garden | Change Is Hard

March 31, 2013
by dawnkinster 13 Comments

I heard the red-winged sing

Daffy Daffodils

The weather guy forecasts more cold days, maybe even some snow for the coming week. But I’m not discouraged. We were momentarily in the 50’sF (10 C) on Friday and again today. We saw a tiny bit of sun. And repeatedly I’ve heard and seen the sand hill crane screeching across the sky.

But today I heard the red-winged blackbird sing which is proof positive that it is spring regardless of the weather guy’s prediction. On a quick tour of the yard Katie and I found even more evidence; little bits of green poking their heads cautiously out of the mulch.

Sedum hides beneath the fall leaves.

Brave little souls aren’t they.

Poppies poke nervously toward summer.

Katie and I went looking for the snowdrops we know come up behind the house, and there they were! Fewer this year but still blooming their little hearts out for us.

It’s springtime in their hearts.

And the clincher that it must be spring?

Almost got him!

Katie chased her season’s first chipmunk up the drainpipe.

Yep, we’ll probably be roasting hotdogs on the grill any day now.

Geranium greets spring.

March 12, 2013
by dawnkinster 12 Comments

So tired

Have you ever been so tired that you can’t even make it to bed? So tired your legs and feet ache, your hands tingle and your head seems to be in a fog?

That tired?

That’s where I am right now. A long day at work followed by a long rehearsal has me sitting here wondering how I can get myself out of the chair and off to bed. How to make myself go to sleep.

But my mind is running circles around my physical self. Lots to do at work. Should probably work late tomorrow night. But have lots of music to practice too. And the dog needs to work on heeling before class on Saturday; she can’t do that by herself. I need to order dahlias for next summer. I was supposed to do that in January. Should find the order form. We have no groceries in the house. What will we have for dinner tomorrow? I think I was supposed to call my college roommate last night. Or tonight. Can’t remember for sure. I promised some people at work that I’d develop a self employed training unit by the end of March. What’s today’s date? Good I have time. Our next concert is the end of May. How many weeks does that give me to practice? I really want to run another race…but I haven’t run in two (or more…how long HAS it been) years. I should try to run one day after work this week, see how it goes. Wonder where my running clothes are. Haven’t seen my running watch in a long time either. Guess I don’t really need a watch, it’s not like I’m running fast. The guestroom needs organizing. Probably could find my running stuff if I did that. And I need to look for that photo of my brother and his friend as kids, I promised to send it to them. It might even be in the guest room closet. Should get organized.

Yep. Should get organized.

Or go to bed.

Tired.

October 28, 2012
by dawnkinster 8 Comments

Last flowers

Well. Enough about baseball in October. Let me show you the last blooms of fall in my garden. This is monks head; or aconitum, if you’re the more scientific type. It blooms very late in the season, often after a frost

The bluish purple end of the summer.

It’s very beautiful and I’m always glad to see some color in the garden this late in the year. But it,and the end of baseball, mean summer is really truly without question over.

Darn. (But click on this last picture to see it up close.)

The end.

October 8, 2012
by dawnkinster 12 Comments

Sometimes change works out OK

Some of you have figured out that I successfully imported my old blog into this blog. You got a message that there were over 1000 posts to read! 🙂 I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t want to read all 1000 again. Really? No? Well…some were led down that path…and have commented on posts from a year ago when we were in California.

San Fran goodness.

I wish we had been able to go back out there again this year, but no, we’re still here in Michigan.

Meanwhile, change is coming here as well…at least in the weather department. Not too far north of us they have had snow. And last night we got our first hard frost which killed the tomatoes and the dahlias.

The last bit of summer.

I’m so glad I cut most of the blossoms yesterday, so they’re in my kitchen now and I’m enjoying the last of their beautiful colors for a bit longer.

Summer glows as it slips away.

The leaves are changing faster and faster here too. They are absolutely stunning! I was worried that we wouldn’t get any fall color because we had so little rain this summer. But once again I was wrong.

Fall arrives with fanfare.

It’s beautiful at work on my lunch walks, and it is beautiful around home too. I have so many photos. Every year I think the trees are the most beautiful they’ve ever been and I take more photos.

Waiting for the school bus.

This year was no exception

The air glows gold.

September 17, 2012
by dawnkinster 18 Comments

Letting summer go

Scott, over at Views Infinitum, has posted a photo challenge – to capture the end of summer. Or at least what represents the end of summer to each of us.

I’ll be keeping my eyes open to see what I might find. For now, enjoy some tomatoes from my garden. Now that it’s mid September the plants have decided to hand over a bit of goodness.

Garden bounty

Seems they always wait until the last minute. Tomato plants are fickle that way.

September 17, 2011
by dawnkinster 11 Comments

Frost warning

Summer seems to have ended abruptly though I hope we’ll still get that Indian Summer we so enjoy here.

This week the evening news warned of a frost ‘in the outlying areas” and we’re certainly outlying, so I went out to the garden and cut a few of the dahlia’s to take to my aunt.

And because I couldn’t bear the thought of all the beautiful flowers brown with frost so soon.

We didn’t get the frost, but I’m still glad I brought some of the blooms inside.

They’re so beautiful.

PS: Scott has another photographic assignment due 9/28. The challenge is to photograph something competitive. I’ll be thinking about this one. You can too! There’s still lots of time!

August 24, 2011
by dawnkinster 18 Comments

The color of summer – photo challenge

Karma has issued her August photo challenge. This time it is all about color. In fact our assignment was to find all the colors of the rainbow represented in summer fun.

We have lots of summer color around here, so I’m taking you on three different photo tours. It’s difficult to choose just one photo for each color, so I’m splurging on three categories!

First is the county fair. I went to the fair specifically to find the colors of the rainbow. Some of you have seen many of my fair photos; I posted them shortly after I was there. But I saved the photos here just for this challenge.

Second is our own garden. After I read the challenge I realized that all the colors of the rainbow were right here at home.

Third is an annual event that occurs here every August called the Woodward Dream Cruise. People from all over the country converge on our county and drive their antique and muscle cars up and down miles and miles of Woodward Ave, just like teenagers used to cruise Woodward in the 50’s. It’s a huge event and there are beautiful cars on display for miles. I’ll show you just a few. I found that I was more interested in the art of pieces of vehicles than the whole car or truck. So mostly you’ll see pieces of them here.

Red

Orange

Yellow

Green

Blue

Purple

And as a special bonus, a picture of ME doing something summery.

August 10, 2011
by dawnkinster 9 Comments

Wordless Wednesday

July 9, 2011
by dawnkinster 9 Comments

Light on leaves

This morning while out with Katie I saw the rising sun glimmer on the dew of a small redbud tree in the yard. If you click on the photos you’ll see the shimmer yourself.

Katie knows what it means when Mama says “Katie – let’s go get the camera” and she trotted right back toward the house. She’s such a good girl.

The tree reminded me of PJ’s blog “Shot in Light” ; I hope she doesn’t mind that I share her blog with all of you. She has beautiful shots of things in the country. Go check it out!