Weekly Winners July 24, 2011

Photos for Lotus's Weekly Winners are from a variety of activities this week. The beach, the coast aquarium, the last gathering of the children's cohort and families and the farmers market.

Jelly love

So nice of the designers to provide the beautiful blue background. 

Jellies are fascinating. No brains. They aren't called jellyfish anymore because of the misnomer: they aren't fish.

Anemone, another of my favorites. 

I was hoping I could fool viewers into believing I was SCUBA diving. 

The weather wasn't great but we managed one glorious sunset. 

These four wonderful kids will be "graduating" to preschool in a month. We'll miss them! 

Ms. P and her mama.

Plenty of food for these guys. They may be scavengers but I love 'em. It's a nostalgia thing. 

When you're short, you learn to compensate.

Beautiful beets. 

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Today's Flowers - 08-30-09

Today's Flowers hosts can be found here.






Squash blossoms:

Macro Monday 08-24-09 Market

Macro Monday - hosted by Lisa







The farmers market is one of my favorite photo ops.

Corn silk:


Eggplant dreams of marrying tomatoes - perhaps a Parmesan rendezvous?


Mushroom - apparently edible.


Tomatillo!

Color Carnival - 08-21-09

Martha hosts this meme about color.



The farmers market is always full of color:

Nature Notes 07-31-09

Nature Notes is the brainchild of Rambling Woods who challenges us to "look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?"



This is an artichoke that didn't get eaten. I love to see them go to seed, such spectacular color and texture.



Hmm, what's that crawling around in there?


Aha - a pollinator. Ms. Bumblebee, I presume.

Photostory Friday - Instant Garden

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Sometimes we don't get our vegetable seeds started in a timely manner. Then we resort to our local nursery stock to create our instant vegetable garden.


I supervised (and documented) last night as Laurie planted.


Adding used coffee grounds to the soil, courtesy of one of our (many) local coffeehouses.


Stirred, not shaken.




Voila. Tomato plant.


This method does have its instant rewards. This marigold even came with its own ant.



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Nature Notes 05-28-09: Anticipation

Nature Notes is the brainchild of Rambling Woods who challenges us to "look at something you might never had paid attention to..a flower…a plant..an animal…What changes are taking place?..Is your garden starting to come to life again?"



One of the plants I monitor closely in spring and summer is the artichoke.



The foliage is quite impressive and spiky - it's related, after all, to the thistle.



Way down inside there appears to be a kind of nest...



...and this is the treasure it's nurturing. Mmmmmmm, artichoke!



Right now they're about the size of a ping pong ball. I hope we get to them before the aphids do.
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Macro Monday 01-26-09 Fruits and Vegetables

Macro Monday - hosted by Lisa

I love photographing food, especially fruits and veggies. These were taken at our neighborhood food co-op.

Be sure to click on the photos to get the maximum enjoyment!

Kiwi -- looks a bit like a hedgehog, doesn't it?

Savoy cabbage

Savoy cabbage, even closer

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