Dandelion

Documentation on my upcoming workshops arrived this week. I need to have a subject for the egg tempera workshop, preferably a good photo. I'm thinking of using dandelion so today I began photographing and taking samples to press.

I weeded around this plant and isolated with printmaking paper. I envision portraying the flower in all its states and was lucky to find this plant posing so well. It's a a start.

Someone was keeping an eye on me...

I wondered about the life cycle of the flower and found this very cool time lapse movie filmed by Neil Bromhall.





By the way, Blogger tweeted at 8 pm that they are still restoring. Hopefully, some missing comments will make their way back.

Closeups of Familiars

One thing I like about nature photography is the surprises that appear on the monitor screen. Not until just before uploading did I notice how the ray flowers are opening in a progressive fashion. Somehow I imagined that they all pop at once.

On most of my lake walks I pass by a row of white pines and so notice the development of yearly growth. Here is the very beginning of five radial buds surrounding a central bud. These will extend out over the season to form another year of pine needle covered branches, the needles in packets of five.

Bits of Yellow

I grew up with Forsythia bushes all around, their bright yellow blossoms a sure sign of spring. My thoughts are to only present species that grow wildly around the lake, meaning no around-the-yard plantings allowed. I found small Forsythia in two places close to the shoreline so I'm slipping some in here.


















There are quite a few dandelions popping out, all with flower heads snug against the ground. It's hard to tell from the photo but if you look closely, you'll see some ants at work. I wonder if there's pollen or nectar to be harvested?