Why Oregonians don't move away*

Sometimes pictures speak louder than words. The weather has been incredible the past couple of days. All of the following pictures were taken within walking distance of my house.











See more like these, and some pictures of pretty roses, on my flickr stream.

*in spite of the rain. The entire world thinks it rains all the time here in Oregon, and sometimes I admit it does feel that way. But when the sun comes out we all tend to forget the rain and just enjoy the sun while we have it.

Tomorrow the rain is supposed to move back in so I'll be happy to have these to look at. ;)

Chapples? Nope! Crabapples and Apples growing together.

Here's something I've never seen before. I was out walking the dog yesterday and something about a certain tree caught my attention. I moved in for a closer look and then broke out the camera. This tree appears to be growing both apples and cherries. Or something. Definitely apples, but I have to admit I have no idea what the smaller fruits are.



They're definitely both growing on the same tree, though.



Anyone else ever seen anything like this? It's probably some sort of grafted hybrid, but I always thought that both types of rootstock had to be from the same tree. Or that the fruit itself would be a combination of the two fruits, like a pluot - not that the same tree would grow two different fruits altogether.

Ahhhhh, now this is much more logical. After doing some research and getting a couple of better pictures, I know the smaller of the two types of fruit growing on this tree are crabapples. Below are thumbnails to a shot of same tree with some blue sky behind it, and one of the trunk that shows both types of trees clearly have their own bark characteristics.

The first, at long last

My photographs are All Rights Reserved

New direction, new blog.

I haven't had a blog in quite some time. I have had my interest in photography for a long time. I have only been indulging it seriously for the past few months but I have already seen great improvement.

Mostly my subjects are flowers and other wonders found in nature, hence the title of this blog. I take mostly closeup pictures, because I enjoy the details of the various flowers. I have been known to take pictures of things I am less fond of, such as spiders and insects too. Landscapes, sunsets, and architecture of all kinds also catch my eye and may find their way into my blog. I have an account at flickr which I have had for a few years if you'd like to check it out. I mention this mostly so that anyone who stumbles across this site will know that any photographs seen here are more than likely cross-posted and not stolen. I am also working on creating watermarks to help prevent theft of my work, just fyi. I have already learned the importance of copying and registering each and every photo I post online, so I am well prepared to deal with any potential problems. That said, I am anxious to share some of my pictures with the world and I'm hoping this will be the perfect place to indulge myself. I also hope anyone who stumbles in here will enjoy what they see and feel comfortable enough to leave a comment behind.