Bee in oregano flowers

This bee was taking advantage of the many wild oregano flowers.  These smell like oregano; I wonder what her honey tastes like?

Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
F Number	6.3
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/200
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	160
Advanced Scene Mode	Off
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Wildflowers

Wildflowers in the sun.  I couldn't resist the purple among the green.

F Number	7.1
Focal Length	38.0 mm
Exposure Time	1/320
Exposure Program	Program AE
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Everyday flowers

I was at a loss for what to title this one.  These flowers weren't deliberately planted, but they aren't exactly wild either.  They're next to the playground in Vale park.  Simple dandelions and violets, planted here by the wind, or birds or even the feet of children running to go play.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/320
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Wildflowers

Some wildflowers down by the west pond in Vale.Very delicate blue to my eye; I'm not sure the photo does them justice but I wanted to show them as I found them, nestled in among the green rushes.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/50
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	200
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Bloodroot

I see these every spring and I never manage to get a photo before they're gone.  Thanks to my resourceful wife, I now know they are called Bloodroot - Sanguinaria canadensis L. These little flowers pop up in early Spring, and then are gone before the rest of the thicket grows over it.  These are up on the bike path as it goes over the Plotter Kill.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/80
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Field of wild violets

Vale Cemetery.  The wild violets are in full bloom, and you can see just how many there are.  It's such a beautiful place in the spring.  It's a glorious complement to the purpose of this place.

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	28.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 56.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/2000
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	400
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Red Trillium

This is a native wildflower which blooms in the spring.  It's hard to see the flower because it 'nods' or faces down, which is why this is photographed from underneath.

It's a trillium because there are three of everything; leaves, petals, sepals and who knows what else.  Once you know what you're looking for, it's not hard to spot them in the woods from those three leaves.

It has another name, which describes how it smells: Stinking Benjamin.  I don't know who Benjamin was though!

F Number	8.0
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	14.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 28.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/125
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	400
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

April flowers

OK, I know how the poem really goes, but these flowers are blooming in April, not May.  Wild flowers in Vale, growing up out of last year's dead leaves seem like a perfect image to represent Spring.

F Number	5.6
Lens ID	LUMIX G VARIO 14-45mm F3.5-5.6
Focal Length	45.0 mm (35 mm equivalent: 90.0 mm)
Exposure Time	1/250
Exposure Program	Manual
ISO	100
Exposure Compensation	0
Flash	Off, Did not fire

Wildflowers

I don't know the name of these, but they come up by themselves in various places every year. I have a soft spot in my heart for the native plants so I am not as tidy about trimming and pulling as I probably should be. All in all, I'll trade a messy looking fence for these beauties!

Edit: I found a web site that helps identify flowers: http://www.realtimerendering.com/flowers/flowers.html and it narrowed my search to the point that I could identify these! It turns out they are called yellow toadflax, or butter and eggs. They aren't native, although they've been here since the 1600s so it seems to me they might as well be. Their scientific name is Linaria vulgaris.

Wild flowers

In Vale Cemetery, on my way down to visit the skunk cabbages, the side of the path was bursting with these little blue flowers so I knelt down and took their photograph. They are on a south-facing slope, so they see plenty of sun during the day and that apparently woke them up from their winter nap. Further down the way, I note the tiger lilies poking their leaves out of the ground, too.

Trillium seeds

Taken at Five Rivers, this trillium is in great shape for the lateness of the season. These three 'leaves' aren't leaves at all, butare called bracts. I can't tell what variety of trillium this is; without the flower, which blooms in spring, I haven't a hope of figuring it out but my guess is trillium grandiflorum.

Those seeds sure caught my eye, and like the rest of the plant, they turned out not to be seeds, but the fruit. The seeds are inside, and apparently are harvested by ants, who eat the fruit and toss the seeds in their trash heap! How cool is that?

This is all guesswork on my part - I'm going to have to stake out some trilliums and follow them in the spring time to be sure...

Wild aster

Taken at Five Rivers Environmental Education Center in Delmar. We visited their Fall Festival. They pack a lot of neat outdoor things into a fairly small space.

Tiny flowers

These tiny flowers were growing in Central Park. I saw them near the stream that flows out of Iroquois Lake. I was there for the Fireplug 500 dog / animal shelter fundraiser. Our dog likes to walk, and she lead me to these delicate beauties!

Jewelweed

Went to soccer practise and while wandering round the outskirts of the field, came across this orange jewelweed. Sometimes called touch-me-not, it has seed pods that burst when touched, sending the spring-loaded seeds away from the mother plant. This is a very common sight around here; anywhere there's a bit of dampness with some sun.

This is the time of year when the flowers are most often noticed, after the other wildflowers have begun to die off. Children (and the occasional adult!) love to wander through the bushes, touching the seed pods to watch the seeds fly through the air.