It was pretty while it lasted!

The following wildflowers were in bloom during the month of June.  I have them listed in order when taken. The first image is wild alfalfa. It was all over and so pretty when in full bloom.  The bumble bees seem to love them too!

This Black-eyed Susan was different from the rest with brown markings on the leaves. There were several wildflowers sprouted up this year that were a nice surprise!

I like how this unfruited one is hidden among the other Black-eyed Susans. :)

This lead plant was popular and plentiful!  You need to get up close to this plant to appreciate the pretty colors.

These hoary vervain wildflowers are a common sight and are still in bloom. I purposely took this at sunset to give them a backlit effect.

The yard was so beautiful with the yellow coneflowers and purple prairie clovers (next below)!

This bug was leary of me. He looks cute trying to hide in this green comet milkweed plant!

This is a new plant that sprouted up this year called the Golden dalea aurea.  Some little birdie sitting along the fence probably planted these!

Another new plant this year... the white prairie clover and there were several of these around!

Last but not least, the wild bergamot sprouted up along our driveway in a small area.  These flowers remind me of someone with messy hair!  Shows you that God has a good sense of humor!

I took lots of wildflowers images in June and these are my favorites.  Hope you enjoyed!

Beautiful wildflowers and a silly bug!

One of our neighbors' dirt driveway has become overgrown with beautiful wildflowers--blue sage wildflowers and pink evening primrose.  These blue wildflowers open up in the morning and close their petals when the temperature soars so this was a morning capture. (see comments below)

This is a macro image of the blue sage wildflower.

This silly bug was enjoying this pink evening primrose wildflower and didn't seem to mind his photo taken!

These pretty pink flowers are catclaw sensitive briers.  They look so pretty against a green grass background!

Purple coneflowers are a faithful wildflower around the Smith Ranch!

I love this macro image of an unfruited Black-eyed Susan!  The macro image lets you see things you would have never seen before like the hair on the leaves of this wildflower.

This milkweed is called antelope horns which I think is a very fitting name!

Purple prairie clover were very much in abundance this year!

I was so excited to happen upon this wildflower called the Red Mexican hat.  These are the only two that I could find on the Ranch!  

Bird planted mulberry trees, pretty weeds and wildflowers

This purple poppy mallow or low poppy mallow were growing wild near our rosebushes.  I was able to capture this image before our puppies happily tromped on them as they love to play near me when I'm outside.  See more comments below...

I pulled these roundleaf groundsel out of the ground and placed in front of some purple wildflowers to get this colorful background.

This is some type of weed that I haven't been yet able to identify.  The colors caught my attend while I was scouting for wildflowers in our nearby woods.

There were lots of these musk mallow wildflowers here on the ranch.  This one is my favorite capture!

So we discovered we have two mulberry trees that some birds planted in our yard.  This one is in our front yard and the birds don't know how much we appreciate them planting this one to give us more privacy in our yard!

No, this is not a dandelion, but a goats beard wildflower.  They look similar but this feathery seed head is much larger than a dandelion.

Beautiful tiny rosebuds and roses!

The recent rainy weather was a great opportunity to capture macro images of our red knockout rosebush in our front yard.  The first image is a tiny rosebud taken from overhead.  These images were taken over a course of several days under different lighting; hence, the different look of each rose.  Enjoy!

Fabian and Andrea ride the buckboard

In case you are wondering what a buckboard is, it is a four-wheeled wagon meant to be drawn by a horse or other large animal. The "buckboard" is the front-most board on the wagon that acts as both a footrest for the driver and protection for the driver from the horses' rear hooves in case of a "buck."

Our neighbors had the buckboard set out near the road a couple years ago with a "Free" sign on it.  We used it for a display then my hubby recently remodeled it and enjoys hauling folks around by pulling the buckboard with the lawn tractor!

Fabian and Andrea were the second folks privileged to ride on it.  We fitted them both with cowboy hats and boots to match the theme.  Here are both of their favorites from their "buckboard" excursion!  Enjoy!

Macro images taken at the Smith Ranch

These are the first macro images taken with our Sony mirrorless camera.  The first image is a lilac bush bloom taken from above.  See comments below for the remaining images.

This looks like dried baby's breath.  We had a lot of this on our ranch.

Not sure what this dried wildflower is but this is the actual color of it and I think it looks antique!

Easter red cedars have these blue berries on them and they are real small but look big here because of the macro lens.  By the way, this is not a cedar tree but a juniper.

These blue wild-indigo are the first plants to bloom in the spring.  As I was taking these two photos, I didn't realize a bug was peeking out at me which you can see in the image after this one.

Just discovered this early spring plant as the Fringed Puccoon.  Native Americans used the roots, stems, and leaves to treat coughs, cold, delirium, and paralysis, and obtained a bluish-violet dye from the roots. "Puccoon" is a Native American word.

This Roundleaf Groundsel wildflower belongs to the Sunflower family. These wildflowers/flowers were all pretty much tiny flowers, but the macro lens makes them look large.  It was fun photographing these flowers and I hope you enjoyed them too!

San Antonio's Riverwalk and Japanese Tea Garden

Last month I attended Imaging USA held at the Convention Center in downtown San Antonio, Texas.  A photographer friend and I visited the Riverwalk after class one night to capture images and also to the Japanese Tea Garden the morning before we caught our flight back home.  The Japanese Tea Garden was still beautiful even though flowers weren't in season. Below the two images taken from the Riverwalk are images at the garden to include The Pavilion, a waterfall and stone bridge, rock-lined walking paths, koi fish, and more.  Enjoy!

This building is called a pagoda.

We were fortunate that the waterfall had running water since Texas can be very dry at times.

An isolated outpost at the garden that faces south.

You can see the waterfall in the distance from this rock-lined path.

This path leads from the garden to the nearby San Antonio Zoo.

This tree with berries was the only thing that seemed to have any color at the garden besides the color fish below.

The koi fish seemed friendly and unfortunately we didn't have any food to give them.