That Jolie Girl

Barry's New Crop

This weekend I harvested Barry's new crop of mandarin oranges.  This is the third time that Barry has produced fruit.   Each time there has been one more orange than last time.  I don't know how Barry does it because he is still very little.  He sort of makes you think of Charlie Brown's Christmas tree.  The fruit hangs off of his branches which look like they will snap under the weight, but never do.   He also doesn't have too many leaves as you can see in the picture below.

Here is his entire crop after the harvest.   

Ladybug

I was outside trying to take good pictures of the pendants I recently made.  The light wasn't cooperating with me at all.  I was starting to give up when I noticed this ladybug walking across my deck.  He didn't like me trying to take his picture and would run super fast.  I had a heck of a time trying to stay up with him.  I'm glad I did because I love these shots. 

Each picture has been cropped.  That's the only photo trick up my sleeve.   

Watching him cross the gaps in the deck was so amazing.  The gaps were as large as he was.  He had no trouble getting across.

The Pretty Ugly Tree

Every year for about two weeks, our house is the prettiest on the block.  That's due to this beautiful flowering tree.  The blooms are here for such a short time.   We are the only house on the block with a flowering tree.  The neighbors all have these huge gorgeous trees that provides lots of good shade in the summer.  At the end of the two weeks when all of the flowers are gone, this tree turns back to the ugly duckling; it's short and not very pretty.  But every spring it's just a joy to see it in bloom.

Flowers in bloom

Here are some pictures of flowers in my yard.  These first two are of from my budding lilac tree.  I love that you can still see the dew on the buds.  My camera is a Canon Powershot A630.  It's amazing what great detail I can get with it's built in macro lens.

Rosemary

Another cool feature my camera has is the ability to have one color shine through and the rest of the photograph be black and white.  I haven't used this feature a lot.  I like how my Winter Daphne and my Daffodils stand out in this effect.

Catepillar

This weekend was sunny and warm.  I got a chance to get out in the yard and do some much needed weeding.  While weeding, I came across this little guy.  It took several attempts to get a good picture of him since he's only about an inch long. 

I cropped these two pictures so I could get much better detail of the caterpillar. 

Harvesting Barry

Barry's fruit is finally ripe.  I didn't think the day would come, but now it was time to harvest his crop for the year.  He bore 3 fruit in all. 

Here I am picking the crop.  You can see how stick-like Barry is.  It's amazing that he was able to grew fruit at all.

I really like this composition.  Trilly looks bored in the background.

The fruit was tasty, but a bit sour.

I can't wait until next year's crop!

Barry Mandarin

My little Barry Mandarin is still growing and growing.  His little fruit should be ripening soon.  It's sort of funny, because Barry is the scariest looking little tree.  Very Charlie Brown Christmas.  He has about 30 leaves and he's 7 feet tall.  Still, he seems healthy enough to make fruit.  I did tie string around this branch to support the weight of the fruit.  It looked like it was going to snap off at any second. 

Doing the Dishes

My husband called while I was unloading the dishes.  When I got off the phone and returned to the kitchen, this is what I found.  Why Trilly would want to be in the dishwasher is beyond me. 

I would like to wish my sister a Happy Birthday!  I'm lucky to have such an amazing older sister.

Three Minutes with Atty

On Sunday I happened to have my camera handy.  This series of photos of Atty was taken in about 3 minutes.  Just a day in the life of my lazy cat.

Waking up

Bath time

Another yawn

More licking

Wrapped up bath time

Must sleep after being so active.

Barry's Babies

This isn't the best photo, because I was super sleepy this morning.  I did want to show how well Barry is doing.  He has two little mandarins growing right now.  There are a couple other tiny ones, but they don't seem to be growing much.  I do have high hopes for these two little guys.  It will definitely take a couple more months for them to get to full size and turn orange.  It's fun to watch them grow and to know that for once I actually have a plant that is thriving.  It's rare for me.  Maybe my thumb just turned a bit more green.