Photo Walk: Germany Nature

Germany can be beautiful if the weather cooperates. This summer has been a let down. It's only just finally getting to be nice warm days after months of rain and cold weather. It was 58 degrees a couple of days ago. Hello! This is July!? I should NOT have to wear jeans and a hoodie. Even my landlord was complaining about the weather in Germany. 

Anyways, when it's a nice day we try to take full advantage of it.  Here are some recent pics from our photo walk on one of those nice days.

Like main street over here in Germany.

Ariana took her Cabbage Patch, Haley Pax with us. 

 Through my sunglasses.

 Along the sidewalk.

 Hello cow.

 Framed view of a farm.

 Lovely dewdrops.

 Two curious dogs watching us through a fence.

 New member of the family.

 I just liked the lines and angles.

 Caught my eye.

 Mossy log and wildflowers.

 Songbird - Great Tit

 Leftover from the rainy morning.

Songbird - Yellowhammer.

Pretty butterfly - Small Tortoiseshell 

View from the nature path looking down into our village valley. So peaceful.

Soon we'll be heading to the great USA to visit family and friends!

Little Birds

I was a little bit smitten this Spring with bird watching and even I posted on my Facebook that I was "climbing trees and stalking birds"! Besides that awesome falcon, I've found a few different types of birds in our yard. Most of these are from early Spring but I'm just getting around to processing these photos.

Today I'm sharing pictures of this pretty yellow/olive green bird. I think this is the Citril Finch. I found a pair of them munching on dandelions in my backyard one morning. This little guy fluffed his head feathers at me!

Cute huh? What are some photos you've taken but haven't shared yet?

Scavenger Hunt Sunday (16)

This Scavenger Hunt Sunday the prompts were sent in by me! How fun to be part of this project! I'm excited to check out everyones interpretations for these!

1. Beneath Your Feet:

I decided to go with this broken glass littering a nature trail from a few days ago. You can see my reflection in it! (When I'm out exploring nature, nothing makes me angrier than finding trash some inconsiderate people left behind.)

2. Capturing Movement:

Trying to capture Ariana while swinging and leaving the background blurred. This was hard. She moved a lot! I did get the chain in focus and the background blurred, so it was a minor accomplishment.

3. Texture:

Some colorful textured rocks found while exploring  castle ruins.

4. Face Your Fears:

One word. Spiders!

5. Currently:

Currently, chasing butterflies! My most recent butterfly photo is of this Large Tortoiseshell Butterfly.

I'm linking up with Ashley

The Story of how I became Obsessed with a Falcon

Between our village and the village next to ours, there lives a bird. A big bird. A big brownish bird who I get a glimpse of every now and then driving back and forth to and from our house. I see him perched in the trees by the cow fields or sometimes circling above it. I always think to myself, "Wow, I want to take your picture." I started calling him "the hawk" and I'm pretty sure my husband didn't believe me. I would always see him when I was alone. He was sneaky.

I started taking my camera in the car with me all the time in case I saw him. Then one day I did! I was driving along and suddenly around the bend there he was sitting on a fence post across the road from me. Literally 15 feet away. He flew away before I could stop and get his photo, but I knew it would be my goal. I would snap a shot of him, whatever he was before the summer was over. I became obsessed with finding him.

Finally, it happened. It was about midday and Ariana and I were coming home for lunch, when there he was. He was sitting in the field on a long stretch of road and nobody was coming either way. I quickly pulled over and whipped my camera into action. As soon as he saw what I was planning, he took to the air, but I was able to get a pretty awesome shot of him in all his glory.

I've looked him up and decided I think he's a Peregrine Falcon. And he is beautiful!

My new goal for the summer is to get more/better shots of him! And also to get some pretty photographs of the deer I sometimes see, but I'm pretty sure that's going to be MUCH harder.

Holland (part 2) Keukenhof Flower Garden

The main reason for our trip to Holland was to go to the Keukenhof Gardens and see the tulips - and for me to photograph them. And it didn't disappoint. I've never in my life seen such a beautiful amount of flowers. Thousands and thousands  and hundreds of thousands of flowers sprawling through a maze of walkways and waterways. It was such a glorious garden, and at times a bit overwhelming.

I narrowed my photos down a lot for this post but it's still very photo heavy. I tried to give a variety of flowers so you could feel like you saw the gardens too. 

Of course the day we went, we got rained on. But the flowers were happy and the raindrops made for interesting closeups. 

There were ducks wandering between the people and baby ducks swimming in the fountains. See a pic of one of the cute baby ducks here.. 

It wasn't just tulips either. There were all kinds of flowering trees and lots of brightly colored flowers blooming everywhere.

There were pink tulips, red tulips, strange mixed colored tulips. Rainbow rows of tulips. Probably every tulip that ever grows.

There were flowers so dark they almost appeared black and little hearts hanging low to the ground. 

Everyone was ducked under umbrellas, but that didn't slow them down. People just kept pouring in the see the world famous "Spring Garden".

There was even a little petting zoo with pigs, goats, chickens, cows, and sheep. Ariana was determined to try to pet a chicken but they were too fast for her. She made fast friends with the pigs and the goats though.

After spending a morning in the wet gardens we were heading out to spend the afternoon in a nearby windmill town (that post will be tomorrow). As we were leaving the Keukenhof Gardens, we passed this beautiful red field of tulips and we had to pull over to take pictures. 

These weren't part of the Keukenhof, so we aren't sure who they belonged to but they made it clear they didn't want people traipsing through their tulips.

Ariana played photographer and snapped this picture of us. Pretty good, don't you think? I can't believe I let her hold my camera, even for that minute!

We spotted a rouge yellow tulip blooming in a sea of red.

It was a wonderful morning and if you made it through this post, thanks! I know it was VERY photo heavy but hopefully you enjoyed them and felt like you had a mini visit to the Keukenhof!

Part 3, the old windmill town and wooden shoe shop will be up tomorrow.

Part 1 - Holland's North Sea