LHR Images BLOG

Well, we had temps in the mid-60’s today and quite a bit of sunshine. Quite a bit of wind too. I headed up to Camp Victory, about 1/2 hour’s drive north of Rochester. Last year, in April, I did some wildflower photography at the camp. I was interested to see what I’d find this year.

What I found was a strong indication that spring 2008 is lagging at least 2 weeks behind spring 2007. Last year, I visited on April 21 and found Spring Beauties at their peak. A few Anenomes were out at that time too. I even found some Virginia cowslips in bud. I returned a week later and found the beauties just about finished, a lot more anenomes around, and the cowslips blooming along with Dutchman’s Breeches and Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

What I found today, May 4: Loads of Spring Beauties in full bloom. Also, a few anenomes and violets. Not a sign — not even buds — of the cowslips. No sign of the Breeches or Jacks either. Like I said, we’re at least 2 weeks behind last year. But, at least we’re finally making some progress.

I had a good time, in the sunshine and warmth, shooting the wildflowers though. It was a bit challenging. Did I mention the wind? And then, there were the clouds which engaged the sun in a game of hide and seek. Exposures kept fluctuating, flowers kept moving. A real tough day in the “office”. I still managed a few decent shots.

Here’s one of the Spring Beauties.

An anenome (or, maybe a false anenome?)

Some more beauties.

A wood violet

Another Spring Beauty

A Spring Beauty with a visitor

Another Anenome

And, another one…

And one final Beauty.

Well, I went out for a “do-over” this morning. Here are some of the results…

First off, some pretty white and blue but, unidentified flowers. These are some of the ones I tried to take yesterday but they were just blowing in the wind way too much. Today was a bit calmer but there was still just enough of a breeze to make things difficult.

This is another blue and yellow primrose

The pink primrose has made some progress since yesterday.

I’m not sure what this is… Hyacinth?

Here’s another view of it.

Tomorrow’s supposed to be nice too. Might have to do another progress check.

After some pretty nasty storms over the weekend that brought us rain, sleet and snow along with high winds and un-April-like-temperatures, today was finally sunny and warmish — although still about 10°F below normal. I took advantage of the weather to check out our garden where I found that a few plants and flowers have decided to come out of hiding as well.

We’ve had snowdrops up since March but, most of the time, they’ve been huddled up, braving the snow around them. They look much better now.

Primroses are starting to push the mulch aside to bask in the sunlight…

We have yellow crocuses…

And purple ones as well getting ready to open up.

Even some hyacinths, including this tiny one, are starting to bud.

This purple crocus seems to be a bit shy.

Another purple crocus

A splash of purple.

The forecast calls for a gradual warming trend over the week, with mid-60’s by mid-week. Maybe old man winter has had his last gasp now. Of course, in Minnesota, you never quite know.

Well, Here I am in Blog-land… who woulda thunk, eh?

So, what am I planning to use this for?  Well, here are some ideas:

• Daily postings of my Boundary Waters Photos du Jour (PDJ) so people can comment on them (I love comments on my photos :) )
• A summary of what’s going on in my life — maybe not day by day, blow by blow.  That could get boring.  But, some of the highlights… maybe a few lowlights too.
• Trip Reports and Photos
• Product Announcements (eg.  when a calendar is ready to be ordered… that kind of stuff)
• Gallery Update Announcements.
• Show announcements.
• Other stuff I probably haven’t even dreamed of yet.

I’ll try to keep it interesting — which means, I won’t be updating every day… but frequently enough so you don’t forget about me.

So, let me kick this off with… today’s PDJ

Oyster to Rocky Lake Portage May 9, 2007

Harry portages his canoe.

As far as what’s happening in my life today…

Woke up about 3:15 this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep so I finally got up just before 5!  Did some puttering with my Flickr account (see sidebar for link to my Flickr pages), updated PDJ’s so they’ll continue until well into May now, and then started putting this blog together.  Exciting, huh?

When daylight first started cracking, snow was falling!!!   At least we’re not getting a foot of it like some places up north.  The snow has stopped now, what fell melted and it’s just gray, cold and miserable looking.

I’m normally a big fan of winter but this one has just been way too long.  We got a little taste of spring, late last week, when it actually climbed into the 60’s for a couple of days.  As usual, that didn’t last long (and, wouldn’t you know it, I was working on taxes those days :().  It’s supposed to be in the low to mid 40’s for the rest of the week with lots of rain and rain mixed with snow.  Ugh!  Roll on SPRING!!!

Well, that’s likely enough rambling for now.  Hope you still want to check in again sometime!

Assuming you made it this far… thanks for reading.  Have a wonderful day!