Photo-a-Day Week 43

As I started collecting the photos for this week from my posts, I found I had misnumbered most of the week's photos. I was all excited, I had reached number 300!! It wasn't #300, it was 299. Next week start with 300. Whatever the numeral, we are getting close to the end of the year. It has been an interesting project to get a new photo each day and not use my rather large library of photos from past years. While getting a new photo each day isn't the challenge, it is not to repeat subjects- or at least make them appear new. You will see more than one photo of my pets, but they are doing something different. Hoping to keep you, my audience, interested and coming back for more is the job!

Day 293-

Fiona is an insistent dog, she wants to go out and play all the time! She is a Border Collie and will do her best Border Collie stare to get me to move. Sometimes it works, but not always.  

I want to go out and play

Day 294-

This building is on a corner that we pass at least once a week, it is across the street from a gas station that has been redone recently. I don't know anything about the history of this building but am sure there are stories to be found! 

Days Gone By

Day 295-

Foggy mornings draw me to try and get a photo of the misty fog and the light of the morning sun, shining through. The fog that rolls across the lake in the morning is also a scene I would like to capture. As we move into the cooler weather, I hope to get a fog on the lake picture. 

Foggy morning

Day 296-

This day, I was a little hard pressed to find a subject to photograph.. Turns out a few bananas, a couple of avocados, and an overripe pear were good to capture. The black and white show the shapes and shadows. 

Still life in black and white

Day 297-

This week I was getting my houseplants ready to come back in the house from the screened porch and found a couple frogs on the plants. The first one was a Green Tree Frog, I didn't take a photo of it. The second one I came across was this little guy, Cope's Gray Tree Frog. It was chilly, and he wasn't moving very quickly. Once I picked it off the plant to move it into the garden, I expected it would jump off my hand right away. He didn't. I think it was glad to be in my warm hand. I placed it on the branch of the Edgeworthia at the bottom of the deck steps. It was there for a good while before hopping off to a good spot. 

Cope's Gray Tree Frog

Day 298-

Driving to our friends' house for dinner, we had glimpses of a sliver of a crescent moon. The sky was beautiful as the sun was setting, giving it the oranges and reds on the horizon. 

Crescent moon at sunset

Day 299-

There are a lot of churches in our county. Some with pointed steeples with a cross on top, some, like this one, are brick with a fortressed bell tower. It is the Main Street United Methodist Church. More church steeples to come in the coming weeks. 

Methodist

Here are the photos not chosen-

First, our little tree frog. I wanted you to see how little this little frog was. Such a cute little frog. I find the Cope's Gray Tree Frogs every so often. Love their coloring.

An attempt to capture the fog on the lake from the deck. It was not a great representation of the foggy morning.

As Fiona was sitting at the front door, staring at me to go outside, Liebling was just chilling, staring, wondering if we would go and play.

This concludes the review of last week's photos.  Please come again! Keep thinking about your favorite photo!

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 42

Week 42, a few more plant photos than in previous weeks. I did have a choice of several photos on one day, Day 290. Remember to be thinking about which one of the 365 photos is your favorite as the year draws to a close. 

Day 286-

Millie came out to the living room area to watch as Charlie adjusted the front door. It wasn't closing properly, and there was a lot of opening and closing of said door. All the animals were interested in what was happening.

Watching from a safe spot

Day 287-

We had a nice, clear, warm/pleasant day, so Charlie decided to stain the deck. He had cleaned it over the previous days. Not a fun job, but needed to be done to protect the wood on the deck. 

Staining the Deck

Day 288-

Some of my dogwood trees are starting to show their fall color. This one is also showing the fruit from last year's blooms and the tiny minarets of next year's blooms. Dogwoods, Cornus florida, bloom in the early spring with tiny yellow flowers. The white bracts that surround the flowers are often mistaken for the petals of the flowers. 

Last spring and next spring

Day 289-

When I take the dogs outside to play in the morning, many times there is a lone Mourning Dove just sitting very still in the grass. I wasn't sure if it would fly away when I tried to get a photo, but this dove stayed put for a quick photo. Getting a photo of a bird with a cell phone isn't easy, the zoom isn't very long-reaching. 

