The Bees & the Birds

Our crabapple tree is in full bloom and appears to be preparing another bumper crop of apples. That will be three years in a row. In past years it often produced only every other year. We've had milder winters in recent years though so perhaps that has something to do with it.

Not only is it a delight to look at but standing under it, the smell is wonderful. It buzzes too. The whole tree is full of bees, both bumble bees and honey bees, flitting about from blossom to blossom collecting nectar. There is no danger in standing there as they work. The bees pay no attention to me at all. They are too intent on their work.

Within days the blossoms will be gone, the ground beneath the tree white with petals, and the birds will have the tree to themselves again, a place to hide in the foliage while they work on the sunflower seeds we put out for them. Come fall I will pick the apples and give them away. I still have more jelly from last year than we can possibly eat.

Another Bloodroot Photo

I've been editing the photos I shot at Stone Valley two days ago and I think this one turned out the best of the lot. There will be no more bloodroot photos this spring as I caught them at the tail end of their blooming.

New Series of Photographs

Recently I have been playing with some images of details that I have taken over the years. I crop them round and simplify the image to reduce the unnecessary detail. The idea is that the finished image is an object for contemplation.

Spring is Here

Time for a photo in my blog. I haven't posted a photo in for quite a while. I went out photographing this afternoon. A friend called this morning about a place we both like to go. He had been there this morning and called to tell me that there wasn't much happening there yet. Some trillium but not much else. It is at a higher altitude than here and spring gets there later. During our conversation I mentioned that I had taken a couple of photos of Bloodroot yesterday but they weren't very good and I wished I knew where to find more. Ron said there was a large patch of them by the South end of the Stone Valley Trail so off I dashed after lunch and spent the afternoon happily shooting photos of Bloodroot, Trillium and more.