blooming right now

I never really saw it coming, but it turns out that I love gardening. I’m no expert, but I’ve managed to keep what was already here alive, plus I’ve added some things over the past couple of years. Flowers make fantastic photography subjects, so I have lots of inspiration right in my own front (and back) yard. They’re particularly interesting to shoot with a macro lens (which is what I used for these photos). Currently we have rhododendron, salvia, allium, and several species of iris in full bloom. It’s beautiful.

blooming right now // rhododendron
blooming right now // iris
blooming right now // allium
blooming right now // iris
blooming right now // salvia

Follow:

iris

“Iris” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

Thou are the Iris, fair among the fairest
Who, armed with golden rod
And winged with the celestial azure,bearest
The message of some god.

Thou are the Muse, who far from crowded cities
Hauntest the sylvan streams,
Playing on pipes of reed the artless ditties
That come to us as dreams.

O flower-de-luce, bloom on, and let the river
Linger to kiss thy feet!
O flower of song, bloom on, and make for ever
The world more fair and sweet.

iris 4
iris collage
iris 2
iris 1

Follow:

drenched

A poem for the season by Onitsura:

I know well
that the June rains
just fall.

There are many flowers blooming out in the garden right now, but hardly a moment to capture them with all of this rain! These photos didn’t come out how I imagined, but there is something about them that seems to evoke the gloomy weather of late…

flowers 1

flowers 3

flowers 4

flowers 6

flowers 7

flowers 8

Follow:

bloom

From “A Prayer in Spring” by Robert Frost:

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

2013 165 soft

2013 192 soft

2013 210

2013 213

2013 186 soft

2013 202

2013 170 soft

Follow: