Sensory Overload

The annual spring Tulip Festivals are well under way in the Fraser Valley. There are two of them this year. The Tulips were very late in coming and they are reluctant to leave. They love the cooler temperatures and that is what we are having.

The owner of the land on which this field of Tulips was grown is a good friend of mine and I was thrilled to get his permission to enter the field 'after hours'. The hours of operation are right when the light is at its harshest, and because the view is to the south, the camera more or less points into the sun, with the Tulips in the foreground. At sunset, the light is coming from the side and it makes all the difference when composing a good photo. I was thrilled to have a dramatic sky as a backdrop to the vast flood of red. There really is nothing like standing in a large field of brightly coloured Tulips in their peak.

First Blooms of Spring 2017

There was the briefest of breaks in the cold spring weather on Sunday afternoon and we walked to the park which is nearest to our home. The Cherry Blossoms were just starting and a new variety of Tulips was just coming into its own.

During the winter months I am totally uninspired to even think about photography, but the minute I see a blossom, I am charging up the camera battery and heading out to capture some colour after many months of nothing but grey.

Standing under a Cherry Tree in full bloom is a delight like few other things in nature. This year there is not as much pink in the blossoms, but they are heavy and prolific on the branches. I guess we have a year of quantity over quality.

Photos and Food

 

I was treated royally on Father's day last weekend. Andrew had just returned from Victoria and brought me a bag of chocolate goodies. The photo is a caramel and chocolate covered apple with a spray of white chocolate and marshmallows on the top. There was more.

I got a nice shirt and some monster cookies from Rachel and her family, plus a nice drop-in visit in the afternoon.

busylizzy took me to a Tuscan Garden in Mt. Lehman and told me to bring my camera. The garden is only open in the middle of the day when the light is at its worst, but I still got a few worthy photos, as you can see from below.

I have treasured my roll as a father throughout the years and without taking any credit, I am more than thrilled to see and experience the wonderful family I now have. I am proud of each and everyone of them and love them all to bits. And, because I also had a good father, this day is a good day for me, something that not everyone can say.

 

 

Sunday Mornig

 

A beautiful Sunday morning and busylizzy beside her Mother's Day hanging basket and our Begonia BBQ. No, we do not BBQ Begonias, but we do use some old things as planters on our property. The big vine is a Hops Vine, which provides wonderful shade on hot summer afternoons and provides busylizzy with Hops Tea in the winter time.

More Glory

 

Each morning as I look out our bedroom window, I see a bit more deterioration of these beautiful blooms. They do not like the cold night of Autumn and it is only the warm days that keep them hanging on. This morning they were wrinkled and had dark blue veins running through the petals. Varicose veins of old age?

 

These are perhaps the last Morning Glory photos of the year. These flowers have brought us great pleasure and joy as they do every year. Having them in a spot where we see them as we rise in the morning was a bonus. There is no other flower that plays with the light like these do. Their clean lines and rich blues and mauves are highlighted by the inner light in their center.

 

There are multiple spiral buds left on the vine, even though the vine itself is old and dry, the leaves crumbling and falling off. A picture of life? There can still be beauty in age if your light shines through.

In My Studio

 

The Autumn leaves are coming late this year. The few trees that are 'turning' are dropping too many leaves before they change colour. It may not be a great year for Fall photography. Yesterday I turned to my tried and true studio, my back yard, for some photos. Our Red Delicious tree is bearing fruit this year and there are quite a few apples that are not scabby and diseased as in other years. We ate one of the above apples and it was sweet, crisp, and juicy, just like an Okanagan apple.

 

The conditions were ideal yesterday, for a few choice mushrooms to pop up. I am intrigued by the underside of a fresh mushroom so that is what you get in this photo.

 

And then there are the Morning Glory blossoms, so fresh and magnificent every morning. A fresh batch of up to 20 blooms greets us as we open the blinds on the bedroom window. I think I have more photos of Morning Glory than any other flower except Tulips. These are very photogenic flowers and I never tire of trying to get a new angle or shed some unusual light on one or two of these.

 

They have no battery to power the light emanating from the center of the blossom, but it certainly looks that way.