Mourning Dove

Day 290-

Walking through the backyard I was tickled to see one of the Cyclamen was blooming. I have several Cyclamen neapolitanum planted in the wooden area of the garden. I see the leaves but often miss the blooms. 

Cyclamen

Day 291-

I am lucky to have a pair of Persimmon trees in our yard. They produce some fruit, though not a lot. 

Persimmons, Diospyros virginiana, need two trees, male and female, to bear fruit. The male and female trees in my front yard almost look like a double trunked single tree. The pollinators love the blooms.

Persimmon

Day 292-

Our trees are starting to show their fall colors, and the morning light hitting the leaves makes them shine. The yellow leaves in the photo are one of the many hickories we have in our yard. The sky in the background was dark with rain clouds. We could use the rain, though we were only graced with a small amount. I checked the gauge, 4/100" of rain. First reports were an anticipation of 2/10", and it was an over exaggeration. I will be sharing the side yard foliage over the next few weeks. The lot to the left sold and the new owners are moving ahead with plans to build. The lot line is pretty close to the garden edge, so the look will be changing for sure.  

Fall colors with dark skies

The day I found the Cyclamen blooming, I got a few other photos. It was a tough choice between the one chosen and the ones below. Please enjoy Rudbeckia laciniata, a small fern in the crevice of a rock, Calico aster- Symphyotrichum lateriflorum, and a tiny toad. I think the toad is a Fowler's Toad, but not sure.

Would you have chosen differently? 

Be sure to subscribe to the posts on Substack. The link to my Substack page is  https://janetledebuhr.substack.com/

I hope you are thinking about your favorite one! See you next week.

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 41

Week 41 seems to have more blooms with butterflies; Fall brings an abundance of these winged beauties. I need to read more about Fritillary butterflies. I have seen some that are quite a bit smaller than the ones I have pictured below. 

Day 279-

I noticed this tiny mushroom in the garden and bent down to photograph it. After looking at what I captured I realized there was a small snail on the mushroom. Before the photo, I thought it was a bump on the mushroom. Pays to lean in and look closely!

Snail on Mushroom

Day 280-

The Pineapple Sage, Salvia elegans, blooms in October and it attracts Cloudless Sulphur butterflies. With the sun behind the butterfly, it really glowed. 

Cloudless Sulphur on Pineapple Sage

Day 281-

These beauties are Gulf Fritillary butterflies. As I mentioned above, I have seen smaller Fritillary butterflies, and after reading more, I found that there are several Fritillary butterflies in South Carolina. Perhaps the ones I see that are smaller are the Variegated Fritillary.  These are enjoying the nectar of the Ironweed that is blooming in the garden. 

Fritillary butterflies on Ironweed

Day 282-

We arrived at the grocery store this week to find a fire truck sitting by the entrance. I have no idea if anything was wrong. I tried a few views of the truck to see if I could get a good photo. While I used this one, I had others from which to choose. Still not sure if this was the better choice.  One of the other choices is below.

Fire truck at the grocery store

Day 283-

I have had this Encore azalea for years. The deer have pruned it over the years, taking flower buds away with the tasty leaves. For some reason, the deer allowed it to bloom this fall. Encore azalea 'Autumn Twist' blooms twice, once in the spring and then in the fall. 

Encore!

Day 284-

We went to a concert in Greenville this week, at the Radio Room. I like the open ceiling where you can see the ductwork and structure supporting the ceiling and lighting throughout the area. 

Radio Room

Day 285-

I try to use fewer paper napkins. By the dining room table is a basket full of colorful cloth napkins. When the kids visit, everyone is assigned a color, and that is their napkin for a meal or two. They wash easily and when they are worn out, they make good dusters. 

Rainbow Selection

Discarded photos-

I didn't choose the black and white image of the fire truck because I wanted a bit of the color to pop. This filter is from an app called 'Prisma'. Some of the filters are free, and others are behind a paywall. I only use the free ones.

