Busy Bees

 

Summer days are here

and the garden is looking like a jungle -

from the lavender

to the fortnight lilies

to the Matilija poppies beneath the living room windows.

The sidewalk between the lavender and the Matilija poppies is completely covered and almost impassable. 

 I have to be gentle as I walk past the fragile poppies, but I have to be particularly careful around the bees.

The bees love our garden and they aren't especially happy when I snip off stems to use in my bouquets.

I managed to get to my little potting bench to freshen up all my wilting bouquets, 

 without upsetting those bees.

After the bouquets were arranged and set around the house,

I decided to dress up this old bench for summer.

A little fishing line and a bunch of mini beach balls from Oriental Trading Co.

and things are looking fresh and summery.

The bees and I were both busy in the garden - I just wish they would help me pull the weeds and tame the jungle.

Who would have thought ...

I am almost never without a camera.

I took the photo above last weekend with my iPhone while Steve and I were enjoying a romantic dinner at a local restaurant.

I snapped this photo with my little Canon Power Shot D10 while showing family around town.

Most of my photos are taken with Steve's Canon Power Shot SX50 HS.

Before blogging, I didn't have much interest in photography?

It is embarrassing to look back at my very first blog post and the pictures I used.

That post had only 2 photos - taken at night, with poor quality and I didn't even edit the photos.

But, through blogging, 

I began to understand a little bit about framing a photo, color, lighting, etc.

As my photos improved, 

people started writing positive comments on posts about the photos.

Those comments encouraged me to work on my skills

 although I still have no idea what I am doing.

I am enjoying this new hobby of staging photos

and really looking at the world around me.

So today, I did something I never even dreamed of doing.

I entered 5 photos in the Ventura County Fair.

The Bluffs 

Bee At Work

Carol's Garden

Green Gate

Matilija Poppy

Who would have thought that I would ever enter a photograph in a contest?