Don't leave!

If you use Google Reader, you know that it's shutting down for good on July 1, and you'll need to find a new blog reader this weekend. It's pretty easy to export all your blog subscriptions from Google Reader and import them into another reader such as Feedly or The Old Reader.

A more reliable way to follow my blog (without the need for a reader) is to just subscribe via email. Below is a handy form for you to fill out! Don't worry, you won't get spammed if you subscribe. You will receive emails with my posts a couple of times per week (on the evening they are posted). You can easily unsubscribe anytime.

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I hope I don't lose any of my subscribers as a result of Google deciding to shut down their Reader. I have just transferred the blogs I follow over to The Old Reader for now, and I can always switch from there if I don't like it.

Thanks again to all of you who read, even if only occasionally. I really appreciate it. :)

Schreiner's Iris Garden

About a million years ago, my friend Deborah and I went to Shreiner's Iris Garden in Keizer to take some pictures. I wasn't really feeling it (which means I only took maybe 150 photos instead of 400 :P) but I do have a handful of pictures to share and I know Deborah was curious to see them. Many are not of irises since I've taken so many in the past. (You can see more irises if you click on the Schreiner's tag.)

I always get a little addicted to photographing these, for some reason.

Deborah gives us a little size comparison for these poppies. NOTE: Deborah is like 6 feet tall.

I couldn't decide where I wanted to focus.

The lovely Deborah. In the first photo I joked that she was so proper with her sitting posture, so the right picture is her response.

Some people's houses meet up with this public garden, which would be kind of interesting for those residents. I am sure many people mistakenly walk into the yards that aren't gated.

The plant nursery/store had lots of cute flowers.

After we left the garden, Deborah was really nice about pulling over in different places so I could get more pictures.

Like with this iris field. I've never been here or taken pictures because it's not really open to the public (that I know of). But there aren't signs saying to keep out, either, and we were able to drive on a dirt road so I could get out and walk around in them.

These pictures remind me how much I need to improve with landscape photography. For such a cool subject, the photos are pretty bland.

Drive by.


There you go! Thanks for looking, and thanks again to Deborah for accompanying me to the garden, and chauffeuring me around the iris fields. :)

Goslings

Remember these little guys? I have been taking pictures of them every so often and have tracked their growth progress. The above photos were taken on May 5th. I don't know how old they were, but I would guess just a couple of weeks at most. They have grown so fast since then!


May 20:
I didn't see them as often in the first weeks of May, and their parents were more scared and protective, so walking toward them would basically make them swim away quickly. This was taken from my deck, and it was the only one I got this day.

My neighbor said that the litter (is that the word for birds?) started out 9: 5 and 4 from two sets of parents. But then the 9 became 6 and eventually 6 became 3 before they were large enough to not be a meal for a fox or whatever. Something else of interest that my friend Dan discovered with a little web research is that apparently the parents lose their flying feathers when they have babies, and they don't grow back in fully for up to 40 days.


May 25:
Then over Memorial weekend, I was able to take a million pictures. Please excuse the mess all over the ground. My neighbor feeds the ducks and geese, so they hang out here a lot and it's looking pretty bad.

Not a great photo, but this also shows the size compared to some mallards.

It was interesting to observe the behavior of the parents as the goslings grew. Initially, like I said, they were very scared and always close to their babies. And the mallards weren't always welcome company--the father goose often ran them off into the water. Poor ducks!

Just chillin.


June 6:
They've started showing some adult feathers. The mallards are now totally part of the gang and I never see them chased off anymore. I think once the size of the goslings exceeded the size of the ducks, the parents figured it was okay for them to hang out together.

Honk.

More chillin.

Just a funny photo of the dad.

He doesn't appreciate me getting close and hisses when I do. But he doesn't realize that the jokes on him: he looks like a total dork when hissing! I'm not really sure what would happen if I kept walking closer--would he nip at me or get scared and leave? Does anyone have some geese experience to share?


Today:
You may also be able to tell that now I'm taking pictures with macro lens and they are so much crisper. The lighting and color is better, too. Love!

Pretty soon I won't be able to tell the parents from the kids!

It's really nice out today, and I'm hoping to take more pictures. I know you're surprised. But I also have to do some chores, and this post was part of me procrastinating, so it's time to go!