urbane hillbilly canada

NightSnow

2011-12-04T00:09:00.001-07:00

One of the things I miss about city life is the night. Not so much 'nightlife' though that was very important to me in the past, I was not going out that much for a few years before I left the city. Simply being out walking around after dark. I have always tended to be up late, and while I love the sun and daylight, I also love the dramatic and fractured light and shadow of streetlights, neon, houselights and shoplights and the way they illuminate (or not) buildings, trees, streets, water, snow, people.....
Here, when its dark out, its dark out! We have lights on the outside of the house, which are sufficient to bring in wood, see if the cat's outside, walk over to mom's house, but not much more, and really there isn't anyplace to go at night- I'm not going to stroll into the bush or off down the gravel roads in the dark.
Snow actually makes the night less dark- moonlit nights become bright enough to see some distance in the open! and house lights extend their reach much further with the great white reflector on the ground. There still isn't much reason to be out at night, but on occasions when I've stepped out for firewood or to do a little snow shovelling near the house, I've stopped to marvel at the glittering of a million diamonds on the ground and draping the trees. You'd think I'd want to take photos, but I've been too lazy to play around with tripods and extended exposures and never used flash much- so really, once the sun goes down, my camera goes to bed! Recently, my housemate was out early shovelling and took some flash photos which were kinda cool- lighting up the snow-covered trees, so I thought I'd try my hand, and went out after dark on a snowy night..
Some of the images are quite fun, especially while its snowing, and the flash catches individual flakes- the trees seem to be floating amongst the stars! Many of the images have an intriguing flatness, more like an engraving than a photograph...
Here are a few, full album at: https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/November272011NightSnow

many are unaltered, a number are cropped, and just a few enhanced for contrast....

Winter Willows and Friends

2011-02-24T15:27:00.002-07:00

Following a discussion about fall fruiting willows /Salix sp on the NARGS forum(North American Rock Gardening Society; forum is free to join), I took some photos of willows with seedpods still intact over winter, and while I was out there, also took some photos of other woodies, animal tracks etc..

Here is the NARGS posting:

http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=587.0

and here is the full album on Picasa:

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/February232011WinterWillowsAndFriends#

Winter Work

2011-02-13T16:29:00.003-07:00

This post speaks to the inherent tension implicit in the title of this blog: city vs country.
Parts of me at home downtown in big cities would be quite alien to parts of me that grew up on a farm, the part of me that is in the bush using a chainsaw to cut firewood.

For those that knew me only in the city, how odd do these images seem? The clothes are probably the least of it-work clothes are extreme, but I was always more grunge than glam, more flea market than Fifth Avenue! But powertools? Blowdryer, clippers and stereo were the extent in the city..

Mom figured it was time for a new chainsaw, a bigger one (not the biggest, but the last one was a small model). Not something I was keen on, using a chainsaw in the first place was not something I was happy about! In the end, though, it is obviously easier and faster to use, so that's a good thing!

An album of winter work, sawing and shovelling.....

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/January2011WinterWork#

An Endless Palette of White! Early January 2011

2011-01-30T23:53:00.004-07:00

I always think that in winter I will get caught up sorting and editing all my wildflower photos of the summer, but guess what? I still take a lot of photos in winter! In some ways, the landscape is more dynamic in winter, with constantly changing weather: snow in the air, on the ground, blowing, drifting, melting, freezing! (ice) fog, hoar frost, trees coated in white then bare again, etc etc..

In the album are just a few shots from early this month, all taken from the vehicle on the drive to work in Rocky Mountain House (though none of these shots are in or near Rocky); several are on the 3-4 miles of gravel road (depending on route) before we get to a paved road/highway....

Here is an altered image............just about 2 miles up the road...

Winter Flowers: Bulbine

2011-01-13T21:27:00.003-07:00

Here in the frozen North, winter flowers means indoor flowers!

Bulbine favosa from Penrock Seeds, RSA

An attractive species with a caudex and thin wiry grasslike leaves. The bright yellow flowers are borne on a long spike.

Form B. A dwarf form with short dense tuffs of leaves and numerous flower spikes. Found in short grassland over sheet of exposed rock near the Loskop Dam in Mpumalanga

Funny, I first became interested in this genus of cousins to Aloe and Haworthia via a couple of small succulent species, and this species is small, but nothing succulent about it I had seeds of one of those also, but no germination, alas..maybe I'll try some seed from Mesa....

