Lace for the Queen

The sepals even resemble the victorian collars 🙂

Tall floral pagoda

Here is another of these large, eye-catching flowers. I find the horsemint spectacular flowers. And this year we have many of them. Funny fact: they are growing in the pasture from which I just removed the horses this spring 🙂

Towering Horsemint Pagoda

Morning Luxury

Jul4

Just at sunrise I was out for some exercise – or so I told myself. The fact that I was carrying my camera is really all the evidence you need that I was really out there for a more artistic sort of exercise than strictly working up a sweat and raising my heart rate. This is what caught my attention first:

Meet the Horsemint

Party Clothes

Jun26

Dressed in their summer best, the Black-eyed Susans celebrate summer.

Sweet Summer Sun!

Apple Blossoms in August?!

Aug23

There I was, bleary-eyed from the dog waking me up early to announce the arrival of the neighbors cows on our 40 acres, a fact which bears no relevance to today’s post. After filling the horses’ water trough, I decided to water my baby fruit trees. They have had rather a rough summer, and they were definitely thirsty this morning. So I stood with the hose, raining down water on the hay mulch around each little tree, watching the water soak in and musing about what lives in the little holes I saw there. As the sun rose and the sky turned pink, I started playing with the camera’s settings, appreciating the rosy glow on the leaves – and the apple blossoms!?

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Nikon D5100 f/6.7 ISO 1600 1/250sec 300mm – Summer 2012

We are in Oklahoma, so perhaps any apples resulting from these blossoms might have a chance of reaching maturity. The frost date may be late enough… I hope some bees find them! I have 4 little apple trees, a Yellow Transparent, a Lodi (also a yellow apple), an Enterprise, I think… Hmm, I have forgotten the fourth variety. Tonight I will check to see which of these varieties it is that thinks August is an appropriate time to bloom.

Oklahoma Summer Morning

Jul27

To me, these yellow flowers in the sunshine are Oklahoma in the summertime, in the early morning.

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Nikon D5100 f/11 ISO 100 1/125s Nikkor 55-300@300mm – Summer 2012

Well, the case could be made that a photo of the ubiquitous dry, brown, crispy grass would be more representative of the last few summers in Oklahoma, but that is not what evokes my desire to run out the door with a camera in the early morning. So this photo of small yellow flowers stretching toward the sun, which was, in fact, taken in Oklahoma in the summertime, stands in my mind for the quintessential Oklahoma Summer Morning.

quintessential: representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class

ubiquitous: present, appearing, or found everywhere

おはようさん！ Good Morning, World!

Jul6

Perky little purple flower pops its head up to say, “Good Morning, World!”

小さなむらさき花が　“お早うございます、世界！”って言います。

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Cheerful little flower – Summer 2012

よかった！

All is good 🙂

Purple Kool Aid Flowers?

Apr16

These dew-covered flowers remind me of cold glasses of Grape Kool Aid, covered with condensation. I can almost smell the tangy, fake-grape scent, taste the sweet-sour flavor, and feel those cold droplets of condensation on the glasses.