Picture of the Day

[dragonlady7]

I think I need to start having a Picture of the Day. I know, I know, Dooce does it too, but I was just thinking, what a good idea. I often publish albums and the like, but there are always individual photos I really like that don't fit into the albums.
So, I think I might start posting a picture a day.

Downside: Means I need to redesign my blog so you can see the categories, and need to finally sort out my categories. Also, need to redesign my whole website. At the moment, people only read the blog on my livejournal mirror. But really, truly, honestly, when I'm posting, I'm posting to my MovableType blog, on my own personal site, with my own URL that I actually bought, and I always meant to do something with that space.

But anyway. I'm going to start posting pictures of the day. I went through my photo library and picked out 85 good ones just since I got the Canon. I might put up older ones, as well, but mostly I'm finding reasons to take pictures with the Canon.

I'm starting off today, with... Hm, so many to choose from. Well, I'll give one from Melrose, in honor of my parents coming to visit later today. Then I have to clean the house. Whoops!

click "more" for today's picture, which is a flower picture.

IMG_0670.JPG

These flowers are tied to the flagpole in front of the house in Melrose, NY. I didn't have to bend to stand under them; they're at least six feet tall.

Comments

[fafojoy.livejournal.com]

Hmm.....it looks like a Nelly Moser Clematis - do you know if that is waht it is? IF yes, they get much bigger there than here!

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's a clematis. My mom had a clematis for years, growing on the southern end of the east-facing kitchen porch, much to the disgust of her best friend who could simply not get a clematis to grow. (They're Zone 4.) But, inexplicably, mom's clematis died last year, which was sad but a little triumphant for her friend-- "I told you they don't grow here!"

Mom told me what it was but I've forgotten. They had very long straight stalks, and were tied upright to the flagpole, flopping over dramatically. I have a picture of the house and flagpole here (http://www.bridget.kelly.name/Pictures/PoD/PoD-Images/39.jpg) (another future picture of the day) that might show them better. Ehh... You can't really see them, tied to the pole directly in front of the door and flopping over sort of stiffly...
That front garden has been coming along-- there used to be a massive maple tree in it, a beautiful giant sugar maple, but it died, and then fell on the house one Christmas Eve, and they decided to replace it with just the flagpole, as those seldom knock off chimneys. (One by one over the course of about six years three giant sugar maples died and tried to fall on the house, but that was the only one that made it. There is one giant left, behind the house, that's been lightning-split sometime aeons ago, and is pondering making a break for the house-- but it's still healthy enough that we haven't taken it down. It must be a hundred years old.)
This is my parents' house, and my mom's style of gardening (plant it, let it grow 30 years, prune it, plant more-- there's 50 acres so you can always plant more and who cares if it's a little unruly?). it's hard for me to adjust to this house, which has NO trees on the property, whatsoever, and only two tiny little shrubs. I'm putting in bulbs for all I'm worth but I don't know a damn thing about gardening or landscaping, and am feeling very deprived without my greenery.
But at least I have a yard, which I didn't in the old place. :)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Mom to the rescue: Hollyhocks!
She described them as "old-fashioned"-- I guess people don't really grow them anymore. They're monsters, ten feet tall at the least-- i guess they like the front yard.
Shrug. I wish I knew more about plants, but I wish I knew more about a lot of things...