lights out nobody home

I'm heading for the Adirondack Mountains for the next two weeks and I've decided not to take my computer! So this will be my last blog post for the next couple of weeks. I have been working hard on my website creating portfolios and card collections and I'd love for you to check it out at phyllisweekesphotography.com. I will also be continuing to post from my iPhone on Instagram, and you can join me there. Just request to follow me at phyllis weekes!

I look forward to sharing my images of the woods and mountains and trails and bears and streams and oh never mind you get the drift.....

Ferncliff Illusion

Late afternoon in the garden. 

The dahlias are spectacular, each plant is a different variety and I feel like a butterfly flitting amongst them creating images to share.

BBB

Buy a butterfly bush, it will make everybody happy.

good morning doves

Tully and I spent some time in the garden this morning. She watched, from eye level, a chipmunk eating the sunflower seeds not more than 3 feet from her curly head. I was amazed at her ability to be still in the face of fun. I crouched behind my tripod trying to stay out of everyones way. These two love birds were spending most of their time on the ground wandering around and pecking at things. 

Since it's over 90 degrees most of the group will have feathers up in the bubbling water today. 

I may join them...

introductions

Would you like to join me? They're specialty today is sunflower seeds, my favorite actually. After lunch we can have a lovely bath in their bubbly water pool, its in the center of town, great meeting place for us feathered people. Oh my didn't I introduce myself? How rude of me. Pleased to meet you, I'm Tufted Titmouse. Just call me tuft. And your name?

shadow lines

Masses of white cosmos in my garden. This single blossom is beautiful in it's simplicity.

a flutterby

Where does the beauty lie? Is it the delicate legs and body with the red splashes of color. Is it the perfectly formed yellow and black wing or the tattered upper wing? Is it the kaleidoscope garden background, the world where she lives? Or is it the the unseen beauty, her inner will to flutter and survive.

feeding time

Our resident osprey chicks are growing up fast. Here they are in the nest but often they fly over to our nook and wait to be fed on a branch. I watch them from my kayak bouncing from limb to limb, often attempting a landing only to take flight again because they've crashed into unexpected greenery. They are endearing. 

in the nook

This is a black crowned night heron. One of my favorite birds.

This guy is a juvenile black crowned night heron, you can see his coloring is more buff and his yellows haven't deepened yet. They have beautiful red eyes.

Last night I saw a very young, probably new to the world in the last few months, black crowned night heron. He was speckled brown and had the telltale pale yellow legs and that bluish yellow beak.

I'm hoping to capture his image soon to share with you. Not an easy task for these shy birds.

take a bow...

What is that expression, you're only young once? Well I would like to differ, I think we all have the ability to feel what this young face is saying. To feel the joy of a job well done, to feel proud of ourselves, to express ourselves to the world and feel loved back. 

A break from the heat

This image was created two years ago at Planting Fields Arboretum. I just love these underwater colors. It has a cooling effect on this hot sizzling summer.

an evening meal

While shooting butterflies in the garden this little sparrow arrived to eat his worm right in front of me on top of the beach hibiscus that grandma had planted years ago. 

Then he landed on the thorny branch of the knock out roses that travel along the garden fence. 

The butterflies will have to wait for another day.

a fleeting memory

The last of the sweet peas. 

I wish I could bottle their sweet fragrance and feel their softly folded petals on my fingers. But they are gone, dried and crispy stems holding on to next years' seed pods.