 

Placing a bit of unfocused autumn colour in the background gives testament to the fact that these, for us, are Autumn flowers. The texture, shape, colour, design, clean lines, and delicacy are what make them such a marvel. The fact that they renew themselves every morning gives us a life lesson.

Coming Out

 

In case you had not noticed, I have had limited activity on this blog in the last few weeks. I have not lost my enthusiasm, run out of photos or ideas, or forgotten how to do it. The important ingredient that is missing is energy.

 

It seems that I have temporarily come out of retirement for a while and after a day's work I am good for a few games of internet Scrabble and them I am done. I am a Zombie after a day of work. I can barely move.

 

Why, you might ask? As to coming out of retirement, I actually never officially retired but only tried, successfully, to slow down. However, a few lucrative jobs came my way and at the time of considering them, I felt energetic enough to take them on, no doubt due to the fact that I was well rested.

 

Fatigue will dampen one's enthusiasm to get out there with a camera, load and process the photos, and them come up with something to write about. The two photos here were taken with a minimum of effort, right here in our garden.

 

As to a continuation of work, yes, I have taken on more contracts and will have a busy summer. I am slowly getting back into shape and even though very tired at the end of the day, all systems benefit from physical work. Walking every day is great but is not as beneficial as the activity I do when working.

 

If this all sounds crazy for an old semi-retired guy like me, it gets crazier. We are receiving word any moment now about a 2 week contract that requires working through the night!

"What does not kill you will make you stronger". We will see about that.  

 

 

Princess Paulownia Tree

 

A friend was over the other day and was admiring our Empress tree and said it reminded her of her mom's tree "by the milk house" which was no longer there. She requested that I take a few photos of our tree and send them to her as a reminder.

 

It is a large, aggressive, and messy tree, its existence only justified by its beauty for a few short days in spring. When the blossoms fall, the monster leaves begin to grow. The limbs stretch out another 4-5 feet and then the mess in the autumn is a continual chore to clean up.

 

These trees are not native to our area, but were brought over from China during the years when there were many migrant workers building the railroads in Western Canada. The workers would bring their belongings from China packed in the seed pods from this tree and as they unpacked, the seeds would fall beside the rail beds, and flourish. Soon, admirers would uproot the seedlings and take them home for their gardens. They are fairly common in our city.

 

I sometimes regret having planted this tree, but not right now. Wait until the Autumn and I will be singing another tune.

 

As you can see below, we have pruned this tree hard over the years but it continues to dominate its corner of the garden, undaunted.

Spring in Full Swing

The Last of Seabird Island

 

We were fortunate to stay dry on this day. The heavy clouds were threatening and indeed, as we left it began to sprinkle. The green rows above will by now be full of colour.

 

I do not know who these children were but the scene reminded me of the 'Sound of Music" and thought it might make a nice photo.

 

I noticed that the rows were not straight. Is this done for visual enhancement or did somebody not have GPS on their tractor?

 

I have always been drawn to Tulips with their intensity of colour and clean lines. In this setting, they are even more stunning.

 

On the way home, we took the South Parallel Road and came across this Daffodil field. It is past its prime but with the back light it still photographed OK.

 

Spring can now resume. I have had my annual Tulip fix.

 

More From Seabird Island

Seabird Island Tulip Festival

 

With one eye on the weather forecast and the other on the looming clouds, we ventured to Agassiz yesterday to check out the Canadian version of a tulip festival. Having been to the La Conner festival many times over the years, I had expectations that this would not be as good.

 

The walk from the parking lot to the fields is about 1 km. one way, but on a paved road. The advantage over La Conner is that the fields here are all in one location, and they are quite large and diverse.

 

There is a large variety of tulips and as in La Conner, they do not all mature at the same time. Some of the fields were still green with promising buds but no blooms.

 

The backdrop is mountains no matter which way you point your camera. There were hundreds of people there, mostly Orientals on bus tours. Because nobody is allowed in the rows, it is easy to take a photo without people, and only blossoms.

 

 

 

The rains held off and the paths were dry enough to keep our shoes from getting too muddy.

 

Overall, it was better than I expected. No traffic congestion and continual entrance fees, but plenty of tulips.

 

I have two more small sets of tulip photos so stay tuned if you like this sort of thing.