I took the scenic route on the way to do errands in downtown Newport - down Old Beach Road to Easton's Pond, across Memorial Blvd. to Easton's Beach, around the corner to hit a stretch of the Cliff Walk, and a stroll through the Salve Regina University area. Naturally, I had the camera with me.
An unidentified flowering shrub along Old Beach Road.
Least Sandpipers foraging along the moat around Easton's Pond.
The very large, very ancient Snapping Turtle who lives in the moat. My friend Nikki calls it the "Primordial Beast".
Yellow Wood Sorrel along the Cliff Walk.
Scarlet Pimpernel along the Cliff Walk.
Royal Paulonia along the Cliff Walk. This tree was imported from China by garden landscapers in the 19th Century, purportedly to add a little "oriental" exoticism to the gardens they were designing for the oceanfront mansions. They've spread out from those gardens since then.
Beach Rose along the Cliff Walk. This flower is ubiquitous along the New England coast.
Wisteria hanging decorously from a porch roof on Webster Ave.© 2010 by A. Roy Hilbinger
I love Wisteria.
ReplyDeletegorgeous photos as usual......aren't those azaleas in the first photo?
ReplyDeleteSteph - We have lots of Wisteria around here. Which surprised me when I first moved here; I'd always thought of Wisteria as a Southern phenomenon, but it looks as good on gingerbread Queen Anne houses as it does on Tara.
ReplyDeleteLo - Thanks! And that isn't Azalea; the flowers are huge and bell shaped, whereas Azalea flowers are much smaller than these and much flatter.
And how else would you hang if you were wisteria, if not decorously?
ReplyDeleteOh I love that photograph of the snapping turtle. From what I can recall from keeping terrapins when I was younger, it is appropriately named.
ReplyDeleteThe flowers are beautiful, expertly photographed with sensitivity, as always. But I was most delighted to scroll down and see what I thought to be some grass in shallow water with the muddy bottom showing through, and a rock. What a humble and adventurous shot, I thought. Double delight when I clicked and saw the Primordial Beast! I tried, as a child, to have a young one as a pet, but Mamaw made me turn it loose. I just put it in the ditch, by the culvert out front. A couple years later one of the neighbors killed a huge snapper, in the ditch, about two blocks down the street. Mine you could hold in one hand(but wouldn't want to). The one they killed was the size of a grown man's chest. Had he lived in the ditch and grown that large? In two years, maybe less? I always thought it was him, and that Buddy Mann was a jerk for killing him.
ReplyDeleteYou must have to take 10 pictures for every one that you show here. But you make it look pretty easy.
ReplyDeleteThanks everybody!
ReplyDeleteK - Heh, heh! 10 is conservative, especially on the birds. God bless digital photography! If I was doing this on film, I'd have had to stop shooting months ago because I wouldn't have any more money for film and developing.
really fabulous images - especially the turtle.
ReplyDeleteLove your scenic route - as a photographer (amateur) I appreciate the work and your eye for composition
ReplyDeleteAhhhhh.... very gratifying images, Roy. Curious to know what camera you're using. Canon?
ReplyDeleteRoy ,I always come away from your blog feeling refreshed & Inspired.'Wonderful Life!
ReplyDelete[p.s. Ultimate Respect to your Primordial Beast!]