It’s Greening Up
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 by Janna
Here are a few photos I took while on a morning walk through the woods. Things are beginning to look alive here in northern Minnesota. Spring is running a bit late this year. Why, last year, at this time, the crabapple trees were in full bloom — just take a look at this post: http://www.thejoyofhome.com/2007/05/camping-at-gulch-lake/! I haven’t even seen any crabapple buds yet this year. *Sigh* Patience, patience.
A tree — don’t ask me which kind — in bloom.
A robin giving me a wary look. He flew away before I could get a better shot.
What’s left of last summer.
A gnarled old birch tree.
Back home again, I found some of Mom’s crocuses in bloom…
And some pansies, as well! This particular type of pansy is called “Bilbo Baggins”. What a great name!
And guess what? The bees came on Tuesday! It really is spring, isn’t it?
Yes, it is. Here’s a bouquet of mayflowers: living proof!
The glory of the spring, how sweet!
The new-born life, how glad!
What joy the happy earth to greet
In new, bright raiment clad!Divine Redeemer, Thee I bless;
I greet Thy going forth;
I love Thee in the loveliness
Of Thy renewèd earth.But O these wonders of Thy grace,
These nobler works of Thine,
These marvels sweeter far to trace,
These new births more divine:This new-born glow of faith so strong,
This bloom of love so fair,
This new-born ecstasy of song,
And fragrancy of prayer!Creator Spirit, work in me
These wonders sweet of Thine;
Divine Redeemer, graciously
Renew this heart of mine.Still let new life and strength upspring,
Still let new joy be given;
And grant the glad new song to ring
Through the new earth and Heaven.
I have so enjoyed your pictures! My favorite is the beehive one. It’s not as pretty as the others, but… To me it represents hope. The hope of blooming flowers and bountiful harvests.
Your pictures are so beautiful. It’s hard to believe your Spring is this late even though I know it is. We have full green and all sorts of Spring blossoms. You have such a beautiful insight on all things created and it
gives me much hope to see it come from someone so young as you.
There are several “lifetimes” between your age and mine. Thanks for
giving hope to us older folk. I have visited you site only recently and do
enjoy it. So from the Sunny South (rain today) I say keep it up.
Ms. Dale
Your pictures are so beautiful!
Just beautiful, Janna! I love your blog and photography.
Lovely! I especially love the Bilbo Baggins pansy — just the name alone is enough to make it endearing, even without that delightful little “v” at the bottom.
Now it’s my turn to be jealous of you, as the weather here is already hot and sticky!
Enjoy your beautiful (if belated) Spring.
Yours in Christ,
Shannon
You take such nice pictures! Those first 3 look so nice near each other to top it all off. And that pansy seems to have so much personality.
Do you mind saying what kind of camera and lense you use? My camera broke, so I’m left to using my mom’s rather simple digital one. I’m hoping that the next camera I get will blur backgrounds as well as yours.
Hello, Lindsay!
The camera I used to take all the photos in this post is a Nikon D80 Digital SLR. The lens was an 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 zoom. It’s a wonderful camera! But I’d sure like to get a nice, long telephoto lens — like 250mm. I was just reading in a photography book by Douglas Box, the 250mm is his favorite for taking portraits. But I wonder how much a lens like that would cost! Maybe I’ll head over to Amazon.com to find out…