Category: Finger Lakes Region of New York State

Peppermint Drops

Left for us by Pam’s Father

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Pam’s father planted this rose on the east side where it is warmed wintertime by several hours of morning light when the sun is out. Extra attention is needed for watering as the roots are under a bay window and an awning.

1/6 second at F16, ISO 200

It is a miniature rose, the blooms about 1.5 inch across, this and the irregular red and white coloring reminds me of peppermint candies, so we call it our peppermint rose (not to be confused with the “Peppermint Rose” branded doll). The descent from wild rose is clear in the simplicity of the form. The number of flower petals identify it as a hybrid “modern rose: there are many more than five (5) petals of the wild rose.

1/4 second at F16, ISO 200

These photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr and the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens with a “BeFree” Manfrotto tripod with ball head. f-stop was tamped down to the maximum, f16 for this lens. In spite of the light intermittent breezes I chose ISO 200. The combination of f-stop and low ISO resulted in a longer exposure that I worked around by waiting for the blooms to settle down between the breezes.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

First Bloom

“Princess of the Night” one evening

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Our Night Blooming Cereus spent this winter on a stand on an eastern facing window. The day after Memorial Day it is back to the poolside rain barrel where, looking up from swimming laps June 12th, I spied the first bloom of the season.

Click pic for larger view in a new browser tab. If you are in WordPress Reader, open the post to use this feature.

I am sure it opened during the day.

I am grateful for the unexpected pleasure.

Photographs are from the Apple IPhone 7, flash enabled.

Click me for another Cereus Post.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Birds Around the Weigela

an exceptional bloom for our backyard wonder

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Sad to say, today, Sunday June 12th, the flowering bush is spent, the blooms withered and falling. Pam took time to document some visitors while the Weigela was in its glory. This is a sample of the species we enjoy while washing the dishes.

Grackle
Blue Jay
Red Bellied Woodpecker
We also have Downy, Hairy and Pileated Woodpeckers
The name “Red Bellied” is a mystery to me.
Male Cardinal
Dove and female Cardinal
Mourning Dove
We have a huge dove population, supported by our feeder.

These photographs were taken by Pam through our windows with her Iphone 8 plus.

Here is a series of informative signs from Cass Park, just down the hill on the Cayuga Lake Inlet. Pictured are resident birds, most of them visited our backyard feeder.

Click me to find background information on our Weigela bush.

Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Betty Boop

These photos feature Floribunda and double cluster roses captured on a June evening. Various stages of bloom were photographed.

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These Floribunda, semi-double petaled blooms were captured along with the yellow double cluster roses of the previous post, in the evening shade of a late spring day, June 23rd.

ISO 800, 1/13 sec at f/16

Above is a mix of just opened (the dark red, center bottom), fully opened new (just to right of center) and aging (all the rest).

ISO 800, 1/30 sec at f/16

Throughout this set I used the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr with the EF 50 mm f/1.2L USM stabilized with a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head.

Floribundas, sometimes called cluster flowered roses, originated with Poulsen’s nursery in Denmark from crossed with Hybrid Teas with Polyantha Roses, themselves crosses between dwarf Chinas and a dwarf, repeat-flowering form of R. multiflora. Texas-based rose hybridizer Tom Carruth released Betty Boop in 1999, naming it after a cartoon character from the 1930’s. Pam found this plant around 2008 offered by the K-mart store in Cortland. She is amazed by the beauty of the Betty Boops.

Another beloved characteristic is the longevity of the blooms. Pam collected and arranged this vase last week, for Father’s Day. I provided the setting. In this controlled environment the low ISO provides better colors and contrast with minimal digital noise.

ISO 100, 2.5 sec at f/16.
References

“The Botanical Garden” Vol 1, Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Firefly Books, Buffalo, N.Y. 2002 pp 228 – 233.

Wikipedia search for “Betty Boop rose” and ” Tom Carruth rose.”

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Lemon Yellow

With us since ancient times

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Enjoyed since ancient times throughout the Middle East and China, our European roses were cultivated from Chinese introduced in the late 18th Century. One evening this June, unusually quiet with no breeze, Pam asked me to photograph this tall shrub in full bloom. These are protected from grazing deer by a stout fence, six feet tall.

ISO 800, 1/40 sec at f/16

At first it appears the blooms are a mix of colors from lemon yellow to cream.

