photography and musings from a Midwesterner
Posts tagged as:
Dogwood Branch © 2010 Bo Mackison
Nothing in nature quite persuades me it is spring again like the lovely dogwood. Dogwoods don’t grow in Wisconsin. (We do have particularly lovely crab apple blossoms in our clime, but the crab apple spring show is still a few weeks away.)
These particular dogwoods are from my hometown in western Illinois, where the trees are dotted throughout every neighborhood, and many of the trees are now beginning to flower. Always a lovely sight.
{ 7 comments }
White Dogwood © 2010 Bo Mackison
These Dogwood blossoms were dressed in their Sunday best, and showing off their beauty in a tiny landscaped area in front of a century old church. Most everyone was inside the building, dressed in their Sunday morning finery, but I was outside in the warm sunshine, preferring to examine and photograph a bit of nature’s fleeting beauty.
The blossoms were such a soft creamy color and had bits of feathery plum accents on each bract (the part that looks like a petal). I could have looked at the blossoms for hours. See the tiny circular area that almost looks like a tiny eye? Reminds me of the “false eyes” that some butterflies have on their wings as defensive adaptations. And notice how the dogwood blossoms are in layers, facing towards the sun–getting their full share of sunshine? I love that.
These white parts of the dogwood are really a modified type of leaf. The flowers of the dogwood are the little green bits in the center — the flowering head.
This dogwood was photographed in Quincy, Illinois, nicknamed the Dogwood City because it has an unusually large number of both pink and white dogwood trees. There is an annual Dogwood Festival and Parade in the city, held the first weekend in May.
(This festivities for this year are scheduled for April 30 – May 2, but it appears the party will go on without the dogwoods in bloom. Peak will be in 7 to 10 days, I’m thinking.)
{ 10 comments }
Historic Quincy Casket Company Building
The Quincy Casket Company, also known as the S J Lessem Building, is a brick and stone, three story building perched on the bluffs of Quincy Illinois, and has a fine view overlooking the Mississippi River. Built in the mid 1850s in the Italiante Style, it was used as a factory and warehouse for its first 100 years. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999 due to its architectural significance.
{ 8 comments }
(Quincy Bayview Bridge Spanning Mississippi River - Quincy IL to West Quincy MO)
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments.” ~ Jim Rohn
My “best trip in 2009″ was crossing a rather invisible bridge -the bridge between a goal and the accomplishment. I chose a goal early in the year, a goal I knew was absolutely impossible for me to reach, then I worked and worked and worked and quit a few times and then started over and worked some more. And — finally reached that goal a couple of days ago.
Oh, sweet joy! Hard work can be a really good thing!
(I was inspired to do the best of 2009 challenge, answering a “What is the best ____ of 2009″ question every day in December. Thanks to Gwen Bell.)
{ 0 comments }
Quincy Paper Box Company
Sometimes I am simply drawn to texture and pattern. There is so much going on in this photo, and yet there is nothing going on at all.
{ 0 comments }
Turn of the 20th Century Mansion, Quincy Illinois
Detail of Roof, Including Wrought Iron Tulip Garden
This house in part of a several block stretch of turn-of-the-20th Century homes built on Maine Street in Quincy Illinois. Each home is more fascinating than the last. I love the wrought iron detailing on the roof – can’t you just imagine a stately row of early spring tulips in bloom?
{ 0 comments }
I have traveled across this bridge my entire life. Here, the bluff city of Quincy, Illinois is attached by steel girders and pavement to Missouri. I have traveled across this bridge to visit relatives in Hannibal and Palmyra, to take trips to St. Louis for shopping and Cardinals’ baseball games, to buy gasoline (Missouri’s gas tax is enough less than Illinois’ to make the trip financially worthwhile) and to catch the Amtrak in West Quincy when I went to college in Chicago.
Now I cross it when I travel from my home to my hometown. (I live in Wisconsin, but believe me, it is faster to travel Wisconsin-Iowa-Missouri-Illinois, than it is to head due south through Illinois.) Last weekend I crossed this bridge once again. I had never before taken notice of the brilliant blue of the bridge structure contrasting with the road, nor the red brick buildings climbing the bluffs in the distance. But then, never before had I traveled the country’s roads with a camera resting by my side.
Why is it I see so much more by adding a camera into the formula?
{ 0 comments }
