Snuggle up to those you love

Inspired by this month's Gardening Gone Wild Picture This contest, I've been getting up close to the plants I love - I've been practicing macro photography all week.   I may not enter the contest, having seen all the fantastic entries already posted to the gallery page, but it's been fun to have the challenge of the theme "Lighting:  a closer look".  I love macro plant photography - I don't know that I'd focus on the incredibly beautiful detail of most everything in my garden if it weren't for these photos.
My first subject was this year's single bloom from last year's very full Oranges and Lemons Gaillardia.

Then on to the daylilies that began blooming last week.  I love the way they catch the morning sun.

The New England Asters are already blooming.  My first thought when I looked at this was that they look as if they're waking up from a long sleep.

This Black Eyed Susan bud is still closed tight. One of the things I love most about gardening is watching the progress from bud to bloom.  Doesn't it look hopeful?

This morning I focused on Snow Fountains Guara, the lightest and airiest plant in the garden.  It makes my heart feel light just to look at it.

Stop on by Gardening Gone Wild to take a look at the entries - they'll inspire you!

A glow from within

The theme of Gardening Gone Wild's April "Picture This" contest is "Let's Talk About Light" and the challenge is to match the subject with the light.  Rob Cardillo, the judge, offers wonderful advise and some samples of his work in the post about the contest here.  In reading it I realized something about my own attempts to match the light to the subject:  I've been nearly ignoring the subject and trying to capture the light.  The light is what mesmerizes me, especially in the Fall and Spring, but all year long in the early morning and late afternoon.  
It's impossible, of course, to capture the light.  And in reality its the mood that the light evokes that I want to freeze in time and save.

Early morning on my beloved Lake Norman

The color of the Japanese Maple as it comes to life

The unfolding of the clematis bloom

The dogwoods at their peak

There are countless images stored on my computer of these scenes - the lake, the maple and dogwood, and the clematis.  But I won't be entering any of them in the contest.  Instead I'll be entering this photo of an iris.  I can't tell you the name of the iris,  just that I dug it and several more like it from my mother-in-law's garden after she died five years ago.  They were the first bulbs I planted in my new garden.  They bloomed nicely the first and second years, but not at all the third.  Last year I had one bloom.  And so I dug them up (they had multiplied several times over) and moved them - giving them more room and more sun.  This week they began blooming - all of them - tall and happy and reaching for the sky.  I go out every morning to admire them and remember my mother-in-law.  They seem a little shy, as she was, but when the morning sun shines on them just right they glow from within, just like she did.