Finding My Focus

My new super Macro lens takes great close up pictures that have a shallow "depth of field" (ie, the part of the picture that's in focus). That can be good for isolating the subject but you do have to decide what you want to focus on.

Do you focus on the details that are closest to you while making the "big picture" slightly out of focus? Or do you focus on the petals and leave the stuff closest to you blurry?

I was musing on this as it relates to photography while weeding the garden this week. Weeding is a great time for contemplating my navel thinking about my philosophy of life. The garden was very weedy so this topic expanded into finding the focus in my life.

When I was younger I always had plans for the future. After graduating high school I'll go to THIS college because I want to go to vet school. OK. maybe not vet school. Next I'll go to graduate school. OK. I need to take a few years between undergrad and graduate school. No problem. 

Toward the end of graduate school I quit making much in the way of future plans. Graduate school didn't quite work out as I had planned and while I did eventually plan my next career move it kind of stalled after that.

So lately I've been plan-less. 

And I feel "scattered." I  have a good job that I mostly enjoy. I don't have any major career plans because once I reach full professor (tenured) I don't intend to move into administration. We aren't moving any time soon (a first for me in a LONG time - this house is the second longest I've ever lived in one place in my whole life). No major life changes coming up that require plans. No major changes coming up (that I can predict).

So that leave my "personal" life. I've taken an art class, I've enrolled in a Spanish class, I've dabbled in this and that but not really found a focus (except gardening). This leaves me feeling like I'm not accomplishing anything.

It's not an accurate perception but it's there.

So I decided to sit down and list all of the categories of stuff I'm interested in and have claimed to be working on and make plans. One year, two year, five year and ten year goals.

Do I want to become proficient in Spanish or just learn enough to help while traveling (the latter, definitely)?

Do I want to spend more time and energy improving my photography? My writing skills? My drawing/art?

Do I want to work on finally refinishing inherited furniture that needs work? Will I ever replace the no longer functioning innards of the 1950s era radio with a modern system (an iPod doc, anyone?) or is it fine as an aesthetic piece?

It's time to find a focus. What will I do in "this" lifetime?

Thanks to Zack Weiner of Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal and BAHfest for this GREAT concept!

I'm Ready for My Close Up

Working with my new Macro Lens is both fun and challenging. Fun because you get up close and personal with the garden (I'm sure the neighbors think I'm weird when they see me contorting to get the lens at the right angle that close to the ground) 

Aqueligia fragrans (columbine) against the sky -  a fragrant variety I grew from seeds I had to order from Plant World Seeds in the United Kingdom. Shot from BELOW.

and challenging because I live about 2 miles from the ocean as the gull flies and there is almost always a breeze blowing. This is nice on warm afternoons and miserable when you're trying to photograph plants.

Here's my latest stuff.

Hope you don't mind insect photos. I really enjoy all of the invertebrate life my garden attracts and now I can take pictures of all the little guys and gals!

I don't know what this is. Looks kind of like a small crane fly. I'll have to hit BugGuide.net.

Pansies (Viola tricolor var. bigboxus) are still looking good. I suspect they'll be done after this week of temperatures in the 80s.

A friendly Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) wanting to know what I'm doing down on the ground by the pansies. She eventually turned around and went back in her hiding spot. I have at least three that are frequenting my front garden this year and helping me stay slug-free!

A Petunia (Petunia lgc) that was planted around the pansies that will hopefully replace them as the pansies die from the heat.

So many of today's shots are from the area by the fireplace because that area is somewhat protected from the breezes. 

And this Hymenopteran (bee or wasp) is what really makes my new lens exciting. It was crawling across the petunia as I was photographing the bloom and I just caught it.

Update from the Arctic Hinterland

I've been looking at other bloggers post on their early spring flowers, spring clean up, mud season. Up here, North of Boston, we're still firmly in the grip of winter. At this time of previous years I've had crocus blooming.

This year I can't see the Hellstrip where I've planted hundreds of crocus bulbs.

These, tucked up near the house in a rare bare spot, are TRYING to come up.

You can do it!

Well, maybe in a week or two more...

The snow is starting to recede in places, mostly up against the house and along the driveway.

Here's an unknown plant making a run for it. I can't even see what's near it to try and remember what I planted there - you're seeing basically from the edge of the house to the edge of the snow field.

Right by the front door my always early Aquilegia 'Little Lanterns' is starting to show. Those early bloomers got to get started as soon as possible. When these bloom you know it's time to have your hummingbird feeder up.

Of course the receding snow is also showing signs of damage.

I don't think this holly is going to be nicely shaped this year. It should be quite a bit taller than it appears now. I guess I'll have some "rescue and recovery" pruning to do once the snow finally melts. [note the leaning gutter behind the shrub? Guess what The Husband has to repair once the snow finally melts?]

And my matching dwarf golden threadleaf cypress (Chamaecyparis pisifera) are sporting matching damage.

The plant should be growing up in this picture, not sideways.

In this image "up" on the plant is to the right. *shudder*

I think I'll be replacing those this year. They bracket the front door. I'll have to think about alternatives for those spots...

When is spring arriving this year? 

I visited my mom in NC last week. She sent me home on the plane with a lone daffodil in my hand. Thanks, mom. I need that on my desk this week! I won't be seeing those in MY garden for a while yet.

