Monday, May 16, 2016

Dreamscope Fun

Frog picture enhanced with Dreamscope App.

Found a new online tool I've been having fun with.  It takes your uploaded photos and makes the changes using a wide variety of filters.  It's taken my garden, family and wildlife photos and given them a whole new appearance.  Here are a few samples:

Anole on bromeliad my picture before

Anole after dreamscope filter

Bard Owl Before

Bard Owl after Dreamscope

Bea before

Bea after

Cameron and Amber before

Cameron and Amber after

Canna Picasso before

Canna Picasso after

Bear before

Bear after

I find it a fun distraction while watching evening news or as something to do at the end of a busy day when you just want to have a simple distraction as you unwind. You can give it a try at Dreamscope  and give a whole new life to your photos.

Chickens before

Chickens after

Forbidden City, Beijing before

Forbidden City, Beijing after

Dahlia before

Dahlia after

Lauren, Hannah and Tarzan before

Lauren, Hannah and Tarzan after

Blue Heron before

Blue Heron after

Hibiscus before

Hibiscus after

Great White Egret before

Great White Egret after

Landscape before

Landscape after

Tractor before

Tractor after

Waterlilies befpre 

Waterlilies after

China Wall Mural before

China Wall Mural After

Tiger Eye Lilly before

Tiger Eye Lilly after

Cameron and Hannah Shanghai before

Cameron and Hannah Shanghai after

Have fun. SOOOOO many other filters to choose from for your unique photo creations!!




Friday, May 6, 2016

Bulbs in Bloom



Back in February on a particularly gloomy and cold day for Florida, the girls and I had some errands to run and one of our stops was at Walmart.  When we were there looking for some items on our list we saw the newly stocked shelves of bulbs and seeds for sale.  Looking at the beautiful flowers and plants made us long for their appearance in our yard.  So we loaded up a whole lot of them, then stopped by Home Depot to get the ingredients I needed to put together my potting mix and we began planting the bulbs in anticipation of Spring color and texture in our yard and garden areas.

Not part of our bulbs, but the apple was one of the first to flower

Another was the cranberry hibiscus

We bought a lot of perennials so we can look forward to more production over the years, as well as seeds for the annuals that we'll spread around each year to keep multiplying their appearance with pops of color.  It's exciting as we see the first fruits of our labor now appearing and adding to the established green that was already in the yard.  Until now we've primarily planted trees and plants with the idea of food production, With those doing well it's time to bring color and beneficial insect attracters into the yard.

One of the first bulbs to come up was this pretty daylilly they called "Dreamcicle"

This is one of the many incredible blooms on this Dahlia


I have many of these nice Dutch Iris springing up around the yard

The purple gladiolus are so showy

This Daylilly is called "Night Beacon"

I found a Guara on clearance at Lowes and here are some of its blossoms

The Hibiscus is showing its color as well

We'll continue to divide these plants as they mature and spread them throughout the yard and garden so that the whole yard will be a beautiful productive place to be.  Hope you enjoy some of the beauties that have already made their appearance.

Just LOVE these yellow calla lilies and their variegated leaves!

The Canna "Picasso" makes a bold statement flower 

The Echinacea is pretty and useful

This delicate pink Calla Lilly is lovely

The Tiger Eye Lilies are so pretty too.
I'm still waiting for many of the others to show up throughout the yard and in pots, but I've also been treated to my banana flowering and producing bananas.  This is also the first year my pineapple guava has flowered and I'm hoping for fruit on that too.  I have 10 pineapples producing and we already enjoyed some loquats from that tree.  It's a delight to see the color and now I'm looking forward to enjoying the fruits as well.

The banana flower when it first appeared.  Since this photo  was taken it has produced 6 hands of bananas and is still growing longer with more to come.

Pineapple Guava

One of the 10 pineapples that are beginning to grow

We've been busy with the garden, and are delighted to see the results.  Will share photos when I have more to show you.