star chickweed

star chickweed

Th hayfield behind our house is getting tall. I spend a lot of time around the edges shooting dragons and damsels, butterflies, and  so many kinds of wildflowers I can’t list them all.  I will do them  as the  bloom. Right now, this tiny flower is prominent, along with several colors of clover, and buttercups. I shot through the grass in the photo below just to show thick the flowers were.

starchickweed

just to the right of the front door…

maine landscaping

One of my friends up the coast has an old farmhouse overlooking the water, up the Maine coast. She and her husband have beautiful flower and vegetables gardens all around the house. Going in though, I always stop to check out this stunning bank of  ferns, just to the right of the front door. They compliment the silvery old wood, and are a perfect place for toads and chipmunks. A delight to the eyes!

old barns

door

My husband and I drove up north in Maine this weekend.
I like to look for old barns on the back roads as we travel.
Here are a couple with nice details. Note the door on the white barn.
They have been highlighted with the watercolor filter in PSE 9.

window

solomons’ seal in the rain

solomon's seal 5-9

I took the shot above on the 9th of May.
We were having a misty rain that day, as we have had many days this month.
Today, on the 25th, when I took the second and third photo, a shower had just passed.

solomon's seal

Is this the Solomon’s Seal listed in wildflowers books?
These photos were taken at my neighbors,
and I really don’t know where she got her plants.
If this is the wildflower, I have never seen it in the woods here.
The plants are nearly 30 inches tall this spring.

solomon's seal leaves

mystery damselfly—- update,maybe an eastern fork tail

damseldamselfly sideview

This is the first damselfly that I have photographed this year, and it is a tiny one. It is not even an inch and half long. I couldn’t find it  in my small Stokes guide, and describing on google hasn’t worked. If you know what it is, please let me know. The body is bronze tone. It seemed a bit metallic in the light, but that doesn’t show up that well in the photo.

Please click the photos to see them larger on my Flickr site.

damselfly face

trail along the kennebec river in Augusta, Maine

trail

My mother in law lives in the historic area of Augusta, Maine, right on the river, and just across from Old Fort Western. She has been telling me about the trail she walks along the river, and this past Sunday, I took my camera for a stroll down the river.

First of all, the trail was really nice. Second, I saw lots of birds in the trees and on the bank. Butterflies and wildflowers, too! It was a wonderful place. The osprey was hunting over the river, as were eagles, but I didn’t get close enough for a photo of them. The redstart was in the trees along the trail, and the yellow warbler perched just below me in a dead tree, while I was shooting off the Calumet Bridge. It is a great place to go, if you like bird watching in a gentle setting.

pink lady’s slippers in maine

Pink Moccasin Flower
Cypripedium acaule
Orchid family

first lady slipper

I am spotting the first pink lady slippers this week. The one above was easy to find. It was growing out in the sun in the old roadway behind our house. The one below was almost invisible beneath some high bush blueberry plants. I had to get down and shoot from the ground to photograph it. We have many shades of pink, and sometimes pure white, but so far, I have never seen a yellow one, here in our woods.

second lady slipper