Project 52 (40) + Oregon Garden

I know that this is a poor photo, technically speaking, but it seemed like the best representation of "everyday life" that I had this week. Especially for kids this time of year. It all happened so fast that I had no time to adjust my camera's settings (and then the frog jumped out of the girl's hand), so there you go.

That was taken at the Oregon Garden yesterday, so I'll put the rest of my photos in this same post.


This is the only photo I took of flowers. It was an unusual visit. I had a weird day, and due to the weather, many animals were out that I usually wouldn't see, so I ended up just taking creature photos and not bothering with the rest.

(If you don't like snake pictures, you'll want to just skip this post.)


Another bad photo (sorry, but it's true!), but I wanted to remember this silly koi in the pond. It kept going around the edge and sucking at the rocks. I've never seen my parents' koi do this. You could even hear the sucking noises from across the water. It's a plecostomus in training, I guess.


At first I couldn't see any frogs, but there were several tadpoles/pollywogs/whatevers.


After missing a photo op of a heron catching a frog, I was feeling grouchy at myself for not being prepared and sulkily walked back behind the pond where I found not one but two garter snakes hanging out in the sun. That sort of made up for my heron miss.






Then there was this woodpecker.



Later I saw a/the heron again. This time I was determined to get a picture of it catching a fish or frog, but gave up my resolve after standing there for like ever while it basically stood motionless.


I should note that the animals at the garden must be extremely used to humans, because I've never been this close to a heron. Instead of being skittish when someone walked nearby, it was like he thrived on the attention. For that reason, these photos seem kind of cheaty and less rewarding, like I was at a zoo.


There were plenty of red-wing blackbirds out.


Finally I started noticing the frogs. It's one of those situations where once you see one of them, you better know what to look for and you see several that have been out all along.




I'm sure I'll be going back soon to take photos of the actual garden areas. By the way, did you know there is a resort at the Oregon Garden? (Too bad about their website, though. :P) I learned only a couple of months ago, though I think it's been around for at least a couple of years. It looks nice (I had to go to the front desk to get some passes). I wouldn't mind staying there, even though Silverton is only half an hour from me.

Unrelated: last night I dreamed that I saw two pink and purple hummingbirds (I'm sure they exist, but not in Oregon). I kept trying to get photos but then would notice my camera was off, or it was backwards (?), or I couldn't focus. Typical photography dream. But eventually I did get a couple of photos. I only wish I could show you!