In photos: Busy summertime bees - part 2

Yesterday I blogged about bees. Today is part two of that post. Last year we put in a lot of flowers and attracted many bees. These are some of the moments captured.

We planted milkweed to attract the monarchs, very few butterflies in 2015, but many bees came to visit

Bees also liked to linger in the wildflower garden

In photos: Busy summertime bees - part 1

Ever since I was a kid I had this fear of bees and would run in the other direction when I came across any (the fact I was swarmed twice in my hair probably didn't help). Over the years as I began to look towards nature as photography subjects, that fear has dissipated. For some reason being on the other end of a lens erased the fear. These days I can peacefully be next to bees even without a camera.

We invested a lot of energy into putting flowers and vegetables in our yard last year. As a result, we had many bees. It was nice to see them in such volume and hopefully their numbers will grow. Here are a few photos I captured last summer in my front yard. (Here is Part 2)

In photos: Going to seed

In December we took a trip out to Front Royal, Va. to visit Skyline Caverns. The weather was pretty warm over the Christmas break and it seemed many of the plants and flowers were confused on what they should be doing (it was 77 degrees here in Northern Virginia on Christmas Eve!)

The following week I came across these plants that had gone to seed, albeit probably a little later than they usually would have. I'm not sure what kind of plants either of these are. The second set looked a little like milkweed, but the plant looked different than the one I have in my yard. Decided the seeds were a good subject to try to further work on creating macro images.
 

Spotting mushrooms in Northern Virginia

In the past year I've become more fascinated with mushrooms ahd have been taking a lot of photos in the yard, in the woods, while out visiting historic properties and anywhere else they might crop up. 

Today's post shares some photos I've taken in the last few months.
The first two were taken in my yard. The second two were taken at Gunston Hall during the first week in December.

I don't know what kind of mushroom this is, but liked the shape of it.

There is an area of my yard that seems to be a good environment for different types of mushrooms to crop up. Looks like a critter had gotten into these

 

This one I was testing out my new camera...seems I got better focus on the leaves rather than the mushroom. I spotted several of these mushrooms while walking up from the riverfront area

Fungi spotted while walking around the property on Gunston Hall