My newest Lily

I have enjoyed gardening my entire life. In recent years the demands of my business have made it hard to start the garden because spring is my busy time.  This year went a little better than usual because there was a longer spring.  I grow a lot of lilies because they are low maintenance and easy to grow and they spread but not so fast that they get out of control.

My lily habit started shortly after we moved into our home when a neighbor gave me five red lilys.  Then my mother gave me some and over the years my collection grew and I have given them away to neighbors and friends.  I never had one like this before and it is the first one that I ever bought.  I remember thinking at the time that I don’t need another lily. It just opened up a couple of days ago and is growing in between my yellow lilies and the red ones and I was wrong about not needing it.

Close up

This one is so close you almost can’t tell what it is. I grow lilies, lots of them.  They are easy to grow and they multiply.  I have some lilies by the back steps that I planted twenty years ago. They need little care and they bloom without fail.  I think I like taking photos of them as much as I like taking photos of valves.

No Bee

I have a friend who has a way with flower photographs. There was a bee in almost every shot. I don’t have that kind of luck, or maybe it is skill.

This is my 500th blog post on this blog. I recently missed two days of posting or I would be able to say that I posted 500 days in a row.  I have to say I enjoy doing it. I like being able to do something with my photos and I can’t stop taking them so this is working out well.  Thanks for stopping by and for the comments.

Fourpaugh's Restaurant

I have a love hate relationship with my wide angle lens. There is distortion in this photo but it was for fun.  I noticed that someone took pictures of the inside of this restaurant with a wide angle lens.  I think they would look better if the photographer would have kept the lens level or straightened the photos before publishing them.   Sometimes distortion can make a photo look artistic at other times it can look the the person taking the shot is having trouble.

steam powered tug boat

I was told that the boat works.  It is parked at the end of the River Boat grill on Harriet island.  It will be opened up later in the season so we can take a peak inside.

Victorian

This house is a small one and it used to be painted  black and white. I like it better this way.

Table for two

It is about the pears.  The table is on the skyway over 6th Street just outside of Macy’s.  It wouldn’t be a very good place to sit and chit chat but would be a great place for people watching.

McDonald's at the Mall of America

Yesterday I had breakfast at the McDonald’s at the Mall of America.  I don’t like to shop but I love going to the mall in the winter because I can walk for miles and it is warm, colorful and well lit.  This McDonald’s overlooks the mall’s amusement park.  If you have not seen it you should go.

The art train

Lights on the Tree

I took this one last year just for fun and I think photography is supposed to be fun.  It really doesn’t look much like a Christmas tree but it does have some nice colors in it.  I went out on Sunday and got a bunch of holiday shots, I hope to have time to process them and plan on getting some more this afternoon.