalk.com/popup.asp?type=a&AnimalAudioID=396

Bird of the Day: Hairy Woodpecker

Hairy woodpeckers. These guys were practically dive bombing me while I was near the feeder taking photos of my flowers.

Red Dahlia

Closeups of the red dahlia on my deck.

Pink Zinnias

Closeups of the potted pink zinnias in yesterday's photo.

Deck Flowers

Bird of the Day and sunflare

A scarlet tanager, another exciting sighting at my bird feeder. Exciting to me, anyway. I know not everyone is a bird dork like I am.
I'll tell you how much of a dork I really am. I have this book:
that plays bird songs. After the tanager flew away, I stepped outside and flipped to #111 in the book and played its song. And the bird came back! It flew high up in a tree and sang back at me! That made me happy. :-)

A couple of sun flare/sun spot photos since it's the POTD theme this week:

Raindrops

Nowhere near as good as my friend Pat's raindrop photos, but still fun to take.

Backyard Visitor

Look what wandered into our backyard while we were eating dinner yesterday. Strange to see a raccoon in broad daylight. He must have heard about the premium bird food I buy, because he was sampling the stuff that was scattered on the ground around the bird feeder.

As you can see, it was a very rainy day.

Purple Irises

Lupines

Lupines are all over the place in Maine this time of year.

Foot and fowl

A self portrait of my stubby feet with my recent pedicure in my favorite foot wear, my Teva flip flops. It feels like summer!

A chipping sparrow:

Excuse the crappy blurry photos, but this was an exciting sighting at our bird feeder, an indigo bunting:

Pink Flowering Tree

I don't know what this tree with pink flowers is.

Bleeding Hearts

Bleeding Hearts, one of my favorite plants.

Pink buds

I'm not sure what kind of flowers these buds are going to turn out to be, but I bet they'll be pretty.