Daily Photo 2022: May 01-15
We definitely had April Showers! As expected, now we've moved onto May Flowers. If you stick around to the end of this florally-heavy entry, you'll get to see my Special Guest.
2022 May 01
This is clearly not a flower. It is the case for a set of coasters. They and their case are woven from plant matter, so I'm using that flimsy excuse to say it fits in with the floral theme of this post. In truth, I had not decided on the theme until the next day.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f22, 6 secs, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 02
In my SnapDash post for April 16-30, I included a photo of my mother's shamrock plant at night. The leaves are all folded in. During they day, they open to this lovely trefoil shape.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/125 sec, ISO 6400
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 03
William Wordsworth put it quite nicely:
"And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils"
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 6400
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 04
We interrupt this trot through May Flowers for a different annual event: Burger Week. Every year, many restaurants in Halifax prepare a special (and typically flamboyant) hamburger to compete in Burger Week. Some of the proceeds from each sale are donated to Feed Nova Scotia, the association of food banks in the province. This particular specimen has pockets of macaroni and cheese above the hamburger patty, and two onion rings below.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO 6400
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 05
This flower is very, very small. In myth, Hyacinth is a lover of Apollo who dies during a game of washer-toss; a beautiful plant springs from his death-site. Interestingly enough, the pretty flower is now thought to actually be a larkspur, rather than what we know as a hyacinth. Bearing in mind how bad I am at identifying plants, it's quite likely this photo of a "hyacinth" is also another flower entirely.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f4, 1/400 sec, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 06
We're still in the realm of very small flowers, though these ones are slightly larger than the last. They form part of a pretty bouquet.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f4, 1/60 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
Roses are red,
A difficult hue.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO 6400
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 08
Sending bouquets in the mail has always been a process fraught with flattened flowers and angry post officials. Some bright person figured out how to do it properly, though. As a bonus, this cute arrangement my mother received does not need any watering.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 2000
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 09
We've gone past tiny flowers and veered far into the other end. I suppose some might argue the semantics of calling this tree a flower, but it will have to do. I took a huge amount of photos in the first half of May 2022 - over 250! - but my choices for the ninth were this, a pillow, or a chicken pot pie. This strikes me as the most floral.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 10
This shot is really my kind of photograph. There's a soft sunset back in the bokeh, and an interesting pair of plants to look at in full focus. All the same, it doesn't exactly show off the great coming-to-life that is Springtime.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f5, 1/1600 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 11
To help the insects, especially the pollinators, there's a push on for no-mow-May. That appeals to my lazy nature; to me, mowing the lawn ranks right up there with shovelling snow as Sisyphean efforts at trying to overrule the natural order.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f4, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 13
...And we're back to a very small flower. As best I can tell, this is some relative of a strawberry. I think of strawberries as coming in a bush, though, and these are more of a ground cover. If I weren't fully supporting no-mow-May, these little guys would probably survive on account of being lower than a mower's blade-level.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f22, 1/60 sec, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 14
[In an Australian accent]
'Aloe there, mate!
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/80 sec, ISO 6400
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 15
Canada is quite tight with the USA, given that we share an economy and all. We work closely with the UK and France, our former colonial homelands. Thanks to a more recent connection, though, one of Canada's best friends is the Netherlands. We may have temporarily ceded some hospital land so Princess Margriet could be legally born in Holland, but we still cling to her as "Canada's Princess". She still sends us flowers in thanks for Canada's assistance during World War II. Even when they don't come as part of an international gift, Canadians are kinda obsessed with planting tulips in memory and celebration of our bond with The Netherlands.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 500
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 May 12
I mentioned at the very beginning of this post that I'd share a portrait of a special guest. I spent a week working remotely from Antigonish. One day, I glanced out my window to see a large bumble bee. It flew off toward my shed. There, sunning on the shed stoop was a whistlepig! The marmot enjoyed the warmth for a while before returning to a den beneath the shed. Later in the afternoon I looked out and the groundhog was back, this time standing up to survey the yard. We locked eyes, and perhaps both of us thought, "What are you doing in my house?"