The day I chose the Cloudless Sulphur on Pineapple Sage, I also had this little beauty in the possible photos. It is interesting to see the inner spiral of the snail shell. While not the first choice, worth sharing.

This brings another week to a close. There are only eleven weeks to go! Keep coming back, at the end of the year I would love to hear which were your favorites! 

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.

Photo-a-Day Week 40

Week 40, how about that! It seems that each week is going by quickly. The latter part of the week, we were at our twice-a-year music festival, the Albino Skunk Music Festival. Going to Skunk Fest lends itself to getting some fun photos. Hope you enjoy this week's offering of photos. Remember to subscribe to this blog on Substack. Here's the link- https://janetledebuhr.substack.com/  go to the page and click the subscribe button. The follow.it email subscription is now just sending advertisements and the link to my blog. When I signed up to follow.it, the entire post was in the email, now, none of it is. 

Day 272-

About every two weeks, I take apart our robot vacuum, wash the filters, and replace them with dry ones. With two dogs and a cat, we have a lot of hair and dust that is picked up. Buying a second set of filters for both the robot and upright vacuums was a great idea. The drying ones were on the kitchen counter, with the lamp light shining through. 

Vacuum guts

Day 273- 

I was surprised to see my Bottlebrush blooming. Callistemon viminalis 'Woodlander's Hardy' has been renamed to be Melaleuca viminalis 'Woodlander's Hardy'. It usually blooms in the summer, early summer. The fact that it is blooming now is not usual. 

Bottlebrush

Day 274-

If you have been a reader of my blog for a long time, you know I have written about various trees. The Beech tree, Fagus grandifolia, is one on my list. None of the photos I have of the Beech tree includes the nut. These nuts are edible. How many of you remember beechnut gum? While the gum bears the name of the Beech tree, and a logo of a stylized beech tree, it does not contain any part of the tree. This tree is in my neighbor's front yard. I told her the other day that the tree was bearing nuts. She didn't know that it had nuts this year. If you want to read more about an American Beech, here's a link to my post. http://thequeenofseaford.blogspot.com/2010/03/tuesdays-trees-american-beech-fagus.html

Beech Nut

Day 275-

While driving into town, we encountered a traffic backup. You can see a log truck up the line of vehicles. There was road work going on. The intersection roadway was in such bad condition, really glad it was getting fixed. One part of the road was like a washboard. Really bumpy!!!

Traffic in Greenwood

Day 276-

Our first day at Skunk fest, the sky was so blue. There wasn't a cloud in sight, the sun was shining, and the post oak we were sitting under was providing dappled shade. It was a perfect fall day. 

Blue Skies

Day 277-

What's more fun than a disco ball? A disco ball with bubbles all around it! The sunlight was hitting the little mirrors but the bubbles really put it over the top. 

Bubbles and bling

Day 278-

After you walk through the entrance to the Skunk farm, on your way to where the stage is, you pass a message board (for lack of a better word). This covered board has almost all the posters from the festivals over the years. Hurricane Helene hit the area, and the previous posters were ruined. I am glad there were more to replace those. Each poster is a great memory of past music. We have been going to Albino Skunk Fest for fifteen years, and loved every minute of it. 

Skunk history

Not used photos--

Like I said at the top of the post, there were lots of possible photos from which to choose. There are multiple metal lawn chairs around the grounds. This was a sitting area, just behind the message board pictured above. 

Rusty metal gears and little mirrors make some interesting mobiles to catch the sunlight.

Nice line-up of chairs, preset for the viewing of the music. Getting photos of rusty chairs is like getting photos of fog, I am drawn to it!

Last photo in the line-up is of the bib of my husband's overalls. Friday was overalls day. I looked around for a good picture of a row of bibs, but only got this one of Charlie's. 

Thanks for stopping by again for this past week's photo of the day. Be sure to check out the Substack link.

©Copyright 2025 Janet. All rights reserved. Content created by Janet for The Queen of Seaford. words and photos by Janet, The Queen of Seaford.