Five blogs in five days

Hi again,

I'm ashamed to realize it has been 3 months since I shared a blog with you.   Please forgive me. 

As a reward for your patience, how about we get caught up with five blogs in five days?    I'll get you caught up on some of my photography adventures this spring and early summer with a blog posting each day for the next five days. 

Let's revisit the spring wild flowers from April.

One of my favorite spring wild flowers are the beautiful trout lily.    This display was captured in the Rocky River Reservation of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Keeping with the trout lily images, here is one from Hinckley Reservation of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Here is the state wild flower of Ohio - the white trillium.   This one from Brecksville Reservation of the Cleveland Metro Parks.

Another white blossom from the Brecksville Reservation - this one is the delicate rue anemone.

Part of the daffodil family, the fragrant jonquils are a annual spring treat both to the eyes and the nose.

One of the more exotic looking spring blossoms is blue cohosh.   These blooms are from the Furnace Run area of the Summit Metro Park.

This early bloom is the exotic looking Dutchman Breeches down in the Brandywine Gorge of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

We'll conclude the blog with an under appreciated wild flower - the marsh marigold from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Tomorrow we'll examine some of the landscapes I've captured over the last few months. 

Exploring a new place

One of the exciting parts of nature photography is discovering a new place to photograph.  That is part of the incentive for people to travel to far and distant locations to explore a new place with a camera.

Sometimes we don't have to travel far to discover these new areas.    The Metro Parks of Summit County (based around Akron Ohio) acquired this former farm property in 2011 and is transforming it into a prairie  landscape.    You can read more about this at the Metro Parks web site:  Springfield Bog

There is a wide variety of birds and wild flowers that are slowly reclaiming the land.  The colorful picture above is mainly garden coreopsis and clover with a bit of daisy fleabane mixed in.

With the passing of years to come, it will be fascinating to see how this area changes back into a more native type of vegetation.  

The other variety of coreopsis that is in bloom right now is lance leaved coreopsis.   They make for a colorful yellow amongst the grasses and other plants in the area.

There is a loop hiking trail around the property that is worth walking early in the morning with dew and fog coming off the lush prairie plants.

GORGEous Winter

The gorge locations around northern Ohio can be filled with winter magic.    When the ice forms, certain locations take on a mystical quality of ice and, color and water.

One such area is the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Falls Ohio.   This dramatic scene is right in the middle of a highly urbanized area, but still retains the rugged remote feel of a wild gorge.  

At one time this location was called the 'Niagara Falls' of Ohio.

It is easy to understand why.

When explored by foot, the grand majesty of the torrential water can because a calm and peaceful study of micro ice formations when the water stagnates.