What is it?

I have never done this before, seen others do it on their blog.

Thought it might be fun. Do you know what plant/flower this is?

April Events and my one year blog anniversary

My very first post was on April 30, 2008. It was the end of the month and I had been very busy that month so I just started with my monthly events and that is how I got started doing a monthly events post at the end of each month. I started with just the Photography By Leedra blog and then later exported that blog to Leedra's Photos For Fun. At that time I stopped posting every day to Photography By Leedra blog, but continued posting a minimum of one post a day to Leedra's Photos For Fun. At Leedra's Photos For Fun I have posted a total of 723 post, counting the ones exported. Since making the change I have also posted an additional 50 post at Photography By Leedra blog, with almost 21,000 visitors there. So far since exporting to Leedra's Photos For Fun I have had 7550 visitors here. I want to thank all of you that have helped me along the way to make my blogging adventure so enjoyable. I have made so many friends with the same interest as I have.

The first weekend in April was beautiful spring weather. Jimmy and I worked out in the yard all day on Saturday. We even transplanted some fruit trees from a church friend's yard to our yard. Couple of peach and old fashioned plum trees. The friend had been mowing around them for a year and we all decided it was warm enough weather to move them. First of the next week we had temperatures in the 20s with snow. The dogwoods were beginning to bloom and we should have thought about 'dogwood winter' as it is called in east Tennessee. It does appear that 2 of them might not make it, but we have a least one of each type he gave us.

Because of the snow I took off for the smokies to get some photos. Had a nice time photographing the deer, wild turkey, pileated woodpeckers and old cabins in Cades Cove. I had to head home so I could go to work that evening and on the way home I found some wildflowers just beginning to bloom. I was excited about that. Last year I went to the Wildflower Pilgrimage in the GSMNP. I really enjoyed it, and learned so much about the wildflowers, but I was not able to attend this year. I could not plan ahead enough to register for 2 reasons. First Wendy pregnant with her first child. Second, I am management with AT&T and we have been put on restrictive vacation due the possibility of an employee strike. We were told last year that we were not allowed to make any vacation plans after April 1 of this year unless it could be cancelled. That is the main reason we took 3 weeks vacation in February.

When I saw those wildflowers then I wanted to see what all I could find. The next weekend Jimmy and I went to Panther Creek State Park (late Easter Sunday evening) and the following day I returned to the GSMNP to visit some of the trails I went on last year during the wildflower pilgrimage. The following weekend Jimmy and I went back to the GSMNP in search of wildflowers, we were not disappointed. I have been sharing some of the wildflower photos on the blog, but still have lots more to go through.

Somewhere in the middle of all that a friend at work ordered some cards using photos from my blogs. When I brought them in everybody started picking out Mother's Day cards, and from there it just kind of took off. In 2 different offices across town from each I sold 131 cards and 2 8x10 photographs during April. There have been over 1100 visitors to Leedra's Greeting Cards blog.

I also have been working on my web site, with the new software I am using it is so much more 'user friendly' for finding the right photos for my cards. I still have a long way to go in getting all the photos loaded that I need to, but I am beginning to be happy with the result. Please click here to go straight to the nature photograph home page, which has a list of my photos. Now that I have this software that I can do more with, I am considering adding the greeting cards to the web site too.

We have been on baby watch all month. With false labor a couple of times. Any day now we are going to have us a new grand baby. To follow Wendy's blog, please click here. Her original due date was May 6, but there had been some indication that he might arrive early. That date has come and gone, still no baby. So I guess we are now waiting on the due date they told Wendy to begin with. She really wants to have him before Mother's Day, for obvious reasons.

White Wildflowers in GSMNP

All these photos of white wildflowers were taken in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. All except the last one were taken April 2009. The first 2 photos are Foamflower.
Next is Fraser's Sedge

These 2 are Rue Anemone.

Not to be confused with the last 3, which are Great Chickweed.

This last photo of Great Chickweed was taken April 2008,

during the Wildflower Pilgrimage.

Baby Cradle for Wendy and Lukas' baby

As I am preparing this post our new grandson has not arrived. Jimmy works with wood and he made a baby cradle for the new grandson.

Jimmy and I took the baby cradle to Wendy and Lukas' house Sunday afternoon.

We wanted to be sure to get it there before he arrives, and we made it.

This is the 2nd cradle Jimmy has made. The first one was for Mason.

Hopefully soon I will be able to show you photos of our new grandson in his cradle.

Lavender Azalea

My favorite color for an azalea is the pale lavender. This little one is in my front yard down at the tree line. I started it from an azalea at John and Lindsey's first house.

At least this year it does have about 10 blooms. Year before last it was doing a little better, before we had a real late freeze in the teens. Thought this one was a goner, so right now I am just happy it is still alive.

As normal, I had to get closer.

Someday my azalea will look like this one that I photographed in Knoxville last week.

I have already sold this photo in 2 cards, the Happy Mother's Day and a sympathy card.

Alligators in the Everglades

These are the last of my alligator photos from the Everglades,

taken February 2009.

Notice how they all seem to be smiling.

Think they thought I was dinner.

Alligators in the Everglades - February 2009

I have been trying to get through all my photos from the Feburary 2009 trip.Found some more alligator photos I wanted to share.

These were taken at different locations along Hwy 14,

crossing from one side of Florida to the other side.

We watched this alligator swim over to these tree limbs and use it to rest on.

Guess he was being lazy.

Dragonflies - Florida, February 2009

Dragonflies are not the easiest thing to see in the woods.

Not exactly what a person is looking for either.

But I had to try to capture them with my camera,

because I find they don't normally want to stay still long enough for a photo.

This last photo is a different dragonfly. Notice the wings.

It was just a few feet away from the first one.

Bishop's Cap - Wildflower in GSMNP

Bishop's Cap seems to be abundant in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Very delicate flower that blooms in April and May at elevations up to 2,500 ft.

The stems are 10 to 15 inches.

Dog Hobble -Wildflower in GSMNP

Dog Hobble is only found in the Southern Appalachians

according to the Great Smoky Mountains Wildflowers book.

These photographs of Dog Hobble were all taken in the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park April 18, 2009.

I think the flowers are so pretty, but the shrub isn't much to look at.

The book says "In pre-Park days, when bear hunting was practiced, the heavy bears could escape pursuing dogs by forcing their way through dense thickets of these shrubs, whereas the dogs became 'hobbled' by the tangled growth."