Blooming in my garden today: Asiatic lilies

Asiatic lilies (unknown hybrid name)

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Re-post: You get what you pay for.

Picture this. Route 1 in Alexandria, Virginia. The last trailer park frontier. It is a few weeks before Christmas, December 2011. My friend Karen’s nephew, Austin, is visiting and we decide he really needs to see the most tricked out Christmas lighting display in all of Northern Virginia. After he has his fill of Run, Run, Rudolph in technicolor glory, we pass by a psychic reader’s shop and decide to introduce him to the world of psychics, palm and tarot card readers. I had told him earlier about a psychic reading that my friends Margie and Wendy and I had back in the late 80s (yes, I’m that old). We had nothing to do one Saturday night and it seemed like a fun, if a bit lame, thing to do. Mark it off our bucket list, shall we say?

Austin is all up for it, then we see this handwritten sign on her door and we are all a tad disappointed. It is freezing cold outside, but we decide to call her anyway. We spend most of that time amusing ourselves with comments like, “hey, if she’s so psychic, shouldn’t she have known we’d be here?” Oh, and of course I have to proofread her sign and do a little tsk-tsking. It takes her quite some time to get there, but we decide to stick it out. So much for that 5-minute guarantee; she could have at least thrown in a free aura assessment to make up for it.

Karen, Austin and I all pay our $5 (or was it $10?) for our individual readings; Michael abstains. The “psychic” is so quiet, I miss almost all of my reading, but I do some nodding, furrow my brows, and toss out those oohs, aahs and sighs that one would be expected to do when one is getting information that could possibly change your life. Austin apparently likes what he is hearing, though, and says he can’t wait to try it again. Maybe one day I’ll tell you about that 1980s reading. It was pretty awesome, even for an extreme skeptic like me. She was my first—you never forget your first.

Route 1 psychic woman’s cell phone number has been blurred to protect her privacy, but if you’re psychic, you’ll figure it out.

I fervently hope that she spent that $30 on a tutor to teach her how to spell.

New photography exhibit at The Frame Factory in Vienna, VA

My friend Jeff Evans and I are having a two-person photography show at The Frame Factory in Vienna, Virginia. The show runs until July 31. The Frame Factory is located at 212 Dominion Rd. NE, Vienna, VA 22180.

Jeff is showcasing travel, infrared, landscapes and storm-chasing images. He also has some matted images (landscapes and botanicals) for sale.

My images are all botanical-themed. Most of the images are gallery-wrap canvases but there are also matted and framed images as well as loose matted images for sale.

If you’re in the D.C. metropolitan area, I hope you can stop by to see our latest work. Be sure to sign my guestbook so I’ll know you were there! You can click on the link below and see a slide show with some of our respective work.

http://www.theframefactory1.com/

My friend Sonya has updated my show site, so you can get directions and more information on this exhibit below:

http://gardenmuseshow.com/exhibit-info.html

Blooming in Eric’s garden: Portulaca

Portulaca (Portulaca grandiflora); and yes, they really are that vibrant!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Green Bottle fly

Green Bottle fly (Lucilia sericata), photographed in my garden this morning. I focused on its eyes and since it is so small, the depth of field isn’t as great as I’d like it to be. He stayed so still that I should have done some stack focusing and merged the images to get a more overall in-focus shot. I would love to have had the wings more in focus, but I still like the shot. Colorful little insects, aren’t they?

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Trumpet lily

Trumpet lily, photographed at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

A sea of Sea Holly

Sea Holly (Eryngium planum), backlit by the late afternoon sun at Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

After the rain…

Raindrops on Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) leaves, Green Spring Gardens

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Design Studio: “Hear This!” CD project for AAMHL

I just completed this CD package design for AAMHL (Association of Adult Musicians with Hearing Loss). They are publishing the project through Amazon’s CreateSpace, so the CD will be available for purchase shortly.

My friend, Charles Mokotoff, plays two pieces on “Hear This!” I photographed Charles for the feature he wrote for the January/February 2010 issue of Hearing Loss Magazine. You can see that post here.

Design © Cindy Dyer/Dyer Design. All rights reserved.

Also on the CD:

Celloist PAUL SILVERMAN has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall and the Strathmore Music Center.

Pianist, soloist and chamber musician JENNIFER CASTELLANO was commissioned to write music for the North/South Chamber Orchestra and was named the 2012 Commissioned Composer for New Jersey Music Teachers Association.

Pianist KATHRYN BAKKE received her Masters degree in Piano Performance from the University of Minnesota. She is a speaker, writer and advocate for better hearing loss access.

Singer/songwriter and certified hearing aid dispenser ELISSA LALA has made a career singing vocals for TV documentaries; she was hired by Aaron Spelling to sing “All the Things You Are” for the ABC miniseries Crossings.

Prolific singer/songwriter BLUE O’CONNELL works as a music practitioner at the University of Virginia Medical Center, performs at Charlottesville, VA coffeehouses, and has published a CD called “Choose the Sky.”

White Rain Lily (Zephyranthes candida)

White Rain Lily (Zephyranthes candida), growing in the rock garden at Green Spring Gardens; also known as White Fairy Lily or White Zephyr Lily

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Eric’s Asiatic lily ‘Cancun’

Several of these Asiatic lilies were blooming in my neighbor Eric’s garden today. I’m fairly confident that this one is called “Cancun.”

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’, an All-America Rose Selection in 2006; photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Amazing cicada time-lapse video

Delphinium ‘Black-Eyed Angels’

Growing in my friend Gina’s garden—Delphinium ‘Black-Eyed Angels

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Stephanotis

Stephanotis (Stephanotis floribunda), photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Lily of the Nile (Agapanthus)

Lily of the Nile ‘Blue Nile’ (Agapanthus), photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Ombre Rose

Sometime during my college years, my sister Debbie and I were out shopping at Joe Brand, an upscale department store in La Plaza Mall in McAllen, Texas. It was there we discovered “Ombre Rose,” a hot new cologne (at the time). I declared this one was THE scent I could live with the rest of my life. (I do this quite often but then that “end-all-be-all” scent is inevitably dethroned by another every few years). For most of my high school years my scent of choice was Anais Anais. Before that, I enveloped myself in Jean Nate Body Splash (influenced, no doubt, by those commercials with the breathy announcer—“for people who want to take charge of their life….you get the feeling there’s nothing you can’t do!” Hey, sign me up for some of that!) or Charlie by Revlon (I just knew that if I wore that scent, I would appear to have much longer legs and my hair would swing in the wind, just like Shelley Hack’s did). And don’t get me started on how much I loved the smell of Farrah Fawcett shampoo. Though I never did achieve hair like hers (I’m sure you’re shocked), I did find an almost exact replica of the blue plaid jacket she wore on the bottle label.

Ah…how I digress…here is my visual rendition of an ombre rose. Hybrid tea rose ‘Portrait’, photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Sea Pink (Armeria Maritima)

Each bloom is less than 1″ in diameter!

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Floribunda rose ‘Scentimental’

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

‘Royal Candles’ Speedwell

‘Royal Candles’ Speedwell (Veronica spicata), photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Grandiflora rose ‘Cherry Parfait’

Grandiflora rose ‘Cherry Parfait’, an All America Rose Selection 2003, photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

Rosa x ‘Betty Boop’ Floribunda rose

Rosa x ‘Betty Boop’ Floribunda rose, 1999 All-America Rose Selection; photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.

 

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’

Hybrid Tea rose ‘Tahitian Sunset’, an All-America Rose Selection in 2006; photographed at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD

© Cindy Dyer. All rights reserved.