Asiatic Lily

Photograph taken on Friday, June 14, 2013 by Henry
Asiatic Lilies

Asiatic Lilies

I took a few more pictures of the Asiatic lilies this afternoon. We have them in containers as well as a few spots in our garden. Most of them and all the bright orange ones, came from my dad’s garden. They produce little bulbils or bulblets in the axils of the leaves. These bulbils can be planted and will grow into new plants identical to their parent. Cathy collected these from my dad’s lilies and put them in pots and now we have quite a few. I’m not sure you could have too many of them, they are so bright and cheerful.

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Severe Storm

Photograph taken on Thursday, June 13, 2013 by Henry
Raining Cats and Dogs

Raining Cats and Dogs

Downed Tree, Near Miss

Downed Tree, Near Miss

Since most of my followers are reasonably local, most of you probably already know of the severe storm we had here. For those of you seeing this from further afield (I know there are a few folks in Alaska and England, to name a few places) we had a small tornado touch down about a mile and a half from our house.

We had little or no damage to our trees. The cap blew off the top of our furnace chimney. That chimney isn’t actually used any more, so except for keeping water out, it’s not that bit a deal. There were a lot of trees down in the neighborhood, though. Around the corner the road was blocked and in the evening crews were working. Up at the end of a court a tree was down on a van, but thankfully no one was hurt. Our friends had a tree fall between their house and the neighbors’ house, doing only minimal damage and barely missing one of their cars. Yes, this one could have been a lot worse. To add great news to the good news of it missing their house and cars, it turns out the tree belongs to the county so they won’t even have to pay to cut it down.

Some people were not so fortunate, of course, and our prayers go out for them.

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Ivy Hand

Photograph taken on Wednesday, June 12, 2013 by Henry
My Hand with IV Tube

My Hand with IV Tube

Sort of unexpected turn of events. I had hernia surgery just over a month ago. It wasn’t healing well and seemed to be infected. I went to see the doctor yesterday and we decided he should get in and clean things up. So, I’m back in the O.R. to be reopened. Would have been better if he put a zipper in me so he didn’t have to use a knife this time, but that’s the way it goes. The nurses got a kick out of me taking pictures of the pre-op area and of my hand with an I.V. tube going into it. I didn’t know if I would feel up to taking pictures later in the day, so I figured I better get something done before they put me out. As it turned out, I didn’t take any more pictures, so you’re stuck with this one. The surgery went well and I’m home, recovering.

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James Imitating Jacob

Photograph taken on Tuesday, June 11, 2013 by Henry
James Imitating Jacob

James Imitating Jacob

I went to pick up Dorothy this evening and ran into a few old friends, some of whom I haven’t seen in a while. James was there with his grandmother and I took a few pictures of them. She was talking about her newest grandson, Jacob, and told James to show me what Jacob looks like. This is what he did.

Apparently Jacob was a bit of a crier at first but recently he has become interested in everything. He stares around with an amazed expression on his face similar to this one.

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Water On Lily Petals

Photograph taken on Monday, June 10, 2013 by Henry
Water on Asiatic Lily

Water on Asiatic Lily

Another View of The Lily

Another View of The Lily

I already posted a photo for June 10 but Dorothy didn’t like the one I selected, saying I should post this one instead. I’ve decided to post both, so there. I know I’ve said before that I like water droplets on flowers and plant leaves. Well, that’s what we’ve got here, obviously.

This is a little Asiatic lily that has water droplets on it. Pretty much orange, too. I do like the intense colors.

Update: Apparently I posted the wrong picture.

Dorothy thanked me for posting the picture of the water droplets on the petals of the Asiatic lily but said that wasn’t the picture she liked the most. So, I’ve added the photo that she liked best. I’m ambivalent, sometimes liking one and sometimes the other, so I’ll leave it at that. They are both quite intense, in terms of the orange color. Feel free to like whichever one best.

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Coral Bells

Photograph taken on Monday, June 10, 2013 by Henry
Heuchera

Heuchera

These are tiny little flowers that you normally don’t look at individually. In general they are seen as a small amount of color above a mound of foliage. If there are a lot of Heuchera (coral bells) planted together then the flowers can create a sort of pink mist above the leaves, which is particularly nice.

I know a neighborhood entrance not too far from here where that’s been done and it’s quite lovely right now. This particular plant is by itself, so there are just a few stems of tiny pink flowers. Still, it’s nice.

This part of our garden has come a long way in not quite seven years. It was entirely filled with pachysandra and there’s still plenty of that, but there are a half dozen nice ferns of different sorts coming up through it, some lily of the valley, a few astilbe and spiderwort, and various other things that add up to significant variety. I think more ferns wouldn’t go amiss, but it’s nice to have a little color besides green, now and then.

