An ice crowned seed head from my garden.
Tiny icicles on the brink of melting away.
Mosaic patterns forming on the flora as the ice crowns begin to surrender to the warmth of the sun.
How quickly we can shift here from powdered snow, to rain, to freezing rain and back again.
© Karen McRae, 2017
Observing the changes in the landscape. Shifts, slow and subtle, others without restraint. As much as I adore summer it is autumn (and winter) when I most love to make photographs.
© Karen McRae, 2016
Pink-fluff seed heads of a ligularia plant in my garden. When the plant is in flower the petals are a bright yellow, but it’s these delicate rosy seed heads of autumn that truly catch my eye.
© Karen McRae, 2015
These are macro photographs of some of the little seedheads in my garden that are no bigger than my thumbnail. They have been mostly snuggled under snow for eternity the winter… But today spring actually seemed like it temporarily meant business and it got to work rolling back those white carpets that have been covering the fields and lawns and sleepy flowerbeds. A brilliant day full of warmth, sunshine and riotous birdsong. Who could possibly stay indoors?
[From the series In Transition: Seedhead Series. (click on images to view them larger)]
© Karen McRae, 2015
© Karen McRae, 2014
© Karen McRae, 2014
Remnants from last year, including the spider legs! You may notice there is not much of a body to go with these spider legs but the legs themselves were quite well-preserved.
© Karen McRae, 2014
A rather awkward little animation but it was fun to make. The subject is a seed head from my garden photographed at slightly different angles to allow for movement and then layered and animated in Photoshop.
Unfortunately it cannot be turned off but below is a still image of the same subject for visual relief. GIFs can get annoying very quickly! It’s not something I would usually post (although I’ve made a few other unskilled animations over the years), but for some reason I keep picturing this little dragon breathing…
What’s growing in your garden?
© Karen McRae, 2014
These little seed heads in my garden keep calling me back to look at them and I like observing their changes as they advance through the seasons and work their way out of the snow. Somehow they still hold a whisper of the faded colours of summer.
Spring is in no hurry, really, but under the trees there are finally circles of earth, damp and tarnished from the winter. These hopeful patches might hold a gentle robin or a few starlings jabbing hungrily at the ground, and today for the first time I am hearing the lovely lilt of a red-winged blackbird. We are grateful for any bits of spring that we find even if it is simply the incremental folding back of the snow or a few pussy willows breaking through their skins.
Below: The first pussy willows, a couple of weeks old now…
© Karen McRae, 2014
