Milkweed/Sunday Best

Busting out

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Garden Grasses/Sunday Best

 Northern oat grass

Just when I was thinking there was absolutely NOTHING to photograph in my garden, the sun came out.

Maiden grass

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Feeding Ducks/Sunday Best

Happiness is...

This little girl was ecstatic that the mallard took the piece of bread she offered it. How could you not feel her joy?

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Cardinal/Sunday Best

 Male northern cardinal on a rainy afternoon last week

A pair of cardinals has been visiting an apple tree near where we've hung a feeder filled with sunflower seeds. The male is there fairly often but the female is shy making it harder to capture her with my lens. I'll feel ecstatic when I photograph her!

A slightly different pose

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Red Squirrel/Sunday Best

 OOPS! Busted!

Red squirrels eat fungi, berries, young shoots, seeds in pine cones,  bird eggs and, yes, bird seed.

Feeling shy

Up on a limb

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Colour/Sunday Best

 Uxbridge on Friday, a sunny day

We still have colour here but  not for long, so here I am showing you what it looked like here on Friday and,,,

 Port Perry on Saturday #1, an overcast day

on Saturday.

Port Perry on Saturday #2

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Morning Mist/Sunday Best

Oxtongue River, Algonquin Provincial Park

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Rosseau River/Sunday Best

 Rosseau River just above a falls

Toronto's Cottage Country was colourful last weekend, green turning to yellow, oranges and reds.

Small pond in Toronto's Cottage Country

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Cottage Country/Sunday Best

 Rosseau River

Some places I can return to over and over and never get tired of taking photos there. This is one of them. Yesterday - Friday - my husband and I traveled north to Toronto's Cottage Country where it was a mostly overcast, but the sun peeked through now and then.

Closer view

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Obedient Plant/Sunday Best

Obedient Plant (Physotegia)

One of the latest bloomers in my gardens and much appreciated this time of year when most plants are fading or have faded.

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Lake O/Sunday Best

 South side of Lake Ontario

A second view of Lake Ontario

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Mourningcloak/Sunday Best

Mourningcloak on butterfly bush

Butterfly bush (Buddleia) is aptly named as the blossoms attract many butterflies.

Mourningcloak wings opened out

I especially look forward to seeing mourningcloaks on the Buddleia - their colours go together very well, don't you agree?

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Camouflage/Sunday Best

Green dragonfly

I must confess that my husband saw this dragonfly first. The critter blended so well into it's environment, that I could have easily passed it  by without a clue that it was nearby hanging onto twigs in the tall grass.

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Lighthouse-Rochester/Sunday Best

Rochester, New York

It was a dark and stormy... WAIT! It was dreary but not stormy on that morning a little more than a week ago when I photographed the Charlotte-Genesee Lighthouse from the harbor below.

Occupying a bluff above the Port of Rochester, the 40-foot tower was built in 1822 with another 12 feet of height to house the light - a lantern. Apparently the panorama from the top is a beautiful experience, but so far I have never climbed the 42 stairs and the 12 ladder rungs to find out for myself.

The keeper's house (in this photo behind the tower) was constructed in 1863 and is now a museum, currently showing the Lincoln and New York traveling exhibition, which is said to probe myths and controversies surrounding Abraham Lincoln. Hmm. Sounds mighty interesting to me...but I didn't see it.

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EG Horse Farm/Sunday Best

 Horses and stable in East Gwillimbury

Saturday morning  between storms, the clouds opened up to reveal a bit of blue over this horse farm.

Another view of the horses and farm

No one I know has complained about the rain. We needed it.

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Webs/Sunday Best

Early morning cobweb

Web and beads of water

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Floating on Air/Sunday Best

Bubbles are not just for kids!

I love it that on one side of the bubble, the scene is upside down!

Chasing bubble with my lens

Another view of my house and garden

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Thistle/Sunday Best

Bull thistle

Prickly and invasive, the bull thistle (Cirsium vulgare) is not popular with most humans. If you have ever stepped with bare feet on its first year basal rosette - as I have - you can guess at least one reason why.

But insects love them!

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Wednesday Sunset/Sunday Best

Barn overlooking a valley

Don't you love it when nature dips her paintbrush into her pots of orange and yellow?
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Bee on Daisy/Sunday Best

Bee sipping nectar

Notice the bee's proboscis that looks a lot like a straw

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