This one was a pleasant surprise, the seeds of this South African native were only sown last winter, in fact January 14, 2010 (I just looked at the tag yesterday, had thought it was sooner than that!) and one of three plants in the pot is flowering already!

The buds only took a few weeks to develop. Interestingly, the flowers seem to open in the evening-maybe it would be afternoon in natural light, but they are under lights which are on until midnight, and they are open at least a few hours before that.

That means I had to take pictures with no sunlight, explaining the crappy quality of the photos: the flower stalk is higher than the bulbs, so I can't shoot it in situ, since I don't have good lights for photographing, and I'm lousy at flash photos!

For scale, the pot is 4 inches across, and the flowers are about 5mm-1/4inch.

First, a couple of really bad views of the whole plant/flower stalk, then a single flower low on the stalk, then a couple of the later flowers...

A NEW YEAR!

2011-01-03T00:07:00.003-07:00

First photos of the year, yesterday (first)was too gloomy outside to bother shooting, and even though I went out too late for the best sun today, there were some pretty clouds, so I focussed mostly on the interaction of trees and sky- memories of my days shooting in Toronto, where that was my main nature zone: trees and sky....

Since we had a few inches of snow last night, and shovelled today, I thought I would also include some shots of the length of driveway we clear, as well as some of the various paths around the place... thankfully our snow is usually light and powdery, and not too often huge amounts at once.

Most of the snow you see on the ground is from the start of winter in mid November, when it snowed daily for nearly a week; since then we've mostly had only an inch or two at the most-today's was the biggest snowfall since November.. Happy New Year!

full album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/2011January02ANewYear#

Christmas Eve, Central Alberta

2010-12-29T23:35:00.002-07:00

We had to drive in to Rocky Mountain House to pick up our cheques, so we had some breakfast, did the banking, then back on the road to Sylvan Lake and Red Deer for a bit of shopping.

Another one of those mid-winter partly cloudy, hazy days where the sun never seems all the way up...a minimalist landscape, rendered in chalk pastels, or a grainy photograph!

a couple of altered images here...

album at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/December242010ChristmasEveCentralAlberta#

2010-12-24T18:40:00.000-07:00

Catching up!

2010-12-17T00:14:00.003-07:00

I'm gradually working on getting all of my photos from the summer in albums, and links to those albums here..

for a sense of order, I am putting the album date on the posts, so they will fit in when the photos were taken, not when I blogged them, so check back for posts you haven't seen...

Rhadamanthus platyphyllus

2010-12-14T00:36:00.005-07:00

platy

Update: Since posting this, I have discovered that this is actually R. platyphyllus, moved by some to Drimia- D. platyphylla; its a widespread species for such a little thing, and there are some hairy leafed forms I'd love to get my hands on....

This is a tiny South African winter growing xerophytic bulb which I grew from seed 2 winters ago..

it was described by Penrock only as:

'A minute species with two prostrate leaves covered in fine silky hairs rendering the leaves cryptic when covered in dust or grit particles. Found in the Matjiesfontein and Fraserburg area, Western Cape'

...this may be full size(no more than half inch long for the largest the pot is, i think 3 inch), since they have not changed in size in their third growing season..

I haven't seen flowers yet, this genus is related to massonia, so I think it should flower while in leaf, but I don't know if it is mature, or happy...lol ...anyway, the leaves are cute-as you can see in the close-up - they are finely pubescent--to the naked eye they just look kind of velvety, with the two lines looking almost like a

fold...

the close-up of a leaf is much larger than life size!- Imeasured, and the largest leaf is about 1/2 inch or 1.5cm; the other 3 leaves are quite a bit smaller..

I just noticed Penrock mentions 2 leaves--typical for cousins Massonia, two prostrate leaves, flowers come out of middle.. well, so far each of these tiny plants has one leaf at a time--I forget when they died, sometime in spring/summer, and resprout in fall, I don't think these were leafless as long as the 1 Massonia I have...

Eriospermum dregei

2010-12-14T00:22:00.004-07:00

This is a tiny plant, definitely in the odd, not showy category: my favourite!

Each year the leaf dies sometime around July, and sprouts again in late August or so (in my climate, that is, I have two friends growing it in the southern U.S.-very different pattern!); if it were mature, it probably should flower in that gap; mine is not mature, as you can see by the leaf which does not yet have enations--odd growths peculiar to some members of this South African genus--they appear to have multiple leaves or leafy/stemmy structures, but in fact they are outgrowths of a single leaf--some times resembling a bushy green tail, antlers, etc; on this one they look kind of like fuzzy parsley--see here what a mature plant looks like...

http://www.bulbsociety.org/GALLERY_OF_THE_WORLDS_BULBS/GRAPHICS/Eriospermum/Eriospermum_dregei/Eriospermum_dregei.html

I raised my tuber to the surface when I got it a couple of years ago, I have a feeling, though, that all the activity is now somewhere farther down! as you can see, it looks dry and woody, which it did not at first, and the visible part of the tuber has not grown that i have noticed...

I have only had one other Eriospermum-- E paradoxum, which I killed, probably too dry, and I have had at least 5 packets of seed, none of which produced a single germination--unless I was doing something horribly wrong (which I could believe, but not that wrong!) this was presumably not fresh seed, which is supposed to be essential for this, as many South African 'bulb' species--that is why the plant flowers just before the growing season, to produce seed during the growing season when conditions are right for germination!

Cactus Seedlings

2010-12-12T23:35:00.000-07:00

Still on December 11, after eating and relaxing, I decided it was time for some work--a bit of tidying and housework, and I ended up doing some watering etc.

I have a number of pots of (hopefully) hardy cactus seedlings which I sowed in spring-the first one (Escobaria vivipara, from Alplains) came up well and quickly, and after some weeks (or more, I forget) I decided to take the pot out of the plastic bag..the seedlings are still ok, but I felt they did not do as well as those that were left in the bags-I was thinking it was about even moisture, but it just occurred to me today that the added heat of the closed bags under the lights might also be a factor..

However, those that remained in bags have some moss growing on some pots-which would not be a concern in itself, but this moss can seem very dense, and I wonder if it will start to be a problem for the seedlings; in addition, I noticed some unevenness in moisture in the pots--those that were touching the sides of the bags, especially on the sides where the bags were bent over(to fit under the lights) had some wet spots, with more moss, even algae. Note: most of these bags were unopened for months--sowing was in spring, not all are dated, but mostly around the beginning of April, and I likely opened a few times to check on them etc, but certainly not for months since. Overall, though, very strong and no signs of damage from the moisture.

All of these pots are under fluoros (T8's I think, or T12's) and the bulbs are not new--couple years old-so between the old bulbs and further loss of light due to the plastic, I'd have thought they'd be much more etiolated than they are--no doubt they could be a bit more compact, but pretty good, and I figure they can plump up more later when they go outdoors.

All this tells me a few things: --enclosed growing is definitely better for me, though maybe I will try humidity covers, at least for older seedlings, or larger bags per pot to avoid the wet spots;

--at least some cactus seedlings are happy with much lower light levels than I would have thought ideal....

Since I had them out, I thought I might as well photograph them, even though it was long after dark; I tried a couple of flash shots, and thought they looked terrible on the viewscreen, so I went with high sensitivity handheld shots, and most are correspondingly crappy! In fact, the flash shot was not bad seen on the computer screen, and I should have used that for all of them! Worst was the pot I had sprayed the grit on, making it darker, and almost impossible to shoot--another learning experience...

album at Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/December112010CactusSeedlings#

A's Birthday/Winter Drive

2010-12-12T21:16:00.003-07:00

For once he got his wish of a day off work on his birthday, and since it was the day after payday, that meant a trip into Sylvan Lake (egg mcmuffins and shopping for us and mom at walmart, including a combined birthday/Christmas present of a stereo that will convert cassettes and vinyl albums to cds..) then on into Red Deer.

The main objective there, besides a burrito for me, and Starbucks on the way home, was Superstore, where I thought we'd have the best chance of finding a half decent birthday cake.... maybe, maybe not! Although they have a fair selection for a supermarket, A really wanted a white cake, but not just the cheapest white birthday cake (we sell tons of those at work.....not appealing!). However, a quality vanilla cake with custard filling or something, was not to be found (next year it may be homemade, or we really will have to find that cupcake place in Red Deer...).

He settled, grudgingly, for a white lemon/raspberry cake, with white chocolate flakes on the outside--but it turned out to be just what he wanted! Whew!

Home, to do a few chores, eat pizza, and watch Ghost Ship ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288477/ ) with a surprisingly good cast for a movie with ghosts and a demon...

Photos from the drive..one of those typical midwinter days, with clouds (especially as the day went on) and haze making for a gloomy, almost monochrome effect..... good day for coffee and treats (holiday gingerbread loaf from Starbucks, yum!)..

album on Picasa:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/December112010ToSylvanRedDeer#

a couple of altered images here..

Run from the Rain

2010-07-07T17:02:00.002-06:00

What was supposed to be a nice summer botanising bike ride turned into a sprint to stay ahead of thunderstorms and rain!

I set out to ride East from home, a direction I haven't explored much; However, storm clouds to the North soon let me know I didn't dare go too far, so I turned South a couple of roads down...

Well the clouds kept coming, faster than expected, so after just a couple of miles, I turned back west, and kept pedalling fast!

The clouds also kept moving fast, and I got wind and some raindrops, before finally having to stop the bike and put on rain gear, camera tucked inside-- I was just at the edge of the storm, but close enough get rained on for a few minutes before I rode out of it again. Finally, I was clear of that storm, and turned onto the back road between home and Evergreen, a road that includes a favourite spot of mine with a really nice colony of Castilleja, Anemones and other things.

Continuing on home from there, more thunder cells were threatening, but I made it home before it rained again....

A view of the clouds that prompted my first turn, and then an altered Castilleja miniata..

full album:

https://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/July072010#

Into the Mountains, June, 2010 B

2010-06-26T01:06:00.000-06:00

Its always exciting as you drive on and the landscape changes gradually, and then those first views of the mountains!

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsJune262010B#

Into the Mountains, June, 2010

2010-06-26T00:49:00.000-06:00

Another dash into the mountains, albeit a 13 hour dash!

as usual, we set off early in the morning.. views of the morning sky, and the highway near home--we're heading for those mountains!

full first album here:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/AlbertaRockyMountainsJune262010A#

Coming Soon--Mountains!

2010-06-25T12:35:00.002-06:00

Tomorrow, we are planning to head into the mountains for the day, so hopefully lots of images to come soon ;)

Summer? So why are there spring bulbs?

2010-06-24T23:19:00.001-06:00

Late June (seems so far away as I post this in late December!)...a few shots from around the yard, some garden plants, like those Muscari -I planted the bulbs, bought cheap locally, in fall 09, so not a bad show for the first year, in a newly dug bed! however, my thoughts of spring colour seem to have been a little off as they flowered so late! Oh well, at least the Scillas and retic Iris came up earlier!

And some natives, wild plants that are growing around the acreage and even in the mowed yard wherever they get a spot-under and around trees, next to stumps, etc.. some of those areas I plan to encourage/extend by adding additional flowering plants, native and otherwise...

full album on Picasa as usual:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June242010Home#

a couple of altered images here....

Home Road Summer Ride

2010-06-20T22:27:00.000-06:00

Early summer, with many of our best native species coming into bloom, a glorious time! (this is another post made much later, in December, so it really seems extra glorious!!)

This was a lovely bicycle botanising trip, about 8 miles up the gravel road I live on, then over a couple and looping back home. I photographed plants at around 4 main sites, with a many minor stops, and lovely views all along the way. Several of these sites were spots I have visited once or several times before, but this was earlier for a couple of them, and I found a new remarkable site as well, with some really choice species, some I have seen little or not at all before...

I divided the trip up into 4 albums, focussing around those 4 main sites...

remember most albums have sometimes extensive notes, as captions on individual photos...

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June202010AGeraniumsAndRoses#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June202010BRueAndValerian#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June202010CShootingStarsAndAlexanders#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June202010DAnemonesAndSarsaparilla#

A Walk on the Wet Side

2010-06-16T22:06:00.001-06:00

An afternoon out on the farm, especially through a couple of sloughs, so a lot of species fond of wetlands, or the edges of wetlands, plus some woodland/edge species, such as Viola canadensis.

Lots of images, so I divided them into 2 albums:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June162010VioletsAndChickweeds#

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June162010MoreVioletsAndChickweedsPlusMaianthemumEtAl#

Shooting Stars!

2010-06-12T11:36:00.000-06:00

Dodecatheon sp., Shooting Stars, are among our loveliest wildflowers, and they have been teasing me for the last couple of years! I know they grow in this area:they used to grow on the family farm until their habitat became too overgrown with willows (salix sp) and birch (betula pumila) among other things. I've also seen those tantalising flashes of hot pink in the ditches as we drive to and from work, but over the last couple of seasons, I haven't had a chance to see and photograph them up close (apart from a few in the mountains, last year).

I finally got a bike in riding order last summer and started exploring the neighbouring backroads, but it was in august-too late for this plant! So, this year when I started seeing those pink patches again, I knew I had to get out on the bike and find some plants near home.. The usual habitat for the species around here is in grassy, fairly open wetlands, a common land type around here, so I was hopeful, but then it takes time to cover ground on bicycle!

My first trip out was not successful at finding this species, but still, some nice views, some other nice plants, and a beautiful day to be out!

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/June062010BackroadBicycleBotanising1#

Second time lucky, I headed for another area, one road/mile over and then a couple of miles down (the roads are on a grid, one mile apart east/west, and two miles apart north/south). I had a feeling I should find Dodecatheon along that road-I'm not sure if it was a vague memory of seeing it in childhood, or something else, but I was right, and more right than I had imagined! The plant was there, and in huge numbers--in one place a whole field (presumably a hay field, mowed sometime in summer, but not cultivated; also likely grazed at times), around 1/4 mile long and at least a couple hundred metres deep!

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/June122010ShootingStarsAtLast#

I continued to find the plant after that, along the ditches, and into semi wooded pastures.

Around a week later, I was thrilled to find another location just a little farther from home, and it's a great site with some other species I had not seen locally..that album soon to come!

June 12 at Home

2010-06-12T00:10:00.001-06:00

Just some more views around the acreage, once the wildflower season gets going, I don't have to go far to see things in flower....

full album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cactuscactus/June122010Home#

2010-06-06T22:55:00.004-06:00

Another album loaded to picasa--a walk into a more woody area of the slough on the farm..

lots of details in photo captions....

here are a couple of artified versions of the images...

Skyscapes

2010-05-31T12:33:00.003-06:00

If you wish to cultivate humility, look to the heavens! Whether or not you find anything divine there, the scale, scope, majesty and drama of the clouds should be enough to remind you of the tininess of humans and their endeavours....

A Day Off in the Bush

2010-05-27T02:00:00.000-06:00

I'm not going to be one of those bloggers into continual full disclosure: firstly, I still believe in privacy, and secondly, I rather doubt the minutiae of my daily life would be that interesting for long (especially since I believe in privacy!).

That being said,I thought it might be slightly interesting to go through a fairly typical day off at home here.

11 a.m. thought about getting up, would have been 8 hours, but stayed in bed

11:40 a.m. actually got up!

Basic day off grooming, breakfast and coffee in front of the computer (email, mostly plant group stuff as usual),

1:30 p.m. ready to head outside

Today's big job was to do the first lawn mowing of the year. (I've decided to do another post about mowing our property-so I'll just say,it's a big job).

Not being the mechanical type, while I assumed the mower could use some sort of spring maintenance, not having been used since last August, but I wouldn't have the faintest idea what that would be or how to do it, so I just hoped it would start!

It did, eventually, after around 15 minutes of yanking on the cord, with short breaks to rest my shoulder, catch my breath, and hopefully prevent flooding of the motor..

Started on a couple of hours of mowing done, switching off with A a couple of times, and picking up things in the way ... Spent time cutting down poplar saplings with the long nippers while A was mowing..

3:45 p.m. Mowing done, and the possible afternoon rain not happening yet, I got my camera and took some photos of things flowering around the yard, then went into the bush; on the acreage first, then continued onto the farm, and checked on a few things I knew or hoped to be flowering. Found a species I was looking for, in more places than expected. Didn't get rained on.

4:15 p.m. By now I was pooped and hungry, and I knew A had cooked potatoes (as prep for the meal I'd make later), so I had some while checking email again, and doing some photo sorting and editing, then got up to take out compost, and remembered I needed to get some firewood and branches (which we use for kindling), with the forecast for the next several days cold and rainy.

I went out and broke up enough dried branches to fill a couple of buckets, and decided I should saw a bit more firewood to make sure we had enough; there were a few small poplars I had cut down last summer by my vegetable garden that were dry enough, and needing to be cut up and moved, so I got the chain saw (luckily still fueled from last time) and did just a few minutes sawing, a modest wheelbarrow full. Carried them in, and got a few other pieces from our woodpile under the trees.

Was talking to Mom, and she commented that I never would have imagined myself using lawn mowers and chain saws a few years ago--quite true! I never liked the noise or dangerous moving parts..still don't, but I grit my teeth and do it!

5:00 p.m. Went back in, A had finished baking carrot/flax/spelt muffins with a yogurt and butter icing! Yum! so I had a couple with coffee (yes, more internet time and also worked on photo editing, including some of the fancy altered stuff)

6:00 p.m. Finally got up again to get moving on dinner! Cooked chick peas soaking since the night before, and made curry with carrots, broccoli, cabbage and a big sweet onion.. clean up, take out compost, and take some food over for Mom...

8:00 p.m. Finished (barely) in time to watch CSI New York followed by halfway watching American Idol finale, while reading a novel, then switching back to the computer again..

Breaks to wash dishes and pack food into fridge, which will feed us for the next two working days... More photo editing, internet etc..just made it to bed by

2:00 a.m......

more photos in picasa albums, images from the bush:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/May212010NorthernSpringCoryCalypsoAndSadCurrants#

and from the yard:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/May262010NorthernSpringSaskatoonsAndViolets#

2010-05-27T01:36:00.000-06:00

A couple more altered images....

2010-05-25T01:07:00.000-06:00

A few more arty manipulated images....an album of these to come soon..

this isn't the only effect i like, but I kind of like this set...

May 15, 2010, Northern Spring --Cowslips, Currants and Corydalis

2010-05-25T00:35:00.000-06:00

Spring is a little more fully committed now, more and more species are coming into flower!

A lesson in why common names are not very useful:like people in many areas, we call the popular yellow spring flowers 'cowslips' (that's cow slips, not cow's lips), but the plants we are referring to are Caltha palustris (called marsh marigold by some) not Primula veris, as that name might suggest in some other places..

The second name in my title--currants-- also has some possibility for confusion: I use it to refer to various species in the genus Ribes, along with gooseberries; we have several locally that I have not sorted out yet.. Originally, the name would have referred to tiny dried seedless grapes of Mediterranean origin, and has been applied to at least another half dozen unrelated berries in other places!

In the third case, Corydalis, I avoid use of a common name-first off, because I don't associate one with this plant-it's not spoken of enough locally to have a name here! and in any case, I wanted three words starting in 'C'.. Years ago, I thought this plant was called buffalo bean, but that is another low-growing yellow flowering plant-Thermopsis or similar... apparently in some places its called scrambled eggs, but that's an unflattering name, also inaccurate (if your scrambled eggs are that bright yellow.....) and frankly, I'd rather just use the genus name, associating it with its lovely cousins, especially Eurasian species, so loved by alpine and woodland gardeners....

see the album for more and larger pics..I haven't labelled the images yet today, but will soon..

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus/May152010NorthernSpringCowslipsCurrantsAndCorydalis#

2010-05-24T01:13:00.000-06:00

I'm gradually getting the hang of this, figuring out how to achieve the style, order and content I want.. I'm like Janet Jackson-- I like to have a lot of control!

Meanwhile the photos are piling up, but I have been getting some of them onto picasa, at least, so if you'd like to see more of this spring's images, or farther back, check out my albums:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/cactuscactus

The image above is a willow in flower (Salix sp) with some cheap image manipulation via free Photoscape software-I like this effect :)

introduction

2010-04-22T23:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I guess there will never be a perfect time to get started, there is always something else I should be doing, so I will just dive in and get at it!

In some ways its a good time to start, since one of my major objectives is to show the wildflowers and plants of my area, and the season is just beginning: I photographed the first herbaceous flowers of the year just yesterday (Petasites sp as always here), so if I'm able to keep up, maybe I can actually post the photos as they come along..........

The wildflowers are found here on the acreage, on the family farm it was carved from, walks and bike rides on the surrounding country roads, and occasional car trips to natural areas in the region or farther afield into foothills, mountains, or down south the Badlands. I'm also interested in land and skyscapes, which I photograph on the same outings as the plants, and also from the vehicle going to and from work and into town for shopping etc.

I'm also a gardener. In this climate, where the outdoor growing season is so painfully short, I find I must be occupied with indoor plants, my particular interest is in cacti and succulents and other xerophytes such as miniature bulbs. Outdoors, I am interested in many things, with alpines, drylanders (including hardy cacti and succulents), woodland plants and other natives topping the lists, and working on edible gardens as well.

All of this outdoor stuff is still in its infancy for me, having started slowly after moving back here, and having to claim/reclaim most planting areas from the bush or at least the edge of the bush! If things go as planned, I will be doing a huge amount of digging and moving rocks this year, trying to get new beds ready for the large number of seeds I've started and have yet to start!

April 21, 2010, Northern Spring, Petasites and Friends

2010-04-21T01:03:00.000-06:00