You Capture - Get Down Low

Beth's You Capture challenge this week was to Get Down Low.  I like this challenge because it reminds me of how different everything looks from that 'way down low' perspective.

I started with one of this year's best hanging baskets.  (I got it for Mother's Day from Beth.)  Anyway, you'd never believe from this perspective that the most spectacular part of this basket is the red geraniums on top.

Next I explored how tall this bird house (that I got from my granddaughter) looks from 'way down low'.

 

And then I took a look across the water garden from ground level.

And while I was there I shot these birds.  They're so much cuter at eye level than they are when I'm looking down on them.

I went to the other side of the pond to see how it looked from ground level and here's what I saw.

And when I looked directly at the rocks surrounding the pond, I almost felt like I was back at the Garden of the Gods.

 
Finally I got down low to capture these rain chimes (a gift from my oldest daughter) and realized that it's much easier to look right up at the sun from such a low perspective.
 
So I put the sun behind me and it looked entirely different.


 For more 'down low' shots, visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry

You Capture - Top Ten of 2011

Beth's You Capture this week is 'Top Ten of 2011'. This is one of my favorite You Capture projects so it's inexcusable that I didn't start on it until last night. I require much more time than that since so many of my 2011 pictures are filed in different folders; however, a quick perusal resulted in the following:

Our earliest blooming flower - the Lenten Rose.

Our most colorful winged visitor - the rose breasted grosbeak.

An unwelcome squirrel trying to push around our decorative bunny.

Sunset on Lake Michigan.

And in the harbor.

A cheeky little house finch.

Majestic blooms from our Sum and Substance hosta.

Our grandson-in-law showing his son some of the sights in our pond.

An alert meerkat living up to it's reputation for inquisitiveness and vigilance at the Rocky Mountain Zoo near Colorado Springs.

The deteriorating boardwalk on my favorite trail in Indiana Dunes State Park.

My two favorite princesses - both my namesakes - Tessa Mary and Mary Addison born two weeks apart!

To see many more varied and beautiful pictures from 2011, visit Beth's I Should Be Folding Laundry.

You Capture - Flowers

Beth's You Capture subject this week is flowers. I'm so glad to be back participating and it's a perfect week for me to return because when I started my flower beds years ago, I had one goal. Something must be blooming at all times so all my flower shots come from my own flower beds. And, just to prove that nothing's changed, I couldn't pick out just one or two and it wasn't because the pictures are so great - it was because the flowers are:

There they are. Peonies, hardy geraniums, and weigela - probably my all-time favorites.

For more Flowers (and who can get enough flowers), visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry and for more fun, link up!

You Capture - Flowers

I thought it was pretty clever of Beth to make her You Capture subject this week flowers now that the flowers are all gone for the season. She really does want us to get out there and work! But the joke was on me. All I had to do was look around and they were everywhere.

There were scads of wildflowers at Striebel Pond - sometimes I just had to look for them.

And sometimes they were right before my eyes.

Sometimes some of them were dead.

And sometimes all of them were dead but they were still flowers and there was a certain beauty to them.

There are still flowers blooming around my koi pond.

And I even found flowers at Beth's in her flower bed.

And in her house - flowers given to her by people who love her.

And these are always the sweetest flowers of all.

For more flowers, visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry but don't just visit. Show us the flowers that you found this week.

Back To Striebel Pond

I just can't stay away. In fact I don't want to and the fact that I committed to walking everyday ensures that I'll keep on visiting. I miss the Dunes. I really do. But Striebel Pond is so close and the paths are so paved and safe and clean and there's so much to see that it's hard to bypass it to walk somewhere else. If there's one drawback to Striebel, it's that it is getting so popular. It's unbelievable how many people take advantage of it. And you don't see just walkers. You see joggers and runners and bicyclists, and roller blade speed demons. There are mothers pushing strollers and pulling wagons and corraling children that want to run ahead or lag behind. There are old people (obviously), young people and just as many men as women. And then there are the dog walkers with dogs of every breed and every temperament.
Don't get me wrong. I think all of that is good and there's plenty of room on the course for lots of people but sometimes it can get a tiny bit complicated when someone is going almost your speed but not quite and you have to pass them and there's oncoming. You get the picture. Mostly though I love it. Everybody is friendly and everybody is nice. And several times people have stopped me because I'm carrying a camera to tell me of a photo op that they discovered. Here's the most recent and it's a good one.
Then I spotted the swans. Or was I spotted first.
After I saw him, I knew the rest were nearby. And I was right. They were just hanging unusually closet to the shore today.
The wild flowers that were sown around the pond are blooming like crazy right now. I took just a few shots and liked them all well enough that I'm going to include them.

And my favorite:
These last pictures of the swans weren't taken today but when I took them I was able to get above and unusually close to them so I wanted to share them eventually. Today feels like eventually to me.
So that's it from Striebel Pond today. Until next time, this is Stillmary (no matter how old I am) signing off and wishing you all a good day.