Mmmmm....

Lunch. Isn't that the cutest bee!!?

The Epitome of Spring

The wild Mexican Plums are starting to bloom. These, along with Forsynthia, Bradford Pear, and Redbud trees, are some of the first plants to bloom in the spring. Add in the bees and the sounds of the Texas Toads and you know spring is well on the way. The weather has been simply gorgeous.

If...

He keeps coming back and sticking around for awhile, I am bound to eventually get the photograph I have visualized.

Mrs. Cardinal

While the female is certainly not as flamboyant as her male counterpart, she is pretty nevertheless. A beautiful golden tan. I wish she had been standing on the end of an outside branch. It would have made for a better background. Oh well! Picky! Picky! The weather is getting nicer and Ihexpect to see them more and more. If the wind would just stop blowing so hard.....

Hibiscus

Tube lined and painted on bisque with fired ceramic colors.

They are also back...

As spring gets closer and the weather gets nicer, more and more of our "staple" birds are making an appearance. These small birds are really pretty.

He's not been back....

This is just a different version. This is also one of the reasons I like living away from the city. It is a shame that the city is moving to us.

A little early...

We have a confused peach tree. It's not a variety suitable for our area regardless of the what the tag said. It's a variety for a warmer climate. As a result, it starts to bloom very early in the year, and the fruit always gets killed by a freeze. But, the bees enjoy it and I enjoy the bees.

It's a girl!

At the moment we have red-winged blackbirds infiltrating our feeders in rather large numbers. Still, this is the only photo I've been able to get so far. It is a female red-winged blackbird. I still want photos of the males. I think they are pretty even if they are eating us out of house and home.

They're just so cute...

Here is another shot of the Carolina Chickadee. They are just so cute, I can't resist trying to photograph them. This time he just sat there while I took this shot. A rarity indeed.

They're here again...

Early last fall the cardinals seemed to disappear. We would spot one only occasionally. We were used to seeing several males and twice as many females. Since they are usually around, even during the fall and winter months, we were getting concerned. Maybe they were here all along but just not particularly active. I don't know which, but they are back. Since this is one of my favorite birds, I am delighted to see more of them again.

Another pose...

This particular day he came to the tree several times. This is the only other image I was able to take. Most of the time he stayed behind the branches even more than in this shot.

It's a start...

I have been trying to get a good picture of this guy for a long time. Usually he flies in and out so fast that I can't get a shot. Sometimes he will stay and play, but I never have my camera when he does. He stayed around for a little longer on this day but still was pretty quick to leave.

I promised myself...

I have tried for a couple of years to get a decent photograph of these tiny, tiny birds. With the equipment I had up until now, I had to do a lot of cropping just to be able to see the bird. The resulting image was not the best. I finally purchased a lens that will help me to achieve that goal. I think it is a good start.

Oh, yes!!

It's THE FAUCET again. I am still, unjustifiably, enamoured with it. I applied a technique to this image that gives it an old-time feel to me. Maybe that's what I like about it. It just looks homey.

Meet Cat

Last year a momma raccoon started bringing her babies to the porch so they could eat out of the cat's bowl. We, Papa, Granny, Aunt Chel, and the 2 granddaughters, used to peek out the glass in the storm door to watch while arranging ourselves in a stairstep fashion so we could all see. The raccoons probably enjoyed our antics as much as we enjoyed theirs but they were more leery of us than we were of them. They would never have let me out to photograph them.
This year we have not seen the momma, but at least one (and we think more) still comes to the porch to eat. This one is not as leery as he once was and does not seem to mind my stepping out on the porch to take his picture while he is enjoying his dinner.
We named him CAT!

Update: One night we went to look out at the raccoons..stairstep fashion as usual. Imagine our suprise when we saw they were standing on the porch on their hindlegs staring into the door at us.

A Small Thing...

When I turned the back porch light on, I noticed the icicles. I went inside to get my camera. By the time I got back, the heat from the light had started to melt the ice on the reflector. The water rolled down the icicles and I caught this drop just as it left the tip of one of them.

The same day

This photo was taken the same day as Ice Glow and was also featured on our local Fox News channel's website.

What a difference....

a day makes. Or, for that matter, a few minutes. On Friday, when my granddaughters and I were taking my daughter to work, it was 65 degrees outside. On the way home the cold front rolled in, literally, and the temperature dropped to 50 degrees in a matter of seconds. By the time we got home it was 46 degrees. It had dropped almost 20 degrees in a couple of miles. The next day, this is what it looked like.
Our local Fox 4 weather station was asking people to send in their photos of the weather. They featured this one and another one on their website and showed them on TV during their weather forecasts.

WARNING!!

With all the opportunities for excessive eating and drinking that many of us are exposed to this time of year; then the mad dash to get any weight gain quickly under control after the New Year, I just wanted to warn you that...
Exercise:

Can kill you: