Weekend Rewind (3-19-12)

Weather-wise it was a beautiful weekend, great for fun activities and those that just needed to be done (mowing etc).  We did get the opportunity to visit Galveston for a day trip and as usual I wasn't disappointed in the beautiful flowers and landscaping around the island. 

The Colonel paddleboat docked at Moody Gardens

Post processing for the image - HDR - sorry - the clouds & water were just asking for more than the SOOC image showed.  But I did hold back on any "funky" processing & attempted to just enhance the details, shadows & highlights.  On to the flower pictures.

bottlebrush - attracts butterflies

Several of the plants/bushes were small - I imagine businesses are having to replant after the tremendous drought & heat we experienced last year.

Hibiscus -- or as my family says "Hi"-biscus (sometimes our humor is a bit off)

I did a little processing on the pink hibiscus image, trying to bring out the delicate petals and the tiny lines in each one.  I haven't jumped onto the texture plug-in fun yet, but thinking this one might be a good one to try.  Any suggestions on textures?  (free ones preferred)

Hibiscus - bright red against the cloudless sky

I posted this on Wonderland's Earth Wonders recent photo challenge for Favorite Color - realizing that the older I get, the more I am drawn to the color red. 

Meyer Lemons

FINALLY!!!! Those lemons came off the tree - dang drought - these were supposed to be off the tree around Christmas, but they just didn't finish juicing up until recently.  Actually I was taking them off - whether they were ready or not - there are flowers & the beginnings of new lemons already budding out - the tree needed the energy for the new growth.  Lemon Bars this week!!  (trivia - we picked 48 lemons)

weed-filled flower bed

And onto the monarch waystation project.  This is an existing bed in our yard that we haven't weeded in 2 years (obviously) - 107 degrees & the ground felt like concrete - just didn't encourage me to work in the dirt.  This is quite a bit smaller than our original waystation, but since we no longer have the time to devote to a large habitat - this (& other smaller beds) will be our new efforts towards helping out the monarchs.  I plan to move these pics to a "page" on my blog & post updates there - look for "My Backyard" page soon.  I'll dig up some old pics of the waystation in it's glory - it was beautiful.

The Duranta bush survived!! It is probably very happy to have some breathing room.

Not replanted yet (the reason for the "in progress") - just the weeding was an ordeal - and found a few surprises among the weeds, a living duranta bush (also great butterfly attractor) - he'll get to stay & live among the new plants.  My plan for this bed is zinnias (easy to grow, no maintenance, butterflies LOVE them) and milkweed all mixed together.  Probably not what a lot of gardeners agree as the best plan, but it provides nectar plants (zinnia) and host plants (milkweed) all in one convenient space.  The trellis in the background (not in the final position) will hold up morning glories - just because I like them. 

Hope everyone had a good weekend & didn't over-do it like we did.  We will enjoy the flowers later, but wow I'm sore in places I didn't know could get sore.  If anyone has suggestions on texture plug-ins - I'd like to hear them.  Did you notice something missing from my post?? no horse activities!! - actually we did make a trip to the barn so my daughter could ride, but it was a low-key visit - just an easy ride to stretch & exercise the horse, wash tails - barn chores - didn't take an entire afternoon - we (I) needed a break.

Image details:  50mm & 105mm macro -- the only lenses I've carried lately - in my attempts to "travel light" most images SOOC except where specified.