ABC Wednesday: A is for April

April Azaleas

Astonishing how big azaleas can get when left to their own devises.

My azaleas take over the world or at least my yard. In about 3 1/2 months my azaleas will bloom again.

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ABC Wednesday: A is for Arch

An arch in the J.C Raulston Arboretum.

Artfully arranged jasmine on an arch in Grace Garden.

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ABC Wednesday: A is for Asheville

Asheville is in the southern part of the North Carolina mountains.

I took these shots in the fall at the NC Botanical garden in Asheville.

I live near the NC Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill so it was interesting to see the differences in these two botanical gardens in different parts of NC.

I enjoyed Asheville for a change since we tend to go to the northern part of the NC mountains for vacations.

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ABC Wednesday: A is for Atlantic

An alcoholic beverage on the porch at Atlantic Beach, NC with a view of the Atlantic Ocean.

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ABC Wednesday: B is for Bunny

Big boisterous bunnies bound across my yard in the summer.

Bunnies like weeds better than cultivated plants in my experience.

Bashful bunny freezes when scary human points her black camera at him.

It is funny how sometimes bunnies in my garden will almost seem to avoid the flowers.

I was serious about them preferring weeds. Even when I grew carrots and lettuce, the bunnies would munch down on weeds and ignore the vegetables.

One last bunny with its white cotton tail behind.

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ABC Wednesday: A is for amber

My first thought for amber was the line from America the Beautiful: "Amber waves of grain".

Since the color amber is based on the fossil resin amber, it covers a range of color tones.

The sea oats look like amber waves to me in this light.

I also thought of grasses and weeds when coming up with shots for amber.

I had a lot of shots to pick from because I have labeled photo folders through the years with key words.

When I used grasses as a key word I had photographs with amber seed heads ranging from 2006 through 2011.

I like to photograph grasses and their plumes.

Some of these may be a stretch for amber but since amber covers brownish, yellows, oranges to almost red I think they work.

Some are forming waves while other amber plumes are standing at attention.

It's no wonder some of these grasses have taken over my garden when looking at all the seeds.

Another key word I entered in my archive photo search was sunset.

I think amber skies are very beautiful.

A golden sunset can have many of the different shades of amber all at once.

One of my favorite kinds of light is when the trees are turned amber.

It amazes me how light can change the color of the world.

Believe it or not, I narrowed down my amber photograph choices a lot but still ended up with a long A is for Amber post.

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ABC Wednesday: A is for Asters and Archives

I couldn't believe it when my fairy asters started blooming in late June this year.

Although we had a very hot June, we had a chilly spring and fairy asters never bloom before September where I live in NC.

They bloom after most flowers are dying back and sometimes don't reach full bloom until they get hit by an October frost.

To make sure my memory was correct I went to my archives. The first two shots are in late June and early July of this year (2011). The shot above and below are from mid and late September of 2010.

My archives are arranged by date and I also have put in names for what are in the folders to make searching easier.

The shot above and below are from mid and late Septemeber of 2009

The next shot of my fairy asters was taken in late September of 2008.

The last two aster shots were taken in mid to late September of 2007.

2007 wasn't a good year for these asters because they weren't in full bloom until they got hit by an October frost. This year is even worse because they aren't able to deal well with being in bloom in the heat of the summer and are already looking dreary.

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ABC Wednesday: A is for apples

Apples may be an average A word but I have an abundance of apple photographs in my archives.

The first two shots were taken in Blowing Rock, NC in 2006 of apples which had fallen into the stream and water garden at the Cannon memorial park.

Then in 2007 I took photographs of an apple dish I prepared. I have no idea why I photographed the ingredients or the dish.

These photographs reminded me I haven't made this dish in ages so maybe I will try it again soon.

I also have photographs from Blowing Rock, NC in 2010 and once again the apples were in the stream at the Cannon Memorial park.

If I was a bear, I would almost be brave enough to risk close encounters with humans to gather this abundance of apples.

The last two shots were taken at the apple orchard at the Moses H. Cone Memorial park in Blowing Rock, NC in 2010.

Altogether, I probably have many different kinds of apples shown here but I don't know their names.

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