Images for the Last Week of June

On Thursday, we were hit by a storm, and were left with no power for two days. Many trees were damaged, and luckily we were fine.

The hardest part without power was no internet for me! The afternoon heat had me run away from home and took refuge at my sister's house since the children couldn't play with the sprinkler to cool themselves off.

While we were there, I found something to photograph. They are just absolutely beautiful!

Ground Beauties


At my sister's front yard, I notice these little lavender buds growing. It covers the ground, and spreads all over.

Before They Bloom


In different part of sun and shade, the flowers also have different colors. Some are light pink, and some are lavender as you can see from the pictures above.

Plentiful


Since these flowers are very tiny, I have to get down on the ground to take pictures. They are just simply gorgeous.

Beautiful Lavender


How beautiful are they? Each flower has five petals and in full bloom, they look like stars! Since I started to take pictures, my camera always bring amazing things to show me, and helps me be more aware of my surrounding.

All Stars


This plant is considered weed, and weed often produces the most incredible blossoms. If you don't believe me, you can visit Second Set of Yellow Wild Flowers, and Yellow Wild Flower.

Sparkling Beauties


Can you see the sparkling on some of these flowers? To have this close up picture, the macro mode is at its max, and my camera only has 7.1 mega pixels.

Against the Rock


This branch dances in the wind. I like the way these flowers look against the black boulder in the background.

Field of Flowers


I don't know what these flowers or plant called, but I love the way they look. I am thinking to grow these in my garden as the ground blanket.

Rain On Me


After the rain, I go out again for my shots, and I couldn't believe my eyes with so much detail my camera picked up. The rain brings out all the spider webs!

Still Beautiful


These flowers are soaked, but they are sturdy and hold their shapes quite well. I love the color, and I love the star shape in these flowers.

I am glad to have this chance to take pictures of these ground beauties since they will soon be gone if I miss this opportunities.

This post is for you, sis! Don't remove all these weeds since they bring such beauty to share with the world.

An Interactive Social Conversation Site

If you think StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, Facebook are the only social sites on the internet, then I have news for you: Thoughts.com is gradually creeping up as one of the new ways to communicate with people who have similar interests with you.

All you have to do is to sign up for a free account, write your thought, share podcasts, pictures, videos, join the forum, messaging friends, search, or get involved in the new discussions.


It is easy to get acquainted with this site since they have many sections for browsing such as: Most Emailed, Most Viewed, Most Recommended, Most Popular, and Most Bookmarked. The site offers daily news, including politics, sports, technology, business news, and life.

With the economy being the way it is, I like to spend my time reading about businesses, and trying to make sense of what is going on in the world. Living in Metro Detroit, my main interest is to follow the automotive industries and the affect they have on people around me.

Members at Thoughts write in their personal blogs and share their honest opinions with the community. Thoughts provides this service in hoping that we can all learn from one another, and to better the changes in our time.

Check out this site, and if you love to write, share your ideas, or tell it like it is; join the community and let the world hears your voice.

Images for the Third Week of June

In May, I posted a series of wild white flowers that I saw at Metro Park. They resembled white daisies! I love discovering wild flowers, especially when they are not deliberately grown, and just bloomed in private yard.

These flowers below are from my sister's yard! They grow right outside her front door. The colors are soft and light lavender.

Soft Lavender Daisies


The petals on these flowers are super thin and delicate! I have a few of these wild daisies on my property, but they are all white after opened up.

Wide Open


These are in lavender color, I assure you! You can't see them clearly in this photo, but you can see how these flowers are so very delicate with their thin petals.

Lavender Wild Daisy


Isn't it a fantastic color? I haven't seen these flowers at my sister's yard before! Granted that I seldom come for visits, but I have been at her house many times.

Just Beautiful Flowers


My little five-year-old nephew, Roco, comes to my defense when everyone thinks that I'm a maniac with my pictures taking hobby. "She likes flower," he said, "just leave her alone!"

All in a Row


How wonderful is this for one plant with so many beautiful flowers? I just love the delicate look of these flowers and their colors.

After the Rain


Just to show you how delicate these flowers are, I take some pictures of them after a light rain! The petals on these flowers are completely bend out of shape, and stick together.

