New Year's Eve Snowstorm!

The only thing that looks alive in the garden is Beth's tree! I tried to snap a picture of a Cardinal sitting in the branches, but it flew away.

The Sun After the Storm!

Can you find the little squirrel enjoying the sun after the snowstorm???

Cardinal

My favorite...the Cardinal, came to the feeder during the heavy snowstorm.

We kept the bird feeders full during the storm, and were rewarded by watching all the birds come to the feeders.

Can you see a rabbit in there???

Mysterious footprints!

Maybe it's a rabbit. I'll have to make my husband stand watch with a camera to snap a photo of the little critter! LOL!

BURIED UNDER THE SNOW!

The garden is somewhere under that snow ... and I think a little creature is living under Beth's tree, there are footprints all around it!

BETH'S TREE!

About 20 years ago my daughter Beth brought this tree home from school on Arbor Day. It was in a paper cup and was a seedling about 1/2 inch big! We planted this itty bitty tree in the yard and put a small fence around it to protect it from the lawn mower. Over the years it kept growing and now it is about 40 feet tall and still growing! This yard is almost all ledge so this little tree deserves a lot of credit for growing this tall! I always wonder what happened to the other seedlings that Beth's classmates brought home that day...is this the only survivor?? It sits in a corner of my shady garden and always looks beautiful when the snow first falls on it.

WHAT IS THIS WHITE STUFF???

It's the FIRST SNOW!! The little shady Salem garden is covered with snow!

Birthday flowers!

Goodbye leaves

Goodbye pretty flower, til we meet again.

Where Have All The Flowers Gone?

AUTUMN LEAVES

Here is a picture of the leaves that fell off my tree. If you walk through them, it comes up almost to your knees and the garden is buried somewhere under there!

Grasshopper

Here is a shot of the "cute" or if you prefer "ugly" grasshopper.

WHERE ARE THE POTS??

The garden is now like "Where's Waldo" .... can you find the flower pots?? There are at least 7!

COLEUS

This coleus survived the rains! Coleus have no blossoms, just pretty colored leaves.I have moved flowering potted plants from my deck into the garden to give it some color. I'll be posting some photos of the "new potted plant garden." Please let me know what you think.

NASTURTIUM

This is a nasturtium, that I grew from seed....truly amazing that it actually GREW!

RAINED OUT!

Look at what's left of this pathetic little flower after the rains!

GOLDFINCH!

I posted my husband at the bird-feeder with the camera on a tripod to get the picture of this cute little Goldfinch. Look carefully, the little bird is the same color as the feeder!

WEEDS!! GARDEN IS PITIFUL!

WEEDS!! I went away on vacation for a few days and the little Salem Garden had to fend for itself. I bought a clock- timer to turn on the water for the hose, set it for twice a day and knew that the garden would be watered. I didn't know that it would also be raining while I was away...so the hose came on and automatically watered while it was pouring rain! Not only a waste of water, but I guess the weeds loved it and completely took over. I've spent 2 days pulling out weeds, but I think this garden is a memory until next year. I'll be posting pictures of it throughout the Fall and Winter season for those of you lucky enough to have warm weather all year (so you can see what you are NOT missing).

BEE on the BEGONIA!

When I was a kid I would run down the street screaming if a bee came anywhere near me...now I am getting so close to the little critters to capture a photo...I must be nuts or fearless!

Does anyone know....DOES THIS KIND OF BEE STING?

Ladybug on the mug!

Isn't the ladybug cute! It was running so fast around the mug and made about 3 laps!

Ladybug in the house!

This little ladybug was running fast around the rim of a mug in the kitchen sink! Here are a few shots of it.

Why is this called a Bachelor button? Did bachelor's wear them??

Isn't this bachelor button pretty! And can you believe I grew it from seed.

SEE THE BUSY BEE!

I held the camera about 2 inches away from this bee and it was so busy busy going from flower to flower collecting pollen. It was so exciting and I had the feeling the bee was "putting on a show" for me!

Bachelor button

Bachelor button! I am thrilled...I planted these from seeds and I thought the blossoms wouldn't open until the plant was about 20 inches tall, but here they are starting to open .... cute isn't it!

Baby nasturtium, how exciting!

This is a nasturtium bud. I planted these from seeds a few weeks ago, and I am amazed that they grew!

What is this cutie?

My husband photographed this flower for me.

I think it's a wildflower, I never planted it...isn't it pretty? Does anyone know what it is?

Butterfly!

Look carefully and see the butterfly in the center of the flower.

Beautiful Butterfly!

I ran around the yard taking pictures of this butterfly as it went from flower to flower.

Do You Know What This Flower is?

This flower is so pretty and I don't know what it is, I never planted it in the garden and suddenly there are loads of them. Please help me identify it. Thank you.

I finally got a picture of the little Goldfinch at the bird feeder eating thistle. This is the female, the male is bright yellow!

MY TREE...

Another view.

MY TREE....

It's a hybrid poplar that is about 35 years old. The yard is almost all ledge so the tree's roots are growing above the ground! It is the biggest and tallest tree in our neighborhood and I am so proud of it!

We have put up some bird feeders in the garden and today I saw a Goldfinch at the thistle feeder. He was so cute! I've never seen a goldfinch before...I actually thought it was a parakeet, but after checking the internet it sure is a goldfinch. Now if I could only get a photo of it!

July 10, 2008 My First Blog Posting

Hi everyone,
I have just started this blog, so it is a work in progress. I'm still not sure how to post photos or anything for that matter. Anyway, here I am in Salem, Massachusetts and I am so curious as to how this blog thing works. I hope I won't just be talking to myself on here, but if so, oh well! I have big big expectations on hearing from people all over the world...is that possible? I only know 2 people who have their own blogs, one is my daughter who has a great writing blog and the other person is the teacher in a drawing class that I just started attending. I actually got jealous when I read her blog because she had photos of flowers on it, and since I love photographing flowers and nobody ever sees my pictures, I thought I would start my own blog and post the flower pictures along with well.....whatever. Hope I'm not boring anyone who has happened to find this page. I am about to hit the button to post this first of many postings....here goes.....! Do I sign this thing or what???
So I am having trouble already....I wrote this post and now I can't get it to show up on the blog sight and this is very discouraging....