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Small Bee

Photograph taken on Sunday, June 09, 2013 by Henry
Small Bee

Small Bee

I’m not sure what sort of bee this is. They seem to be fairly common. It’s hard to tell scale from this picture but the bee is not more than 10mm long and possibly a little less than that. It moved from flower to flower fairly quickly so it was a fair job keeping up with it but I managed to get a few that are probably good enough for someone who knows these things to identify it. If I get a name, I’ll update the post.

Update: The good folks at BugGuide.net have identified this as being in the genus Ceratina, the small carpenter bees.

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WCA Graduation

Photograph taken on Saturday, June 08, 2013 by Henry
WCA Class of 2013

WCA Class of 2013

Our second graduation of the day was at Dorothy’s school, Washington Christian Academy. Because it’s a relatively small school, and because Dorothy is only one year behind these folks, we know most of the graduating class. Rather than post a picture of any one or even any small group of them, I figure I should post something with everyone in it, even if you cannot see their faces. For those of you who follow me via Facebook, I’ll be posting a few pictures there when I get the chance, but for now, here’s a celebratory moment.

Congratulations to Edna, Danielle, Michelle, Michael, Jeff, Reed, Carrie, Jessica, Greg, Rebekah, Libby, Abigail, Erin, Hannah, Madison, Rachael, Lidia, Jake, Lauren, Alex, Connor, Nick, Joe, Jason, Lauren, Dillon, Toni, Amanda, Tyler, Kyle, and Justin.

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Maria’s Graduation

Photograph taken on Saturday, June 08, 2013 by Henry
Jean, Maria, and Buck

Jean, Maria, and Buck

We went to two graduation ceremonies today. The first was in Fairfax and was for our friend Maria, shown here with her parents, Jean and Buck. It seems like only yesterday that she was just a little girl and now she’s a beautiful young lady, off to college in the fall. Congratulations, Maria, we are very proud of you, and I know your family is, too. Sorry we couldn’t stay for your party, but we had a second graduation to go to.

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Forever Blowing Bubbles

Photograph taken on Friday, June 07, 2013 by Henry
Hannah Blowing Bubbles

Hannah Blowing Bubbles

We spent an enjoyable evening having dinner in our friends’ barn. It was a really nice time of being with old friends as well as making some new. Dorothy’s friend, Hannah came with us and towards the end of the evening she enjoyed blowing bubbles. This picture has been modified slightly (but only slightly), but it’s how I saw what she was doing. So, think of this as an impressionistic view of Hannah blowing bubbles.

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Rose Bushes

Photograph taken on Thursday, June 06, 2013 by Henry
Rose ‘New Dawn’

Rose ‘New Dawn’

Most of our roses have finished their first big bloom of the year. There will be roses on many of them off and on throughout the summer but never anything to compare with this first flush of flowers. The exception is ‘New Dawn’, which is just coming into full bloom. It’s on the back fence behind a big rugosa (‘Roseraie de l’Hay’) and to the right of the pink flowering multiflora, which is done for the year. It’s also behind my vegetable garden, which only has sorrel and onions in it right now.

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Cleared For Takeoff

Photograph taken on Wednesday, June 05, 2013 by Henry
Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Cathy and I went for a walk this afternoon and as I was waiting for her I noticed there was a great blue heron in the pond between our buildings. I took a few pictures of it standing in the water but knew that as soon as I tried to get any closer it would take off. So, instead of trying to get closer, I got ready for its take off and asked Cathy to walk a little towards the water. I’m often unhappy with pictures i get of herons taking off, usually because I don’t get them at the right moment. This one turned out pretty well.

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Ellis Island Experience

Photograph taken on Tuesday, June 04, 2013 by Henry
Collyn's Second Grade Class

Collyn’s Second Grade Class

Every year the second grade class at our school learns about immigration in the early part of the 20th century. The culmination of their lessons on this is their half-day Ellis Island Experience. They spend most of the morning in a hot, dark, and cramped ship (made of desks in their classroom with the heat turned on). There are various activities during that time but I’m not a part of that so don’t know exactly what. Each student has been given an identity and the history of an immigrant. They are dressed for their roles and have bags with all their earthly belongings.

At about 11:00 AM they arrive at “Ellis Island” and have to face first the medical inspector and then the immigration officer (that’s me). If they are found well enough by the medical inspector and if everything else is in order, they are allowed to enter the united states. In this case the quota for immigrants from Ireland had already been reached and I had to send the Flanagan family home to Ireland. The three boys in the class were not happy about not being able to enter America and they learned first hand why Ellis Island is sometimes known as the Island of Tears.

This photo is the class (including the boys) back on the boat after they were all done, “coming to america.”