Drooping


They can barely hold themselves up with so much water on them. Some petals are folded in, and droopy. I feel sad to see the flowers in this condition, though I know they will thrive after that rain bath.

Water Damage


You can see some water droplets on these flowers. My idea is to take some fantastic pictures of the perfect water drops, but couldn't manage to have them. The wind and the rain really didn't help much either.

All Messed Up


These poor flowers are all messed up, but the petals didn't fell off the ground at all. They are still very strongly attached.

Water Down


This is the same cluster of flowers "All in a Row" above, but after the rain, their petals were out of shape, bending backward!

For some reasons, my photos are much sharper on my computer, but after uploading on to the post, they are a bit dull. Do you have any ideas why? I do not use photoshop for my pictures..

A Collection of Fruits Articles

Summer time is here, and fruits are available in abundant. We all know that fruits providing us the needed vitamins, minerals, potassium, fiber, and low in calories.

At our house, fresh fruits take a large portion of space in the refrigerator. I stack up on many different types of fruits, but bananas, grapes, pears, strawberries, watermelon, plums, and kiwis are our favorites.

Bananas

Photo Credit

Taken from the page: "Banana is the world's favorite fruit, and banana plant is not a tree. It is the world's biggest herb. Bananas contain three natural sugars: sucrose, fructose, and glucose. Banana gives an instant and sustainable boost of energy. They are a good source of potassium, fiber, 110 calories each, approximately 6 vitamins, and 11 minerals. Bananas have many health benefits. Below are the six types of bananas that we often eat."

Read more

Pears

Photo Credit

Taken from the page: "How many types of pears do you know? How many different colors of pears do you see? For the first time in my life, I saw these wonderful types of pears, and their colors all in one local fruit market."

Read more

Grapes

Photo Credit

Taken from the page: "Grapes come in many different colors. Some are green, some are white, some are red, and some are black. Each color also has different shades of each own. Grapes are a good source of vitamin A, C and B6. They also contain folate, potassium, calcium, phosphorus,magnesium, iron, selenium, copper, manganese, zinc, fiber and protein."

Read More

Five Other Fruits

Photo Credit

Taken from the page: "What are your favorite fruits? Strawberry, kiwi, watermelon, plum, and avocado are loaded with many health benefits. These fruits are great as snacks throughout the day.

Summer is upon us and with that we are blessed with an abundant of fresh fruits and vegetables. I love fruits of all kind. Strawberries, avocados, kiwi, watermelon, and plums are among many favorites for many people."

I hope you will find time to read these articles, and eat more fruits this summer. They are delicious and so very good for you.

Image For The Second Week of June

I have no idea what I want to do for this week pictures, so I look around my garden to see what is growing! My vegetable garden is not very fruitful this year yet. Everything is still in a very young stage, and it doesn't seem to grow that much.

Around this area, there are so many of these light purple flowers, mixing in with the mint. The color is soft and attractive. Well, the idea starts to plant in my head for a series of pictures.

Peeping Up


As I start to take the picture, I see this little bug peeping up! Aah...a story is about to form! I wait for the bug to crawl all the way up and watch to see what it wants to do.

Feeling and Smelling


The bug, which I think, resembles a firefly! However, I couldn't see the white bottom on this one. It stops to feel, smell, and taste whatever it is that this flower is giving out.

Deeper in Concentration


It crawls up onto the flower, and have a feast! I set my camera on quiet mode so even when I come closer for a shot; it makes no noise to disturb this bug.

All Done


After a while, the bug starts to crawl off the flower! It has enough! Time for new a adventure! I am trying to figure out what this bug is, but have no clue!

On Its Way


I am pretty bad with names, of anything, flowers, bugs, and people are included. The bug happily crawls away. I want to say it is a firefly, but not totally sure.

What's Your Name?


I zoom in closer to find the white end on this bug body, but see none! The wings though have the same texture, shape and color! Could it be that this bug is still too young for me to tell?

Up Side Down


This picture captures the body better than I was hoping for. It has an orange end on the body, while I remember the firefly has white color.

Are You Stalking Me?


