Thinking Of All Of You

Hello Everyone,

It has been a really long time since I sat down and posted a Sweet Southern Days blogpost. As you know, life gets busy and before you know it lots and lots of time goes by.  I hope all of you are doing well these unusual days as we all try to dodge "the virus."

Most of us here in North Florida, USA are safe and so far healthy.  The virus numbers in our town are low (332) as of today and most folks are trying to keep their distance and be safe.  That is pretty good for a population close to 300,000 in our county.

Some of us turned to garden chores to keep busy and stay away from the virus.  Spring here in North Florida is very pretty this year and makes a person want to be outside.  Some of my favorite outside plants are the Old Garden Roses.  The Old Garden Rose seen below is called a Katrina Rose or a Peggy Martin Rose. This hardy plant survived hurricane Katrina, which came through New Orleans a few years ago.  If you would like to know more about this rose you can click on the Southern Living link below, which tells all about this charming plant.

https://www.southernliving.com/home-garden/gardens/rose-survived-katrina

Many years ago we planted a Pink Perfection Camellia in memory of my dear sweet Mother. This lovely flower was her favorite. I picked some of these beautiful flowers growing in our side yard and added some Bridal Wreath Spirea, which is also blooming down the hill.  Love Springtime and Mom's favorite flowers.

From the photo below you can see how lovely and green everything is here this time of year.

We don't plant a garden every year, but this year seemed like a good time to plant the vegetable garden.

My husband brought out the tractor and got busy plowing and tilling the garden in preparation. 

I planted some tomato and green pepper plants from our local garden center and planted seeds for everything else, which included watermelon, sweet corn, okra, radishes, squash, bush beans, cucumbers, sunflowers, zinnia flowers and morning glory flowers.  Everything was planted about the first of April.  You can see in the below photo the corn rows just beginning to come up.

Just a couple of days ago I snapped the below photo showing how big the corn is getting.  I was able to see the corn tassels just beginning to peek out.  So far no critters have gotten into the garden.

And below we see the sunflower plants.

Below we see tomato plants and green pepper plants on the right.

I never have much luck growing tomatoes.  Crossing my fingers for this year.  So far, so good!!

A better picture of the corn.

They say that when the corn tassels appear it will be about 30 days until the corn is ready and ripe.  

 Able to pick a couple of squash for dinner last night.

And some radishes for last night's salad.

In the below photo you can see a morning glory vine climbing up the fence.

I love morning glories.

Years ago when we first started a garden I planted gladiola bulbs in the corners of the garden.  I think they are such a beautiful flower and are a joy to see when working down in the garden.  This pretty gladiolus flower looked like it was just waiting to have its picture taken a few evenings ago when I happened to have my camera with me down in the garden.

So, hopefully, the garden will continue to do well.  I am especially looking forward to getting corn and fresh tomatoes.  We have had bad luck in the past with raccoons knowing just the right time to climb the fence and pick all of the corn cobs.  This year we will be discouraging them by spraying deer repellent all around the fence.  If you have ever used that product you know how awful it smells being a combination of rotten eggs and garlic.  We know it keeps the deer away, but not sure about the raccoons.  So, we will see.

This entire weekend most everyone in the good ole USA is setting time aside to honor all of our fallen heroes who have given their lives in support of our country.  This is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, honoring the men and women who died in service to the U.S. Military.  It originated in the years following the Civil War, but did not become official until 1971.

To all of you out there I wish you a wonderful weekend, much peace, happiness, and safety as we all work together in support of ending this virus.  Blessings and safety to you wherever you may be.

Photos Taken With Apple iPhone XS Max and Canon 5D Mark III

Hello Everyone!  I hope you had a very blessed Easter and that you are enjoying these beautiful Spring days with soft breezes and pleasant temperatures.  Although, now, we are beginning to feel warmer temperatures more like Summertime.

