Seaside Saturday

Last Saturday night, after returning from the Maine Coast, I posed one picture. That was sort of a tease, wasn't it? Well, today I'm posting a whole series of images from my afternoon last Saturday at my favorite coastal park. Please click on the images to enlarge them.

Sailboats on the sea.

Sailboats in the distance, tidal pool in foreground.

A gull gets the best view.

Huge ferns thanks to our rainy spring, I think.

Swimmers in the lagoon at twilight.

Why I love this park: Rocks, ocean, pines.

Also beaches (not shown in above photo).

The reason we are The Pine Tree State.

Last swim of the day.

I love this little scene with the worn wooden fence

and the path to the beach.

Another view of the fence and beach grasses.

The glorious water!



Setting sun reflected in the lapping waves.



Strollers on Mile Beach.

The water is so very clear and lovely.

What I call beach debris. I love all of the textures!

Close-up of driftwood log.

More interesting textures.

Another shot of texture: feather on top of seaweed.

This one's all about the sky!



As I was leaving the park, I was treated to one last surprise: 2 deer crossing the road!

It happened so fast, I shot right through the car windshield.



There he goes, following his friend.



The last shot of the day, taken at a little marshy area with pond

just down the road from the park.

I hope you've enjoyed these photos of the Coast of Maine. Better yet, I hope you get to experience them yourself  -- if not today, someday soon!



Seaside Saturday

I'm sneaking in a little Seaside Saturday post while it's still Saturday...

Man oh man, did I enjoy myself this afternoon at the Maine Coast! It was HOT here. I have never been that hot at my favorite beach before. But the water was luscious, and I was very grateful to have finally made it up to the very best place on earth.

Stay tuned for more pictures... soon.

Chip It! lets you create color palettes

So here's something new & different that I'm in love with: Chip It! It's a website from Sherwin-Williams that lets you turn any image into a color palette. Below is my photo from Wordless Wednesday, and now it has an accompanying color palette. How cool is that! You don't need Photoshop, and it takes about 5 seconds.

This image above is small, but when you click on it, it'll become big enough that you can read the names of the paint colors. But go now, go and play with it yourself at letschipit.com It really is kind of fun to do!

Wordless Wednesday

Happy 4th of July!

Grateful to live in Maine, proud to be an American.

Happy Independence Day!

Sizzlin' Sunday

I'd like to be here today...

[my favorite beach]

But a friend has kindly invited me out to brunch, so I'm going to be here instead...

[downtown Portland, Maine]

Wherever you are today, I hope you have a fabulous (and cool!) Sunday!

Stay tuned for more peony photos and a book recommendation...

A passion for peonies - Part 1

Some of my friends reading this blog may remember that last May and June I went a little crazy taking shots of peonies at my local Audubon Center. This year, I was disappointed that my camera was not working, and I was afraid I'd miss the peonies altogether. But luckily, I didn't have to! My camera + new batteries + 30 minutes + a visit to the peonies = more than 100 photographs and a very happy me!

This picture (above) shows the larger of the 2 beds of peonies at Gilsland Farm Audubon Center. My first visit to take pictures was Tuesday, June 27th. Being so late in the season, a lot of the blossoms were rather bedraggled, and many had lost the majority of their petals. This did not deter me since I actually like the fading flowers as much as, or possibly more than, the fresh blooms.

I had to really hurry, because as you can see above, a storm was threatening. (This spring in Maine has been like monsoon season -- I think we've had about 8 weeks of on and off rainstorms.)

You can see the raindrops on the flowers above. [Please click on photos to enlarge them.]

I don't know anything about the different types of peonies. I've never been good at memorizing things like types of flowers or birds.



I just enjoy looking at them and photographing them.

Even the fallen petals on the ground are colorful and pretty.

There were a lot of bugs out and about, but I think a fly on a flower is a nice little embellishment.

You can see that the rain and the passage of time have left many flowers with brown patches.

And yet aren't they still really gorgeous? Kind of like trees in autumn -- resplendent in their last cycle of life.

I tried taking shots from different angles just to make the photos a bit more interesting -- like the one above.

There's something about the contrast of a pale pink petal with the brown edging that really grabs me.

I have many, MANY more photos, but I will share them with you in another post. I also want to fill you in on a really helpful book that I've been reading. Please stop back soon -- I'll be posting again within the next few days.

Wishing you a creative, relaxing, & beautiful weekend!!