This past weekend was a bit of a cold and ugly one in New York, so I didn’t get outside much. I was wishing for better spring weather, but it seems like winter is trying its best not to let go too soon. So instead I painted my own spring, just a fun, light and colorful piece to brighten up my weekend. I hope it brightens up your week too!
When I took this photo, I never imagined this was actually a dahlia, although now that I look at the buds and leaves more closely it makes sense. The dahlias my granddad used to grow always looked like giant pompoms (which is correctly spelt pompon in French, but was misheard as pompom by the English). Anyways, back on topic… dahlias have such a large array of variations because unlike most other plants which have two sets of chromosomes, they actually have eight! This allows for a multitude of genetic combinations and contributes to the wide diversity seen amongst these lovely flowers. Have a bright and cheery weekend everyone!
As I was scrolling through my photo collection for todays post, this particular photo resonated with my current mood. I have a cold at the moment which is draining my energy, much like the waning sun at the end of the day. This image is dark and angry much like my thoughts at having to work even when I am sick, and not having the motivation to do any of the things I love. However this image also brings hope, hope that my cold ends with this closing day, and that maybe tomorrow I will wake up bright and happy again with the new sun.
I love this image of two butterflies because to me it looks as though the pattern and coloration on their wings is as if created with colored pencils. It has a delicate softness to it. Acrobatically mating upside down, together they join to create an interesting merging of patterns, both sides slightly different but equally beautiful.
This teeny little beauty is an orchid originally found in Madagascar, and suitably named Aerangis Punctata. The plant size is usually about an inch big, and the flower it makes is bigger than the plant itself. I would watch the bud forming for months before it opens. It forms with a curled nectar filled spur which it unfurls just before the flower opens. Definitely builds an orchid lovers anticipation! Most Aerangis orchids make perfume at night to attract particular moths which have a long proboscis to pollinate the flower. Interestingly, the nectar in the spurs of some of these orchids have a concentration gradient which gets sweeter the deeper into the spur. This encourages the moth to penetrate the spur all the way and thus successfully pollinate the flower, and not waste sugar on moths with a short proboscis. Have a great weekend!
Sometimes I think my husband believes I’m crazy by how excited I get when I see a decaying tree trunk full of perfectly formed sprouting mushrooms. I think they’re absolutely adorable, and I mustn’t be the only one. I can see why people have often drawn fairies sitting atop mushrooms and toadstools. They seem like the perfect playground for teeny fairies to bounce across, and shelter under when it rains.
Mushrooms are also a perfect example of how death gives rise to new life. In the rainforest, every time a tree dies it gives life to millions of other organisms and its legacy lives on. I hope some of you share my delight in photographing mushrooms, and if so, please share a link to your photos, as I would love to see them!
I recently took a photo of this moth, plainly colored in tan, black and white. I found the geometric pattern on its wings quite strikingly symmetrical and streamlined that it reminded me of a fighter jet airplane. A very large and very beautiful winged creature.
This Friday I have chosen one of my favorite orchids to show you… which was terribly hard to choose because I have so many favorites for so many different reasons! This one is Oncidium Sharry Baby. Far from being the biggest or flashiest of orchids, I have chosen it because it smells amazing. Fittingly it is nicknamed the Chocolate Orchid, because that’s exactly what it smells like, and quite powerfully so. It flowered reliably for me every year at Christmas time (summer in Australia), and used to make a Christmas tree like explosion of flowers along a very tall stem. Every day on my balcony it smelled like someone was baking desserts and would make me crave chocolate! A wonderful orchid indeed… Have a fabulous weekend everyone!
It has been a life long dream of mine to see big fluffy bears in the wild. This may be due to the fact that Australia has absolutely no large mammalian predators (our biggest is the dingo, which is basically a gorgeous golden colored dog, we do however win with the scary reptiles). So I went to Canada during the season where bears are hunting salmon in the streams to fatten up before winter hibernation. It was truly a National Geographic experience. I went to a salmon hatchery on Vancouver Island which is known to attract the local bears.
I was able to watch the bears for hours, who were thankfully much more interested in the salmon than the tourists on the edge of the stream! They were so spoilt for food that they barely ate much of the fish before discarding the half eaten carcass, much to the delight of the nearby birds. It was a magical experience to be in the presence of such large and spectacular creatures such as these.
This is a dog we met while on a road trip in Costa Rica. Seeing a chocolate brown dog in front of an aqua colored wall, I just had to stop for a photo. There was only one way to describe the look on this dog’s face as he saw us pull up – utterly unimpressed. He was like a grumpy old man sitting on his porch wondering why the hell these damn tourists had to come to his country to pester him by taking his photo. In the end, no matter how much he looked like he hated me, I still love him!
Laura Lecce's art and photography 