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A Little Rain

Photograph taken on Monday, June 03, 2013 by Henry
Rain On My Window

Rain On My Window

We had a bit of rain today. I hadn’t realized it was coming because my desk is situated so that I’m facing away from my window most of the time. I also have a fan running most of the time because it’s always pretty hot in my office. A particularly strong gust of wind blew the rain against the window loudly enough that I noticed, so I pulled out the camera and took a few pictures. Rain on a window isn’t all that interesting, I suppose, but it represents today pretty well. If you happen to like water on glass, as I do, then you might enjoy the work of this painter. I have to keep reminding myself that these are oil paintings, not photographs. http://www.gregorythielker.com/Under/unmindingsky.html

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Piano Recital

Photograph taken on Sunday, June 02, 2013 by Henry
Piano Recital

Piano Recital

Dorothy had her annual piano recital this afternoon and we enjoyed listening to her play. Her good friend Julia also takes piano lessons from Rhonda and she was right after Dorothy. Actually, I enjoyed all the performers. I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting older, or what, but I find it easier and easier each year to enjoy the music of all levels and not wish it would just end. Well done, everyone. We had a special treat this year. One student, the boy on the right in this photograph, played his piano pieces and then he played a duet with his teacher with her on the piano and him on the clarinet. That was lovely.

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Preston / Hoberman Sphere

Photograph taken on Saturday, June 01, 2013 by Henry
Preston / Hoberman Sphere

Preston / Hoberman Sphere

We had a group of folks over this evening, including young Henry, whose photograph has been featured here a few times. We got out some toys for him and the older kids enjoyed showing him this Hoberman sphere. He wasn’t so sure he wanted anything to do with it. Preston, on the other hand, thought it was a lot of fun wearing it on his head.

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Julia’s Graduation

Photograph taken on Friday, May 31, 2013 by Henry
Karen, Bob, Julia, Dorothy, Maureen, Stephen, and Kadie

Karen, Bob, Julia, Dorothy, Maureen, Stephen, and Kadie

Two days ago I showed you Julia’s ceiling. Today, you get Julia and her family (plus a few). We enjoyed the graduation ceremony and are very proud of Julia as she moves into the next phase of her educational career. We’ll miss seeing her quite so often but swill look forward to her visits all the more for her absence.

Well done, Julia. Thanks to you and your family for your love and friendship.

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Misty Mountain Song

Photograph taken on Thursday, May 30, 2013 by Henry
Justin, Judah, Maggie, Michelle, Dorothy, and Lee

Justin, Judah, Maggie, Michelle, Dorothy, and Lee

I little short of two weeks ago, the Music Guild at school performed at an event at the school. Dorothy sang three songs in that performance. The first two were sung solo but the third as as part of a group. They sang The Misty Mountain Song from The Hobbit.

The group was asked to sing it again this evening at the middle school band concert, as representatives of the Music Guild. Six of the seven from their first performance were there and are in today’s photograph. From left they are Justin, Judah, Maggie, Michelle, Dorothy, and Lee.

They were practicing in the stairwell and the might have done better to have the audience come into the stairwell to hear them perform. The reverberations from the hard masonry walls produced a very impressive sound. I recorded them once in the stairs and as well as their performance in the auditorium. I think the former was better than the later.

I was listening to various version of the song on YouTube and can recommend this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OiYDUEu3i8.

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Admiring Julia’s Ceiling

Photograph taken on Wednesday, May 29, 2013 by Henry
Hannah Admires Julia's Ceiling

Hannah Admires Julia’s Ceiling

We have some pretty artistically talented friends and Julia is one of them. She has a particularly beautiful singing voice, she plans the piano and guitar, and she is pretty handy with a pencil and paper (as well as other media). I’m not going to try to illustrate her musical ability here, but instead will pay silent homage to her drawing skills.

The ceiling over her bunk is decorated with sketches and this picture shows another talented friend, Hannah, admiring them. I have enjoyed watching her skills mature as she has grown into a beautiful young lady. I look forward to watching the next phase of her journey, as she heads off to college in the fall.

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Dorothy Rose

Photograph taken on Tuesday, May 28, 2013 by Henry
Dorothy Rose

Dorothy Rose

Well, we’ve had a lot of rose pictures so to ease us back into the non-rose world, I thought I’d post a picture of Dorothy Rose. Actually, I’m mainly posting this because it is one of only six pictures I took today.

On Sunday I passed photo number 60,000 with this camera. As you probably know, I’ve been taking a picture every day since four days after I got my current camera. As of today I’ve taken 60,045 photos in 886 days and I’ve gone 882 consecutive days taking a picture. That’s an average of just about 68 photos per day. Obviously some days I take a lot more than that. Other days, like today, I take only a handful.

As you might expect, I have almost certainly taken more pictures of Dorothy than of anyone else. Dorothy and her friends are fairly common as subjects of mine.

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