Honeybees & Spring Blossoms

April 16, 2018April 16, 2018 | Allison

Hello, dears! I was hoping to do a “Recent Art” post or maybe a post about the old letters, but unfortunately I don’t have enough time (or Wi-Fi) for either. But don’t worry, hopefully those will be next! Until then, I have some more spring-y pictures for you! I absolutely LOVE this photoshoot and I hope you will too. 🙂

There are a ton of redbuds at our new farm and the surrounding country. Sometimes the side of the woods looks pink with all the blossoms! We also have two gorgeous redbuds in the yard of the big house and the one especially just looked perfect this year… maybe it usually does? But this is the first year I’ve seen it, and it’s gorgeous. ❤

AHHH IT’S SO PRETTY.

I got a few pictures with my macro lens. This one is one of my favorites from the whole shoot!

It’s neat to see how complex the tiny blooms are close up.

The look kind of like slippers with huge bows on top or something. XD

There were absolutely a ton of bees buzzing around the blossoms, which was a bit, um, scary, especially when I used my macro lens and stuck my camera inches away from my subject. O.o But no worries, I didn’t get stung. 🙂 I think they were too focused on the nectar.

Their wings are so delicate!

Heh heh, this guy looked a lot less delicate than the rest of the bees.

You can see the pollen sac super well in this one.

I don’t know why there’s a spot in the middle of its “fur,” but I thought it was interesting.

I love how you can see the bee getting ready to land in this one!

The 50mm lens I have makes such amazing bokeh. ❤

I tried to crop this, but it ruined the nice composition, so I didn’t after all. Oh well. 🙂

And we’ll end with these two pictures. I don’t know WHAT happened with this photo, but I think it looks kind of neat? Too bad I didn’t get a clearer picture of the bird, though.

Ahh, so pretty, don’t you think? ❤ I can’t WAIT to move in!

And that’s all for now! Thanks for reading, dears, and I hope you enjoyed the photos! Do you have redbuds or other blooming trees where you live? What’s your favorite part about spring?

***Allison***

P. S. Speaking of photography, you guys should check out Kalea’s blog! She has some beautiful spring photography on there as well as a review of the macro lens I used for part of this post. 🙂 (Also if you’d like to see my macro lens review, click here.)

Beautiful Things {Part 2}

April 12, 2017April 12, 2017 | Allison

I’m really excited to show you guys this edition of “Beautiful Things”!” 🙂 Today I have a bunch of pictures of little beauties, like spring flowers and grass. Little things are probably my favorite photography subjects.

DSC_1129 (1280x853) — Yes, I know henbit is a weed, but I still think it’s pretty when it’s all crowded together in a sea of purple!

DSC_1137 (1280x853) — Side note: we were studying weeds today for Nature Study, and we found and identified eighteen different kinds on our short walk! O.o

tag (1) (1280x853) — OOH I LOVE THIS ONE! I like how dark and dramatic it is. The manual settings on my camera were a bit off, but it turned out neat that way.

tag (4) (1280x853) — I found a lot of these next flowers at the arboretum.

tag (7) (1280x853) — I love these purple flowers! Purple is a wonderful color, don’t you agree? 😀

tag (6) (1280x853) — I always like seeing bees up close in photographs like this.

tag (10) (1280x853) — Such a lovely sunny picture!

DSC_1542 (1280x853) — One of our friends found this extremely odd-looking dandelion when we were on our Nature Walk today. Yes, all of those dandelion heads are on that one huge stem! (Although the stem got kind of split and smushed…)

tag (13) (1280x853) — Warning: I may hyperventilate about these next few photos just a bit…

tag (14) (1280x853) — AHH I LOVE DEW DROPS!

tag (15) (1280x853) — AHH THEY MAKE ME SO HAPPY!

tag (16) (1280x853) — I DON’T KNOW WHY BUT THEY REALLY DO!

tag (17) (1280x853) — Ohhh this one might be my favorite. I took these pictures just after a rain when we were walking down to our pond to try to find the muskrat that lives there. (Unfortunately, we only caught a glimpse of him. 😦 )

tag (18) (1280x853) — The phlox in our flowerbed and everyone else’s is simply breathtaking! They’re so brilliant and colorful!

That’s all for now, folks! At least I’ve made a dent in my pictures… but only a dent. It’s spring, so of course I can’t keep up! Whenever I post 10 pictures I take 20 more. XD

What do you think of my “Beautiful Things” series so far? Which was your favorite picture? DO YOU LOVE DEW DROPS TOO?! (*Ahem,* sorry.)

***Allison***

Lady-Slipper Hike

May 15, 2016 | Allison

The title sounds rather strange, but don’t worry: the hike wasn’t actually littered with lady’s shoes, it just had some lady’s slippers flowers along it. Okay good, we got that cleared up. 🙂

Of course I took many pictures when we went on the aforementioned trail with my aunt, who kindly offered to show us the lady slippers.

