Saskatchewan: The volunteer insects.

I love taking macros and most of my macros are of flowers or bugs or both. I took lots of flower macros while in Saskatchewan and found that many of them included a volunteer insect or two. Here they are!


The mosquito.



The cream and red spider. (look closely under the petals on the rightmost flower.)



The bee. After I noticed him in the picture, I took another few a little closer.





The ant.



Another bee. I was using macro plus zoom for these so I didn't notice the bee in either one until I put them on the computer.





The bees in Chris's garden.
This is one of those flat little blue and white ones.



The fuzzy one.



I love this picture with his antennae held back and together.



Disclaimer:
No insects were harmed in any way in the making of this blog.

Green days of August

I'm not entering the August daily blog because I will be gone two weeks, plus company from out of town, kids returning who want to go the ocean, things to finish up in the yard and house, spending time with family and friends...you get the idea! I'm picking up my layaway this week and it includes a new toy! An air compressor! Yay! I can't wait to have some fun with that!

The theme for August is green. What a nice theme. It's the same theme as my house is getting! haha.

So, in honor of this nice theme, here you go! I'm so addicted to macros. Every time I take macro shots I am reminded again that I need to get back to SLR. I will. I'm starting the research now.


One of my big thistles. This plant stands almost as tall as I do.



One of my pumpkin blossoms.



Broccoli~!



Zucchini!



I caught this bug from across the yard. This dandelion is by the house. I'm sitting in my lawn swing. Of course, I didn't know it was there when I took the picture!




A nice little spider. I had to put the leaf under him so I could get the picture. The wind was blowing too strong to catch him just hanging on the web.



I found a tiny little thistle bush in the ditch. None of these thistle flowers are very big. All < than an inch!

Beach flowers.

Here are some of my macros from our trip to the beach. I love how these flowers will just grow anywhere, especially the dandelions.

Computer closed...

but only temporarily. I was having trouble getting the uploader to work correctly yesterday. My computer was arguing with me about a couple of different things, but all is well, now so here is my edited repost with ALL the pictures that I intended to show.


This spider was hiding out between the petals. I brightened the picture so he could be seen a little better.


This is the daisy in which he was hiding. Can't see him at all in this picture unless you notice the dark spot on that one upright petal.



I love this picture. I bought three versions of Black-eyed Susan and this is one of them. This is the most common one.



Same variety as the one above, but more open.



Fully opened Black-eyed Susan.




One of the other two varieties of Black-eyed Susan. This one doesn't have a black eye at all, even after it is done opening fully.



I'm not sure which type of daisy this is, but it is in the huge mixed basket I bought.



Just a different angle.



I can't wait to see these when they are fully opened. I've never seen this particular variety of Black-eyed Susan before.



This is the same as above. This variety does have the black eye, but the petals are a different color. I love the way they are curled up at the center before they open.



Zucchini blossom.



Dianthus. This variety is called "Brilliant Star". I love all Dianthus. Carnations are really one of my all time favorites for flowers.

In the clover.

I had to stop using the weed eater yesterday so I could capture these clover flowers. There were so many.

Today's macros

I have this rhody bush out front. I moved it there from over by the house when I first moved back to this house.


It didn't bloom for several years after I moved it because I trimmed it back. For some reason, every year since then, I think it doesn't bloom, and then, every year, I remember that it has a very small flower and doesn't make the big clusters like all my other rhody bushes. I go look and sure enough it has bloomed. I just don't notice it because the blooms blend into the bush.
I love the little white blooms on this bush. It's amazing to me that they start out this really deep reddish pink and as they grow and open they turn white with no hint of pink or red. I also included a few pictures of my buttercups, which are running rampant in my yard. If you're sick of macro photography, you should leave now!

Very pink buds.



As they begin to evolve to white.



Starting to really open.



Initial blooms still have a brushing of pink.



Almost completely white, now.



I had to get the stamens and pistil.


The Buttercups. (Ranunculus)
Not quite all the way open, yet.



The seed that is left after the bloom expires.


A seed and a bud.



Fully open buttercup.