All Eyes And Ears

Croton

Sunlight through the leaves of a croton.

Blooms and Butterflies

The same two butterflies; their wings are brown (as above) on the outside and a beautiful blue on the inside.

Franklin Park Conservatory is having the 20th anniversary of their Blooms and Butterflies exhibit through September 28th.

Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake

I went for a sort of rustic look for my birthday cake. I think I just managed to hit “crappy-looking.” Fortunately, it’s for me and I’m not that picky. I’d love to step up my presentation game, though.

I may take the blueberry jam I used in both the batter and cream cheese frosting (along with lemon juice and zest in both) and swirl it along the top of the cake in the frosting.

Candy Apples

At the Ohio State Fair

The Return

Been an uneventful summer, partly cozy and rainy (making for bad photography) and partly, strangely beset by anxiety, keeping me from wanting to go out and shoot anyway.

I’ve taken up reading again after a long hiatus. Started another re-read of the Sherlocks in January or February. Just started The Return last night. It’s been slow as I’ve been reading other things at the same time, but I never give up on Sherlock.

Orchid Kokodama

Remember my post about the hanging string garden (“kokodama”)? The roots of the plant are wrapped in a ball of soil, then covered with moss and tied up with string to keep it together (and hang it too).

These are orchids done that way! The root balls are enormous. It has to take several staff members to arrange these.

Koi
The Koi in the ponds of the Conservatory are getting big.

Staghorn Ferns

There are huge and impressive Staghorns throughout the Conservatory.

Crassula argentea cv. Gollum

Silver Vase Bromeliad

(Again, sorry about the stupid datestamp.)

Franklin Park Conservatory Botanica Plant & Gift Shop

I love this little space where they sell lush, beautifully cared for plants. There’s a fountain behind the Buddha, so it’s basically my dream space - lots of plants, Buddhas, and a water feature. The new age store my best friend and I visited later has a similar area - fountains, Buddhas, tons of plants - but they demurred when I asked if I could take a picture, so I didn’t.

I haven’t posted much in part because my DSLR, lens, camera bag, etc. has seemed too unwieldy for me to want to get it out much - it’s a great setup and I’m lucky to have it, but I am getting tired of dragging it out, fussing with lenses, etc., and it’s just not practical to keep on me for shots I want to get while I’m out going about my life.

To that end, I’ve bought a small point and shoot to keep in my purse. I took it out for a spin today at the Conservatory, and while I’m overall pleased with it, it definitely proved that I need to download and read the manual.

Also, i stupidly set the time and date and turned the date stamp on, so the pictures I took today all have a big old date on them. Duh. So, sorry - there will be a few shots posted with it. try not to laugh too hard.

Strawberry Rose Champagne Oolong

From Teavana. Love the rosebuds.

Best Friend’s Christmas Gift

Finally done! I made the pattern, which is not something I do often, so i was glad it turned out to be doable.

A Little Bit of New Year’s Zen

The holidays are over, the cookies and candy nearly gone, the decorations put away (or soon to be) … the quiet calm of winter, and more ascetic lives, are ahead. I am looking forward to this time of year.