The Macro Lens Garden

I don't do it often, but I like to get out the macro lens (a Nikkor 105mm). There are plenty of bugs out to shoot today, but none that wanted to stay put while I took their glamor shots! So - I shot photos of the flowers in the garden today.

These are wildflowers. Tim and I took the dogs this morning on a golf cart ride over to our 26 acres. There we found these flowers in the middle of some tall grasses. I also shot some budding cactus, but they were too blurry to post. Another day.

A few months ago, Tim stuck some bulbs in a pot. He didn't know what they were and neither did I. Now that they've bloomed, we still don't know. They look a bit like carnations, but have a very short stem - they bloom right next to the plant stalk. This one is white. The other one (in a post below is a hot pink). They are really pretty and seem to last a long time.

These are the baby limes on Tim's new lime tree. Only grown for the cocktails they can enhance later.

I shoot with a Nikon D-80. Love that camera. You can see the rest of our photos - traveling the world, the kids, Tim's art at our photo website - www.andi-tim.smugmug.com.

These just bloomed.

These are part of my Gerbera Daisy collection. Why do people call them "gerber" daisies?

Tim said, "why don't you get that wildflower behind the bench there"? This is that wildflower.

I think the marigolds are much prettier in macro.

Found this plant at Calloway's Nursery (love that place! Thanks Jeff and Lee for the Mother's Day gift certificate to Calloways!). It'll change colors and add more orange as it blooms.

These plants are gorgeous. The blooms don't last long, and when they die, they turn to a papery-sort of texture and just blow away.

Also found in the wild - these were crawling with insects. Not sure what's attractive about them to the bugs...

Petting the babies this morning...

On our golf

cart ride

this morning, both
Tim and I said how much we love living here in Tioga, Texas at Sage Creek Ranch. We love getting up and listening to the wind in the trees, the insects sawing, the birds singing and squawking - we can't hear any traffic, no air conditioners running...it's really idyllic.



I was taking the laundry off the line this morning and discovered this fellow clinging to a dinner napkin. (Cool side note - Tim and I were in Thailand a few years ago with our Executives for the Extrarodinary - Education for Everyone - E4E group. We had built a school in rural Thailand. On the final day, the parents of the schoolchildren and other villagers put on a celebration for us. They had hand woven large squares of fabric as a gesture of their thanks. They tied these bands of fabric around our waistsduring the school hand-off ceremony. There were probably 20 or 30 of these large fabric squares. I came across them the other day. They've been packed away for several years now. I didn't want to get rid of them, but also didn't know what to do with them. I've been committed to moving away from throw away stuff and paper napkins have been annoying to me for some time now, but when I have large groups of people over, I don't have enough cloth napkins to make it work. So, I asked my mom to cut and stitch the fabric into dinner napkins. So, now I have about 75 dinner napkins made of hand-spun fabric from Thailand that was given to us in thanks for building a school! I love the thought of the energy those napkins bring each person who comes to our home and has a meal with us!)

Have a fun and safe Memorial Day weekend!