When we first got to the path, there were about twenty butterflies – mostly tiger swallowtails – sitting all in a clump, maybe eating or drinking something. We didn’t even notice them until we walked right up to them and they exploded and flew away. It was AMAZING to see! Since I didn’t know they were there the first time, I didn’t get pictures then, but later we waited for the butterflies to come back and a few did. But only a few – not nearly as many as we had scared off before. Oh well, at least I got pictures of those few!

This is a bee on a lupine flower. In the second picture you can sort of see the bee’s proboscis… I think.

Pretty lupine leaf…

And the stars of the hike – I present the lovely ladies’ slippers. 🙂 (Click on any picture in the collage to enlarge it.)

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Spring + Hike + Camera = Flower Pictures

I like the shape of these leaves.

I edited this picture to make it look more like a fairy hotel. Isn’t it magical-ish? XD

We found this weird but pretty metallic green beetle.

And last, a simple picture of forest floor.

I hope you enjoyed the virtual walk! It was quite fun, and it was easy hiking compared to the trails I went on for my birthday, but… that’s a post for another day. 😀 Which was your favorite picture?

***Allison***

P. S. You know that riddle that I asked you a long time ago about what word has all five vowels in it? Lots of you actually came up with answers that fit the riddle, but none of you thought of the word I was thinking of! (I guess it wasn’t a very good riddle if it had so many answers. Oh well, it was fun!) The word I was thinking of was… sequoia! In case you don’t know, a sequoia is a type of tree that grows to be ginormously tall – kind of like a redwood. And with that, I leave you. 🙂

BIBPC #2: Praying Mantis’ Feast (and Other Critters)

April 20, 2016April 20, 2016 | Allison

Hi, guys! I’m participating in my sister Megan’s fun photo contest, BIBPC. (Read about it here.) The second prompt was “critters,” meaning animals like insects, frogs, etc. I collected several fun critter photos, but I can only enter one. 😦 😉 So I decided to show you the one I’m entering, and the other ones I wish I could enter too! 😀

I’m entering the first of these pictures, and the second one is just a bonus. 🙂

Isn’t it neat? And super gross?! XD

Story behind the picture: I took this photo a couple of years ago in September 2014. These particular pictures are actually still photos from a video I took. (You can see it here on my YouTube channel. I’m afraid the video is a bit jerky. Hold on tight! 😛 ) One day right outside our porch I saw this amazing and gross scene on one of our chrysanthemum bushes: a praying mantis was sitting there, calmly eating a bumblebee! I was so excited to get to see that! It seems like the bee would have killed the praying mantis first by stinging it, but apparently not.

So, Megan, since I have two critters in the picture I get double the points, right? No? Aww, shucks. XD

Now here are the ‘reject’ pictures. Poor lil’ guys. Don’t worry, I like you too! 😀

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Spring peeper: so cute and tiny!

Cicada (from this post)

Honeybees (from this post)

And I believe this is a bullfrog. I was almost going to enter him in, but I thought maybe a frog was too normal. (More normal than a praying mantis eating a bumblebee anyway. 🙂 )

His eyes were so pretty!

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Which picture was your favorite?

***Allison***

Quote Edits

February 20, 2016February 22, 2016 | Allison

I’ve been using this great photo-editing site (PicMonkey) to make quote edits recently. It is SO much fun! PicMonkey has some great fonts, but my sister told me about another website (1,001 Free Fonts), that has gazillions more free fonts, so I also used some of those.

All of these edits were made by me, from pictures taken and edited by me. The quotes are either verses from the Bible, quotes from Pinterest, or part of the lyrics songs or hymns.

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#1. This is one of my favorites of the edits I made. When the world is storm-tossed all around you, cling to the Rock that stands strong above the storm.

#2. Stop and smell the roses – take time to enjoy the little pleasures around you. (Picture from this photoshoot.)

#3. I love this verse, and the ones that go with it. Why should we worry when God holds all of creation in his hand? The third and fourth edit are consecutive verses, so they go together.

#4. (Picture from this post.)

#5. Always look on the bright side. Find the blessings in disguise.

#6. Kind words are as pleasing as honey. Or more so! (This picture was from my “Bee Tree” post.)

#7. From the Doxology…

#8. Great things can come from small deeds.

#9. From the song “Waterfall,” by Chris Tomlin.

#10. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord who made the whole wide world.

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I hope you enjoyed reading those quotes – I enjoyed making them! Which was your favorite?

A lot of those pictures came from a big Western trip my family made in 2013 – some more of those pictures may show up in a “Photos from of Old” post. 🙂

***Allison***

P. S. The first WordCrafters story is finally finished! (At almost 10,000 words o.O :D) You can read it here. It’s a wonderful story – thank you SO much everyone, for participating!!

P. P. S. I know I haven’t been posting much about Farm Life, but the fact is, not many post-worthy farm things happen in winter. I suppose you’ll have to make do with photoshoots and stories and tutorials until spring. 🙂 There’s a clay tutorial coming up soon!

2015, Award, News + Lots of Photos!

December 31, 2015December 31, 2015 | Allison

Happy New Year! Okay, get ready for a long post, because today I will be reviewing my 2015 bloggy year, doing an award, and telling you one of my New Year’s resolutions. Ready? First up, my blog year – it was a great year, and a HUGE year, at least compared to last year. Taking into account the fact that I only blogged 7 months last year instead of 12 this year, still, the stats increased A LOT. And thanks to all of you, I now have almost 60 followers! SQUEEEE! 😀 😀 Here are the yearly stats for this year and last year:

Last year (in orange)

This year (in orange)

And here is the little WordPress year in review thingy they sent me:

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,500 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 58 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

Now for the award. I don’t usually do awards, but I decided to do this one because it wasn’t just random questions, and I thought it was interesting to see when other people did this. So… I was nominated by Genna and Mercer Creative. Thank you so much!

1. Thank the person that nominated you
2. Start a blog post and answer the questions below
3. Add 1-3 of your Favorite\Best blog photos
4. Nominate up to ten people

1. How long have you had a blog?
I started this blog in May of 2014, so I’ve had it for about a year and a half.

2. Why did you start blogging?
I kind of forget, but I think it was probably because my sister started with her school program, and it made me want to start a blog too.

3. Do you like photography?
I love photography! 😀

4. Did you start your blog on your own?
Yep. Well, my sister and mom helped me.

5. Why do you like these photos so much?
It was kind of hard to choose just 3 of my favorites, so since it’s a review of 2015 anyway, I’m just going to do some of my favorite photo pictures and posts from 2015. XD

I think one of my all time favorite posts was this dandelion post. Here’s a picture from it:

I just love how crystal clear and beautiful the pictures turned out. I also love this Lily (The Flower) post – I love dewdrops!

A few of my favorite bunny posts are this funny bunny post, these two Lily (the rabbit) posts here and here,

and this Christmas post from the bunnies. Because they are just so CUTE!

My favorite other pet post might be this Joy the kitten post. I like the angle of this photo, and Joy was just adorable!

Here are some other pictures I really like that I took in 2015, and a few from 2014, which are captioned “2014.”

Whew! That was a lot of pictures! I nominate Hayley from Flourishing By Restful Falls for the award.

OK. Now for one of my New Years’ Resolution (the news part of the title). I want to start an Etsy shop! I’m going to be selling things I make online there, including polymer clay animals and other polymer clay things, and maybe stuffed animals like this one. But I need more ideas! I would greatly appreciate any suggestions with what you would like me to make that you would buy. If you need some ideas from what I’ve already made, click on the category “My Creations” on my category cloud on my blog sidebar. Thank you!

So, that’s it! Thanks so much for a great bloggy year, readers!

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

***Allison***

P. S. See you next year!

Macro Chicory

September 14, 2015September 14, 2015 | Allison

Chicory is one of my favorite wildflowers. I love it’s periwinkle blue color, and it’s simple but beautiful petals. Once I took some macro photos of chicory (or rather I cropped them so they were macro), and it’s fascinating what they look like up close. Here is a close-up one to start with:

And here are some macro pictures. The last one looks kind of odd, but it’s a picture nonetheless.

And I’ll throw in a bonus picture just for kicks. 🙂 Can anyone guess what flower the little bee (or whatever it is) is on?

***Allison***

Bee Tree

May 17, 2015February 14, 2016 | Allison

So from the poll results in my last post, I should either keep doing my blog the same or do more crafts. Unfortunately, no craft tutorials can be found currently in my brain, so I’ll stick with “keep doing it how you are” for this post. 🙂 Which means… you get to see pictures of a bee tree! I was so excited when we saw this fallen tree in a woods on our farm with bees swarming around it – and honeycomb inside! Here she is!

What amazing little creatures God created! You could almost call them cute, but definitely fascinating.

What is your favorite insect?

***Allison***

Creatures and Critters

September 24, 2014March 14, 2016 | Allison

Here are some pictures of a few of the creatures and critters around our farm.

A green frog (we are actually keeping her in a terrarium in our house)

An orb weaver spider – see the zigzag in her web?

A bumblebee

A monarch – Did you know you can tell if it’s a monarch or a viceroy by checking if it has a black band across its bottom wings? If it doesn’t have the band, it’s a monarch, if it does, it’s a viceroy. This is a monarch – no black band.