Summer Flowers

In spring, my front yard blooms with tulips. In summer, it blooms with lilies!

The north side of our house also has some beautiful landscaping now - ferns, astilbe, and hosta. Below is a shot of the pink astilbe shoots, as well as an early hosta bud, taken in July.

My front yard also has 3 hydrangea bushes - two small ones and one giant one, which is now too tall for me to trim! The tallest one doesn't bloom until the fall, but these two little ones started showing their flowers in July.

I love being able to take pictures of flowers without even having to leave my property! :)

Spring & Summer Landscape Photos

These photos were all taken in May-July in my front and side yards.

I planted a few dozen hybrid tulips in the fall, imagining our front yard bursting with color in the spring. They bloomed late and then didn't stick around long (I didn't spray enough deer repellent, and the deer that frequent our subdivision ate most of them), but I did manage to grab a couple great photos:

I also took pictures of the pretty blossoms on the crabapple tree in our front yard, as well as the red lilies and roses:

My hydrangea bushes (I have one very large one, and two small ones now) are also doing well (the large one especially):

The biggest front yard story of the spring/summer, however, was this little mama duck, who made a nest in our bushes, incubated 8 or 9 eggs, and then one day vanished - leaving one sad, unhatched egg behind.

Last fall, we also did a lot of work to our side yard landscaping, planting several hosta, ferns, and astilbe - all of which, I'm happy to say, came back and looked great this spring/summer, with little watering or attention given on our parts. I love the pop of color on the astilbe, especially:

Early Summer Photos from Michigan's Upper Peninsula

As usual, I'm behind on posting photographs to this blog. :)

Over Memorial Day weekend and the first few days of June, my husband and I took our three-year-old dog Ginny with us to visit his family. It involved about 4 hours in the car to get to the suburbs of Chicago, and then (a few days later), a few more hours in the car to get to his aunt and uncle's house on the west side of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Finally, at the end of the trip, we drove home through the UP, across the Mackinac Bridge, and down to our house in the metro-Detroit suburbs (about a 7 hour drive). Our dog had never before spent so much time in the car with us (or had to stay in someone else's house and learn to get along with their dog!), but she seemed to enjoy (or at least tolerate) the whole experience, so I'm counting it as a win. :)

While in the UP (and on our drive home), I took some photographs of the beautiful scenery.

And here are the obligatory Mackinac Bridge photos one must take while they drive across it:

Summer Flower Photos 2017

With Labor Day weekend upon us, summer is officially over. As usual, I took several photos of flowers I saw over the summer months - with the goal of eventually using some of them to inspire future artwork. Below are some of my favorites.

I took these pictures in Rochester and Rochester Hills, Michigan - at the public library, at Yates Cider Mill, and in my own front yard. Other photos are from the beautiful landscaping at Angela Hospice in Livonia, where my grandma stayed for two weeks before she passed away at age 90 on July 31. I also took several photos of bouquets and flower arrangements - both from flowers my grandma received while she was in Hospice, to brighten her room, and from the funeral sympathy arrangements from family and friends.

My grandma loved flowers and had a wonderful garden for many decades. I think my own love of flowers was inherited from her sensibilities - if only I could have inherited her green thumb, as well!