Wordless Wednesday

Salvia nemerosa (May Night, Viola Klaus, Caradonna)

Iris idontrememberbuyingthisii

Heuchera (supposed to be Frosted Violet but two of the five I bought look like this and the other three look like, well Frosted Violet)

Heuchara mislabeledus

Dianthus Great Wicked Witch

Geum Totally Tangerine in front of Siberian Iris fromneighborii

Aqueligia fragrans scented varieties I started from seeds I bought from Plant World Seeds in England 

Fragrance is subtle and is overshadowed by my neighbors Lilac that's also blooming now

Baptisia australis

Siberian Iris lostustagus

Wildflower Wednesday - a few days late...

I just discovered the Wildflower Wednesday meme by Clay and Limestone. Actually I just found her blog and I'm already interested - anyone who's a friend pollinators is a friend of mine! Come, join me on my anti-pesticide soap box!

Currently there aren't a lot of natives blooming in my garden. What I do have is Aquiligia canadensis.

Gorgeous, early blooming flowers, pretty foliage, gently self-seeding in the garden (I always have a few volunteers but not large numbers of them like I do with some other plants).

I time putting out my hummingbird feeder by the blooms of these native wildflowers. The first hummingbird of the year usually shows up the same week as the first bloom of the Aquiligia. I've heard that hummers (specifically the Ruby-throated hummingbirds on the East Coast) follow these wildlflowers north in the spring - as the bloom season progresses the hummers move with it.

Not much else seems to pay attention to these plants except for Leaf Miners. 

Every year I have a few leaf miners on my Aquiligia. They aren't supposed to like the native variety as much as cultivated versions but they'll eat both in my garden. Fortunately the leaf miners do limited damage and my Aquiligia always bounce back. If I wanted to do pest management I could always pick the infected leaves and toss them. Since they don't bother the plant I save my time and energy for other things. 

I wasn't able to find much information about leaf miners - they are a fly that lays eggs inside the leaves of host plants but what else they do in the wild I don't know. Are they a good pollinator as adults? Are they food for something important? I'm afraid my Google-foo failed me on this topic.

Aqueligia canadensis my May Wildflower of the Month.

SURPRISE

My response to unexpected seedlings in the garden is a three step process.

Step 1: Identify the plant

Step 2: Decide if it would work there or not

Step 3: If it wouldn't work pull it out, if it might work, leave it alone and see what happens

When I leave things alone I sometimes get...

An Aquilegia hybrid that doesn't look like any of the other columbines in my garden but is a very pleasant surprise.

It's a Small World

It's a small world and it just keeps getting smaller. 

A while back I heard that in England people are breeding fragrant Aqueligia (columbine).  Now I like Aqueligia and they do well for me but none of the varieties I've found for sale have been fragrant.  Twenty years ago I would have been out of luck but yesterday this arrived in my mailbox.

A package from England.

Complete with customs documentation.

It's seeds.

Plant  World Seeds supplies seeds around the world.  So next spring I'll start the seeds down in the basement and plant a bunch of new types of Aqueligia  in the garden.

I love the internet.

Miscellaneous Monday

OK, so it's really Miscellaneous Tuesday but that isn't alliteration and I have a thing about alliteration.

1.  Big weekend project.  We had two very, very large Pieris japonica in front of our house.  They were planted as foundation plants but they weren't a petite variety.  Rather than prune them twice a year or allow them to block the windows we elected to attempt to move them.  Here they are in their new home.

We'll have to wait and see if they survive.  The Husband and I had a hard time lifting the larger one so if we didn't get a large enough root ball there is no way we could have.  (Piper, our dog, is overseeing my photography).

2.  I attended a work conference in Connecticut last week.  This meant that Logee's was on the way home.  Logee's is a complex of greenhouses that contain not-the-same-old house plants (they also have mail order).  I had a hard time restraining myself.  I limited myself to three new plants.

This Blue Sansevieria ehrenbergii (no common name).  It does have blue-gray overtones that are not obvious in this image.

A Philodendron called Prince of Orange where the new leaves come in, well, orange.  This is a bushy philodendron, not a vine.

And last, but not least, for The Husband, this Calathea lancifolia, also called a Rattlesnake Plant.  [This isn't the only plant called a rattlesnake plant which is why scientific names are so valuable.]  The leaves close up at night (they stick straight up), exposing their purple undersides.  

2b.  I also picked up this Dracena, probably Lemon-lime.  But I got this one at a Big-Box retailer when I was picking up something else.  I just couldn't resist!  I love pale, yellowy greens, especially in combinations.    And I like large leaves and strong lines.  This plant has them all.  So Sexy!

3.  May was a very rainy month for us.  And we all know what rain brings.  

4.  Back outside - all of my Aquilegia are blooming.  At this time of the year I can hardly get enough of these plants!  This one is Denver Gold.

E.  Lastly here is a new requisition for the outdoor garden.  I was just going to the Local Garden Center to buy some houseplant potting mix and I found this Centaurea monttana Black Sprite.  What a shocking color!  I hope the blooms stay easily visible.  It's in the light and I'll plant paler colors around it to accent it (I'm thinking Perovskia [Russian Sage]).  

I always like the odd and unusual.  You, know, Edgy stuff.

That's the wrap up for this Monday Tuesday at The Edge.  It's been a busy week.  The weather looks to be good this week as well so if you're trying to reach me I'll be in The Garden.