ISO 800, 1/40 sec at f / 16

The variation is an indication of each bloom’s age since opening. At first each opens to a lemon yellow. Here is a combination of opening and tightly closed bud. Throughout this set I used the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr with the EF 50 mm f/1.2L USM stabilized with a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head. The stabilization allowed me to present the following comparison, at right the very fast 50 mm lens allows the opening bud to be highlighted. Left side, the lens diaphragm is somewhat closed and the opening bud, tightly closed and leaves are all seen. The pinnate, serrated leaves have one terminal lobe and two lateral for a set of three. There are fewer thorns than some, but sharp enough to be careful.

ISO 800, 1/30 sec at f / 16
ISO 800, 1/1000 sec at f / 2.8 diaphragm “wide open”

Flowers bloom throughout the late spring, summer and fall. Pam stops fertilizing in late summer to allow the plant to harden for our Zone 4b winters. Here you can see the plentiful flower buds, compare the opening to mature flower colors.

ISO 800, 1/60 sec at f / 16
ISO 800, 1/100 sec at f / 13
ISO 800, 1/80 sec at f / 13
ISO 800, 1/60 sec at f / 16

References

“The Botanical Garden” Vol 1, Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix, Firefly Books, Buffalo, N.Y. 2002 pp 228 – 233

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Spring Waterfall Walk

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Travelling light, using the IPhone 7during a 4 mile walk on the Gorge and South Rim Trails of Robert H. Treman New York State Park, Finger Lakes Region near Ithaca, New York. A few waterfalls and sights along the way. Distance is from the “Health” app on my phone.

A pool is formed beneath this waterfall by a dam, removed each fall and yet to be placed. Summertime, the water is deliciously cool. It is great fun swimming to the waterfall base and inching along under the spray. This view is the reward for the first climb up from the gorge floor, the South Rim Trail.

The first Foam Flower…..

Rim Trail Panorama

This flower grew just off this section of the trail.

A few hundred feet further along, the Foam Flowers were crowded in clumps. The scientific name, Tiarella cordifolia, is from the heart shaped leaves (cordifolia). Each flower forms a crown like seed, thus “tiarella” from the French.

Click me for more information on this plant.

Here I approached the high point of this section of the South Rim Trail. I look forward to summer and Purple Flowering Raspberry, the featured photograph (header) of this post.

Click me to learn more about the Purple Flowering Raspberry from my Fine Art Photography Gallery

I caught sigh to this Jack-In-The-Pulpit on the descent to the gorge. Click me for a better photograph of this plant.

An enchanted place just off the trail.

I spotted this Creeping Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) with a single red berry on my return trip via the Gorge Trail.

Click me for the another Enfield Glen post, “A Summer Flower and Waterfalls.
Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Burgeoning Forest Accepted by IStock

Happy News

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Getty IStock accepted twelve (12) of the “Burgeoning Forest” photographs featured in my blog. Click Me to visit the original post

Click Me to visit my photographs on Getty IStock.

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Grand Views

Brock-Harvey Forest Preserve on an early May morning

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Click me for the first post of this series, “Burgeoning Forest .”

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Two Snags

Brock-Harvey Forest Preserve on an early May morning

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I found these snags surrounded and, at a distance, hidden by the burgeoning Brock-Harvey forest preserve here in the Finger Lakes.

As with burgeon (see yesterday’s blog post), the word “snag” has a long history from a forested northern region of the planet, though it hales from Scandinavian languages rather than Old English and Old German. As a noun “snag” is something with a point and a body long enough to cause inconvenience, the point catching on anything handy. As a verb “snag” is to become inconvenienced by a projecting body.

In forestry, a snag is any trunk of a dead tree. Commonly, a tree top breaks off leaving a jagged point which possibly can become an inconvenience. For birds, an upright dead tree is a blessing, perfect for homemaking.

Standing Snag with Nest Holes

Fallen, the snag is still a snag and also a home first for fungus. When the work of the fungus is done, the resulting mound is perfect for growing new trees.

Recumbent Snag with Fungus, AKA “Nurse Log”

Click me for the next post from this forest preserve, “Grand Views.”

References
snag definitions are from the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1971

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Burgeoning Forest

Brock-Harvey Forest Preserve on an early May morning

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There is a word to describe the first growth of spring, rare in a way as having grown within the English/French languages without roots from either Greek or Latin, wholly suitable to a forest people. The first growth of spring so impressive it has words of its own: burgeon.

Both as a noun, burgeon the bud itself, and a verb; to burgeon, as in to burst forth. Burgeoning: the process of the act itself.

Click me for another post from this forest preserve.

References
burgeon/burgeoning definitions from the Compact Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press, 1971

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved