Flowers in the Garden

Summer is almost here, and it looks beautiful!  After saving for ages, I finally got a "real" digital camera, and took it out into a garden (not my own, not yet) to see what it could do.  These were taken in Schoorl - a small village near Alkmaar. 

In Dutch, a 'bij' is collecting pollen. 

Now he just thinks I'm following him...

Beautiful colors and textures.

I know I keep saying this, but flowers are my favorite to photograph.

There is an infinite variety, adding beauty to our world.

So many people in this part of the country have amazing gardens.

The Pansy has been a favorite of mine since childhood.

Doesn't it make you feel happy to look at flowers?  May your day be filled with beauty too.
:)

Juni in Nederland & Duitsland

June has been a busy month for me, working on a lot of screenplays and coverage reports - but now that I'm done I have time to 'see' the world through a lens.  Since my own eyes don't work well, sometimes snapping a photo is the only way I can catch the details around me.  At the moment I have glasses that help me see things in the distance a little better, but no prescription to help with seeing things close by.  I know things are there, but pretty much the entire world is (all three of them with my vision) is always blurry.   

I have a few photos to share that were taken with my old camera - and some taken with my new (used) Olympus (thank you to Used Products Alkmaar for a special deal). 

Both my cameras have auto-focus, thank goodness!  I love to be able to study the details of images; colors and textures, and as you may have noticed, I also love flowers - so there are a lot of those images in my blog.  Makes me feel happy to see them.

I'm not sure where this is, but I love going through a canopy of trees.

This is the route the GPS told us to take.  Not sure how to open the gate...

Somewhere in Germany.  A castle overlooking a medieval village.

Also in Germany.  Raining, but still gorgeous.

Back in the Netherlands.

I was told these used to be grain silos - now it looks like they are apartments or offices.  Beautiful recycling!

Thought I'd add a photo of industry.  Not normally my thing, but also something I don't normally see around here.

Somewhere in the Netherlands, as seen from the back of a motorcycle.

Modern life in front of us, waiting for a (swing) bridge to close, and reflected in the mirror are old homes, and old me.

I'll try and add some more later, but right now it's the Dutch-German football match, so I have to go!
:)