For about ten years I was satisfied with my iPhone 3.  The only thing I used it for was to make and receive phone calls. Then I began to notice many other folks taking photos with their iPhone.  My poor iPhone 3 did not take very good pictures at all.  I love to take pictures and have very much enjoyed my wonderful Canon 5D Mark III camera.  I am not a real photographer, because I don't know how to use all the camera settings.  My thoughts are, if you have a good camera and use the "Auto" setting, then the photos should be pretty good.  Then I began to see all the advertisements for the new Apple iPhone XS wonderful camera.  With the iPhone being so small and handy I thought it was a good idea and decided to get one. Santa thought so too because on Christmas morning I found this wonderful gift under the Christmas tree.

I love the Apple iPhone XS Max because it is so light and easy to carry around.  The pictures are pretty amazing too. However, my Canon 5D is still my favorite, mostly because of the sharpness of the photos.  But, I have to say, sometimes it is hard to tell which camera was used because the iPhone photos are so good. 

I thought it would be fun to share with you miscellaneous photos I have taken with the iPhone XS camera and some photos with my Canon 5 D Mark III camera as well.

The below photo is the very first photo taken with my new iPhone XS camera.

I was sitting at the kitchen table with this cute Christmas gift coffee mug from my sweet sister.

I was so pleased with the color, lighting, and sharpness of this photo.   This photo was taken with only available light coming in from the kitchen window.

This next photo was also taken with the iPhone XS camera.

This is called a Pink Perfection Camellia which was my sweet Mother's favorite flower.

Shown below is the Pink Perfection Camellia bush
planted in memory of my dear Mother from many years ago.
It was just a little plant when planted.  Now, as you can see it has grown very tall.

This is another photo of the Pink Perfection.  Again, all taken with the iPhone camera.

Also taken with the iPhone we see a lovely sunset as we drive over the flyover in Tallahassee.
We were driving about 35 miles per hour when this photo was taken.

I love to collect the different Camella flowers growing around in our garden.  I thought they would make a pretty picture all collected together in an arrangement.

And below we see the same arrangement from the opposite side.
Again photos were taken with the iPhone.

Tallahassee is known for the many beautiful old Oak Trees in the area.  One day while pulling out of a parking lot I picked up my little iPhone and snapped a photo of these amazing trees.

My husband and I were invited to attend a fundraiser for the local Quincy, Florida Arts Festival. As we walked in the door I spotted this amazingly beautiful floral arrangement.  The flowers are what they call Snowballs and if you look closely you can see where the arrangement is filled in with Magnolia blossom branches.  Again the photo was taken with the small iPhone camera.

The lovely Katrina Rose was blooming so nicely out on the side yard arbor.
This photo and the next were taken with the iPhone.





This next photo of the arbor was taken with the Canon 5D.
This photo seems sharper.  And the color is different also.

This Confederate Rose was blooming so nicely out on the front fence.  As I was driving by, it was so handy to pull out my little iPhone to snap this photo and the next close up photo.

And when the Wild Azaleas were blooming I used the iPhone to snap the next two photos.

The Confederate Jasmine has been blooming for a couple of weeks now.  The below photos shows the front walkway arbor totally filled with blossoms from this delightfully fragrant plant.
This photo and all the following photos were taken with the Canon 5D camera.

I continued on around to the back side yard and spotted the Irises blooming.



A close up of the Irises ...



Looking out over the back yard to the left we spot the white Cherry Tree blooming.



A close up photo of the pretty white Cherry blossoms.



And, had to snap a photo of the back patio planter filled with colorful Petunias.




And, on the back porch, we see this lovely Maidenhair Fern.
I love the delicate little petals of this pretty fern.



Walking back around to the front I snapped a photo of the front of the house.  I love this time of year when everything has turned beautifully green again.



And the last photo shows an early morning sun shining through the trees in the front side yard.
Again, this photo was taken with the Canon 5D.

I love taking the camera and trying to capture some of the amazing beauty all around.  Spring is such a beautiful time of year when Mother Nature has magically given all of us so much beauty to admire.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit.

Wishing you many blessings as we all enjoy the rest of this beautiful Springtime.