Then it catches me stalking it! It stares straight at me with a questionable look! Yes, I was caught by surprise. I have to back away when I look at those eyes!

Onto the Mint Leaves


It flies to the mint leaves, and that is the end of my bug-craze! This whole area in my garden is full of these bugs. They are not eating the mint or the flowers; they just hang around here!

The Flower


This is the flower that this bug likes! I think it comes to this flower to drink the water or dew drops that contain in the middle.

So what is this bug's name? What is this flower called?

Easy Way to Put Comment Widgets on Your Blog

I have been toying around with the idea of putting Top Commentors and Recent Comments widgets on my website for a while. Though I didn't want my website to look so busy with too many different things, and widgets; I've decided to install them to see how these will work out!

After reading from other articles, below are the benefits from having these gadgets on your site:

• Encourage readers to leave a comment
• Let your readers know their comments are appreciated
  

Photo Credit

How to Put Top Commentors Widget on Your Blog

I have spent all day reading, and testing out widgets for Top Commentors, and I found the best one on Blogger Widget website.

Step by step guide:

• Click on Top Commentators Widget for Blogger

• Then click on the first gray button: Add Top Commentors Widget to Blogger

• Look for the pop-up window

• Type in to your blog URL (Do not add the / after dot com or it won't work)

• Follow three simple instruction on that window: change setting, customize, and add widget to blog

If you follow this direction, you will see the names of the top ten commentors on your blog, and the numbers of comments they've left.

Photo Credit

How to Put Recent Comments on Your Blog

I found the easiest way to put the Recent Comments Widget on MadTomato website, and the the direction is below:

• Click on the box and copy the code
  

• In your layout, add gadget

• Pick HTML/Javascript

• Paste the code into the gadget

• Change the word "YourOnBlog" to your URL, and the number "100" to 25 if you want to.
  

• Click save

Now you have both Top Commentors and Recent Comments widgets on your blog! It is nice to know who has left a comment without having to check emails. It is also a way to show link luv as they said in the blogosphere.

Images for the First Week of June

Last week, I showed you my find of the purple columbine in my very own yard, and shared with you the simple joy of seeing such a beautiful flower growing. I didn't plant it and I had no idea how it got there.

This week, I stalked the cemetery where I went to plant some flowers at my dad's grave. In the middle of the afternoon heat, I saw these fancy columbines growing at another grave.

I knew they are columbines because the leaves of these columbines are the same as mine. They were so beautiful in the sun.

Heart Shape


I recognized the leaves on these flowers, but they didn't look anything like what I had at home. Therefore, I must look for the buds, and found these two, which proved that they were another kind of columbines.

One Bud


This one bud seemed to be ready to open! It grew very much like my purple columbine at home. It started out as a heart shape bud, but in this case the long stems on top were much longer and were not curvy into a dot at the top.

Pink and White Columbine


These flowers were all open, and they grew strong and healthy. The petals inside were white, and the outer petals were dark pink. They opened all facing up and showed how beautiful they are.

The Other Side


Look at the bottom left corner of this photo, the end of this flower looked like trumpets, and were much longer than my purple ones at home. This bush was full of flowers!

Star Shape


The outer petals were spread out to form a star shape, just as my purple one! I wondered why my flower faced down while these ones were opened facing upward!

One Pretty Columbine


I just love this flower with its two tones of colors. I never thought that I would see one in a cemetery. Guess I was wrong! Paying attention to the moment seemed to bring so many different things to enjoy.

Delicate and Abundant


I could not believe how many flowers there were of these columbines. They were exposed to full sun all day long, and there were no shade anywhere around them.

A Lovely Columbine


I will stalk these flowers every week to see them to the end and find out what kind of seeds they will produce. Maybe I can collect the seeds and plant them in my garden for next year!

Three of a Kind


These three columbines lined up in a row, and faced the same direction! I just love how some of them facing side way, and how some facing upward.

On The Side


This columbine stretched out and was all by itself! I like how this picture turned out though the pink color was a bit lighter under the beaten sun.

Look around you, pay attention to your surrounding, and you will be rewarded with wonderful surprises! Have a good week everyone!