Cherry Blossoms of Maymont

Hey Everyone!
Wanted to share the Cherry Blossoms of Maymont. I posted some in the Maymont post earlier this week but I really took a lot and wanted to have a post for just them. I wasn't able to get up to D.C. this past weekend for the peak blooming since it rained and all but I hope I made up for it with this! There was plenty of Cherry tree's and plum tree's in the Richmond area to see! Also check the post earlier this week from Maymont here.

Like I said in the post earlier on this week I ended up going to Maymont like three times in three days because the memory card wasn't saving them!

The Cherry Blossoms is a flowering part of many different trees from the genus Prunus. It can also be called Sakura in Japanese! 

Most of the varieties of this tree is now ornamental and hardly produces fruit.

Cherry Blossoms are edible and can even be pickled and served in hot water like serving tea. this is called Sakurayu.

 

Hanami is the name of when viewing parties go out and sit together to admire the beauty of the sakura blossoms in Japan.

I am happy that I didn't have to travel all the way to D.C. to find some Cherry trees. These were really breath taking.

 

Some were more pink then the other.

 

The cherry blossom had the meaning of life in Japan. The falling of a blossom from the tree was seen as a Samurai losing his life.

The great thing about Cherry trees is that before most trees bud out their leaves, these trees bud out their precious blossoms and instead of a green tree you can have and entire white tree.

Admiring the sites and beauty of these trees is something many can enjoy. The meaning of something so precious and beautiful is also so fragile and that it also shows the essence of life. 

I wish I spent more time with them. I wont lie, people over here do not admire the blossoms as those do in Japan.

I was happy to see them as I am happy with most things in nature. I hope you enjoyed seeing the blossoms!

Found some of the technical information over at Wikipedia

Taken with EOS T3i with 18-55mm IS II lens

Maymont March Madness

Hey Everyone!
So Maymont is lovely this year with new blooms from their cherry blossoms and other flowers all across the park! I hope you enjoy the photographs!

The Sakura (Cherry) tree on the other side of the pond in the Japanese Garden

I will have another post on the blossoms of the Sakura trees at Maymont, they are gorgeous



I am glad to see that the water in the pond and the water fall are full again. The koi are happy swimming all around.

Maymont on March 5th

Hey Everyon!
So how is everyone doing!
I went to Maymont a few weeks back with my dad, it happened to be the day before we had that snow fall!
We got there right as they were opening the gates.  Anyways I hope you enjoy the photos! I was happy to get dad out walking and enjoying some air!

We actually walked over to the Children's Farm Animal area just to see how they were doing at 9am!

Miss Hen was looking pretty good this morning, lonely and probably wanted a friend but still looked good

 

Mr. Bunny still keeping warm with his eyes shut catching those last minutes ZZ's

Of course the goats and sheep were up already grazing on the straw and hay that was put in there area. 

Thoughts of Future

Hey Everyone!
Haven't had a typically update in a while!
So last week I was on my last Spring Break as an undergrad college student. It was really relazing with amazing weather to enjoy the comings of spring. Lots o things were blooming up during the time like my mini azalea and all the other ones in the yard. I am sure to post more photos soon of what has been happening in the yard. I had a few appointments and it seams I will finally be going for surgery to fix my wrist problem. Sucks that I will be in a brace for a while but I should be good to go for Japan coming in mid May. Super excited about going to Japan, you have know idea.
I went to Bell Island not to long ago with my dad as well so those photos will be up soon too! I have been taking a lot of random nature photos and I hope to organize them enough to have them in certain posts. Also, this coming weekend I believe that I will be going up to D.C. with my mother because we want to see the Cherry (Sakura) Blossoms up there before they all fall off by the time the Matsuri Festival happens. Pretty excited about that. Also did anyone hear about the new exhibit in the History Museum in the Smithsonian? It is on the history of video games and they have a bunch of arcade games and console systems since the beginning of it all. Not only that but they will let you play them! Seams pretty cool, I might get a chance to check that out perhaps!
I will be stopping by Maymont today to get more photos as I head to night school. I bet there is a lot more in bloom there now!
I really enjoyed my Spring Break. It was a lot of free time and also time to reflect on things. I spent a great deal of time outside trimming azaleas and re-potting my plants. I spent the time mostly to get a sense of calm and peace. It was most appreciated and relaxing. It made me want to immerse myself more into nature without human interference. I loved hearing the wind in the trees, hearing the birds become active once again looking for that perfect place to set up a new home for there young. Watching over the week the trees starting to bud out with green tips. The woodpecker still going around looking for more bugs in the bark. Even on the warm day after a light rain, the annual termite swarms came from the ground flying in huge bundles spreading looking for a new place to colonize. Over all I felt happy to be outside and not being attacked by mosquitoes yet.
While be outside I thought about a lot of things. I thought about school of course but also about my future. What I really wanted with my life and such. I think I still really would love to do the Appalachian Trail next year, actually it would be just under a year I would get started on. I am not sure if I have ever mentioned this before but it was something brought up by my Uncle a few months back. It is something that you have to dedicate yourself to since it takes a lot of time and will power. I feel that I want to really immerse myself within nature and I can watch the it from Winter into Summer. Watching the entirety of Spring within nature is something that I will always remember through out my life I feel.
I have also been thinking about what I will do for work as well. I really love to travel and see all new things to me. Especially nature, I'd love to experience new landscapes and to capture what I feel in photography for others to appreciate. Stuff that is hard to make a living off of now that you think about it haha.
Lots of thinking lots of day dreaming, what happens I wont know for sure, I just know what I feel.

