Daffodils and Spring Blooms

Welcome, spring…finally! It’s been a long, cold winter…lots of rain! Our Cascade and Olympic Mountains have received record snow amounts…great news for spring skiers and good news for our summer water supplies as well! The traditional spring blooms seems to be a little slow this season due to all the cold temps we had the past 2 months, but with temps expected to dramatically warm up in the coming week, I expect to see a sudden burst of blooms throughout all the public gardens. Right now, the majority of blooms are the anemones, daffodils, magnolias and rhododendrons. Tulips are just starting to bloom. Enjoy some of my spring photos posted below.

Camellia

Bicolor Daffodils

Cherry Blossoms

Pasque Flower

White Daffodils

Anemones (Grecian Windflowers)

Blue Eyed Mary

Heather

Star Magnolia

Trilliums

Trout Lily (Erythronium)

Reticulated Iris

Rhododendron

Yellow Daffodils

Chinese Paperplant

All images property of Peggy A Thompson

Flaming Autumn Japanese Maple Trees

Japanese Maple trees are in their prime, autumn colors, right now. I love taking photos of their flaming colors and gnarly branches. It takes a special technique to capture silhouettes of their gnarly, snake-like branches and may involve some crawling around on the ground to get underneath their low hanging canopies. But, it is so worth it! Here are a few images I captured.

All photos property of Peggy A Thompson

If you enjoy my photography, please consider visiting my Northwestphotos store.

Flaming Colors in a Japanese Garden

We had a slow start to the autumnal turning of leaves this season. I contribute the slow color change to our mild temps we’ve experienced over the past month. But all that has been fixed now, with a few, hard freezes we recently experienced. I ventured out over this past weekend to our local Japanese garden, at Point Defiance Park, and was delighted to find the Japanese Maples displaying their optimal, flaming colors. Here are a few photos I have to share.

All images property of Peggy A Thompson

If you enjoy my photography, please consider visiting my Northwestphotos store.

Beautiful Dahlias

I visited my local park gardens last week and found these magnificent Dahlias still in bloom. They are such hardy plants and last well into the autumn. The bumblebees especially love them, all well as other bees, hoverflies, and butterflies. I love to take photos of the bees while on the flowers and to notice the different species. Here are a few photos of some of the many varieties of Dahlias.

All images property of Peggy A Thompson

A Sunny Day at Dune Peninsula

Took advantage of the sunny, warm weather to spend an afternoon at Dune Peninsula, part of the Tacoma Metropolitan Parks. It’s a new park that was named after the science fiction novel “Dune.” There’s even sculptures in the park that are fashioned after the giant sandworms in the novel. The park setting is very picturesque with views of Puget Sound and Mount Rainier.  Here’s a few photos I took.