Desert Blooms

Two times two, times two, times two, times two, or amazing red to the fourth power. I absolutely love the color of this cactus. I don't know if it's poisonous to us but it certainly looks poisonous to something. It puts out these adorable flowers and pretty green leaves but if you tilt your head and study the stem you'll see the most vicious collection of spikes ever put together.

I also love this desert dweller. It's so happy and not so interested in being scary. No spikes on this one! I love that it has that charming shade of green mixed with a cute shade of yellow and then it's topped off with pink. Pink! You make me happy pink cactus.

And this green guy has just exploded with new shoots. We thought he was this mellow, earlobe shaped cactus that would kind of hang out and spike the dogs when they wrestle into him. But apparently he has some other plans in mind. Is he going to bloom? Grow into a tree?

How does your garden grow?

Thomas always says that our garden grows despite my best efforts. I think that was true at first but I'd like to think the plants are responding to the copious amounts of time I now spend doting on them. Perhaps they are showing off for their portrait sittings. Whatever the reason I'm ok with it.

She might look cute

But she is crafty. Part of our yard is enclosed with metal chain-link fence and this dog has decided she is going to check the stability of every inch of the fence. She's worked out that she can poke her nose at the bottom edge of the fence and push through between the ground and the flexing fence links. Our yard slopes away from our home and in the years since the fence has been installed the earth has begun to slip away from under it.

She's weaseled through the fence in five spots to date, including two new ones yesterday and today. And the only reason I knew she had escaped is because Henry was barking the spazziest barks I've ever heard. (Henry doesn't join her because he isn't inclined to squeezing through small spaces as he once got stuck in our front gate and has never tried to even put his head through a slightly open door since then.) I ran out to check on him and there on the other side of the fence was Lola chasing squirrels through the neighbor's yucca. Thomas walked down, put her on a leash and brought her home. She doesn't run away, it's almost like she thinks she's just hanging out in a part of the yard that Henry can't get to. She must look over at him and say, "See that squirrel? I'm gonna go catch it without you!"

Tree Fuchsia

I really love the clusters of pink flowers that fill this plant for most of the spring and summer months. I bought it on a whim not knowing what kind of habitat it needed. Much to the plant's chagrin, I planted it in direct, all day sun. It's taken a few years and a lot of water but this year it seems to be very happy with its home.

Camera Tricks: Magnifying Lens Filter

If you've read this blog before you'd know that I like taking photos. I like taking photos of my two crazy dogs, but I really like taking photos of flowers. I think flowers are incredible samples of nature. I mean what's better than a glossy orange tulip or a feathery pink hibiscus? Not too much.

Moving to California has brought a whole new set of flowers into my vocabulary. I don't stop at azalea and iris anymore. Now I can talk about bougainvillea and angel's trumpet. I head out in the garden at some point every day and today I fixed on fuzzy, yellow kangaroo paw.

This image was taken at the maximum focal length of my 55mm lens. I can get close and with a crop I could remove a lot of the background "noise" but then the final size of the photo would be smaller.

Enter the magnifying lens filter.

With an 8x magnifying lens filter and my focal length set to the same 55mm, I can get so up this flower's nose it's not even funny. As you can see a lot of the background has been left out and what's left is a sharply focused flower and shorter focal depth. I think I'll have to get a couple more lens filters because I can have lots of camera fun for about 10 bucks!