Ramune, do you like?

Hey Everyone!
So a while ago I did a post on Pocky and now I will on that special glass bottle of ramune! I enjoy a glass or so but I love to drink different things and usually a lot. These bottles are never enough for me and I wonder if it is because of the proportion sizes in Japan or Asia compared to the ones in America. Maybe haha.
Anyways I have tried a few different brands of this soda and flavors. My favorites are strawberry, peach and I do love mango too. Some of the other flavors are ones that my mother might pick up just to give to me, she is so nice!

So here are some flavor's that I usually do not get. Some empty bottles and unopened ones too! I'd have to say that melon one isn't a flavor that I extremely love. Also the regular (one in middle) is a little plain and if I am at a store and had the choice between that and Lychee or strawberry, I'd go with those then regular. Lychee is pretty yummy too!

Here are two brands, but as you can see I have had my share of Strawberry! I love strawberry flavored anything probably!

So what flavors do you like?

Snow in Early March

Hey Everyone!

So two Mondays ago on March 5th we had snow that morning! I still had to be downtown fro class at 9am so once again like that lst snow on a Monday morning I grabbed the camera for a few pictures before heading down. I woke up that morning thinking about the flurries that the weather said and I looked out my window and there was nothing. Nothing at all, just a cold looking morning with cloudy grey skies. I opened my laptop to check my emails, Facebook and the blogs really quick and look back out my window. Huge snow flakes were falling and it appeared to be sticking to the yard and such. Gosh I love snow, it is just beautiful! 

Once again our house with a back ground and foreground of snow and it is getting closer to Spring!

I wanted to get a shot with a faster shutter speed to see the snow frozen in time. Funny I should say it since technically it is frozen, not in time though :(

My lovely cold drive way. I am glad that we have Holly trees or this could look like dead trees everywhere with snow mixed in XD

Spring Break and my Mini Azalea

Hey everyone!
So I am currently on my Spring Break right now with a few days left. Oh darn. I am enjoying it a lot even though I am not going anywhere special. The weather is nice and I have been enjoying the growth that has started to happen outside and inside the house with our plants. Just this realizing time is all tat I really needed away from the stresses of the final semester of school. Anyways here are a few photos of my mini azalea that I have indoors.

Also we have a few Rosemary plants outside as well with their little flowers!

Midna out in the yard

Hey Everyone!
So anyways last week I was in the back yard and decided to take some photographs of Midna, my lovely kitty. She just being a kitty.

both of our cats sit right underneath the bird feeder thinking that they can get a free meal. What they don't realize is that they are plainly visible >_<

Maymont on a warm March day

Hey Everyone!
Went to Maymont awhile ago on a nice 70 + degree F day, was fantastic. There was quite a few people out at 12:30pm on a week day just enjoy the park and some of the magnolia flowers!

Big tour walking around the Japanese Garden enjoy the 100 years of its gorgeous scenery!

Down by the creek

Hey everyone!
So went down into the woods the other day to get some photos of this and that.
Just enjoying some air.

There are little fishies in there!

Walking in Maymont in Feb. 2012

Hey everyone!

So went to Maymont awhile ago after class just to walk around, nothing to special. I posted up the bamboo post from this trip earlier on so hope you like these a little. I hope to get out soon to Maymont for Spring!

Down  at the Italian Gardens...

I think I might get more into Black and White photography...

Oh! Some early flowers!

There was no one out!

 

Tried a few different settings when I took the photos on the camera. I believe white and grainy is the first, Intense is the second photo and the last is sepia obviously haha

It is a lovely house, even inside but cost a bit to get inside and I have been in there a few times...

Been getting into aperture settings and also focusing on different points...

Lovely flower on the side of a hill in the woods, don't think anyone else has seen it all alone own there...

Taken with Rebel T3i with 1-55mm IS II Lens