Source: https://joannavolavka.com/category/photography/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 06:23:17+00:00

Document:
April 9, 2015 Joanna V.
Just the first bulbs are up right now, the rest of the garden still sleeping after a long winter, but those first bursts of color are hope physically formed after all the snow.
We walked along the water where the white trees are still waiting for their leaves.
And we sat in a field of giant crocus, running rampantly out of their plantings.
All in all, it was a wonderful way to spend the day before Easter.
March 26, 2015 March 29, 2015 Joanna V.
On Monday we got a surprise snowing here in Chicago. At first when I was up at 4:30 with J to bid him goodbye for the day (and goodnight because I certainly don’t actually get up that early) I was irritated. Then when I got up for the day finally I wasn’t sure how I felt about it anymore and spent a good chunk of the morning staring out the window. This was how my day kind of went.
8:00am: Get up. Stare out window at stupid snow.
8:13am: Walk into kitchen to feed cats. Stare out window at stupid snow.
8:17am: Make tea. Stare out window at stupid snow while tea brews.
8:24am: Eat breakfast. Stare out window across the room from me where I can still see the stupid snow.
And so the morning progressed. The snow started again, and fell thicker and thicker, to the point where it looked like we might even get completely buried.
10:29am: Huddle by fireplace. Stare out window at stupid snow.
12:34pm: Eat lunch. Stare out window at stupid snow.
1:23pm: Suddenly remember I have a macro lens. Dig parka out of closet where I stuffed it on the first day of spring because I’m done participating in winter, pull on snowboots, run outside like a weirdo and start flailing around taking pictures of snowflakes.
1:58pm: Remember I have a box of fairy doors that would also be fun to photograph in snow. Run back upstairs and pack up a waterproof bag of Tiny Things including the little doors and run back outside.
3:43pm: Realize I’ve been outside over two hours total. Figure it’s time to go back inside.
4:00pm: Make tea. There’s always reason for more tea.
I took a lot of snowflake pictures. I mean, a lot of snowflake pictures.
I’m only putting a handful of them here, but they are a general representation. I tried a few different methods, too, including catching them on a plastic bag, which you can see above. The flakes themselves were fairly huge but melted quickly because of the warm air.
This one was one of my favorites, by far. Another plastic bag catch, and didn’t last long, but I liked the way the edges looked.
You can see how light and fluffy the snow was in this one, just lots of little flakes piling up in a geometric sort of way. Much less solid than I expected.
This shows you how big the flakes really were. You can see an individual one on my glove!
This one reminded me of those little magnetic building pieces kids use. I forget what they’re called, but the snowflakes built themselves up just like that.
So there’s a tiny peek at some tiny frozen water bits. I will post fairy door pictures another day, because they were fun to photograph, too. As of today most of the snow is melted (much to my relief) so I’m glad I grabbed the opportunity when I had it.
April 6, 2013 March 13, 2017 Joanna V.
The first part of the hike was as promised, and we descended into a little valley with a small creek, tons of birds and other wildlife, and a few early wildflowers.
The area fell victim to fire back in 2003 and many of the old trees are still standing, their blackened, bare branches curled against the clear sky and reaching out from the new growth on other trees. It’s a little strange, but beautiful nonetheless.
Then, as the book had described, the path forked and we could choose to go left to Lake Ramona, or right to Lake Poway. We chose left to Ramona and kept walking down the (now wider) track. After a while we passed (very quickly) under a tree that was vibrating with the hum of thousands of honey bees, flying throughout its canopy. Finally the path came out of the trees and opened into its main portion.
And we saw the climb.
In an effort to be optimists, we thought that SURELY this hike wasn’t up to that dam WAY UP THERE (see it? almost in the exact center?) and the path seemed to curve around to the left and away, so we started.
Slowly the slope increased, and we gained elevation, and the path doubled back above itself…. and over halfway there we realized we were DEFINITELY hiking to the dam.
Dear California Hike Guidebooks: When you SAY “hike to a lake” but you really mean “climb a mountain to a dam,” that’s a LITTLE misleading.
After a last push up the final incline, we finally made it to the man-made Lake Ramona. It’s lovely and blue, but still… just strange. At least the view was spectacular, and we were actually above (the also man-made) Lake Poway, so we could see it across the valley.
We also saw some really interesting wildlife, including a type of hawk we didn’t recognize, some songbirds, a woodpecker, several types of lizard (including the western fence lizard in this photo), plus evidence of snakes (they leave trails in the dust– see below) and possible tarantula burrows (which are actually kind of fascinating).
April 4, 2013 March 13, 2017 Joanna V.
Easter weekend was beautiful in San Diego. J and I didn’t “do” anything in particular this year, but we did spend some time walking through the Balboa Park, including the rose garden, which is in full bloom this time of year.
I found a new feature on my little point and shoot that will make a photo black and white except for a single color, so we played with that. Highly entertaining.
We also saw some caterpillars and the first few butterflies of the year, hatching out of their chrysalises and stretching their new wings in the warm sunshine. Appropriate for Easter, I thought.
If you like this sort of thing, I have a whole album of the flower photos (plus a couple of J and me and caterpillars and whatnot).
Catching up on February, plus WHALE BABY.
March 12, 2013 March 13, 2017 Joanna V.
I’m currently uploading a ton of photos, first to an album of random things from February that I never got around to uploading. The last month has been hectic, between finishing the unpacking process, J coming home from deployment, and then heading out to explore southern California (and Arizona!) together.
J’s mom visited in mid-February and we had a great time enjoying the warm weather, doing some window shopping, etc. On the Friday she was here, we went to Sea World and there was a sign posted that the Shamu show wasn’t happening that day. Being curious, we wandered over to Shamu Stadium… and discovered a staff member explaining that they’d had to close to stadium due to the BABY WHALE. I asked how old it was.
So I snapped a couple of photos and here you go. Baby orcas have to keep swimming for the first several weeks of their lives, so mom and baby were in the pool doing laps. The babies have to breathe very frequently, though, so it kept coming up to the surface.
May 31, 2012 March 13, 2017 Joanna V.
It’s late and I don’t have time to upload photos tonight, nor do I have time to give you an actual entry, but here are a couple of photos from J’s re-enlistment today. More later.
May 29, 2012 March 13, 2017 Joanna V.
Here are photos from that.
Two weekends ago was Military Appreciation Day at the zoo, and I have photos from that, too.
April 23, 2012 March 13, 2017 Joanna V.
This weekend I wanted to get outside and do something, and I also wanted to be productive, so I decided to pull out all of the empty pots that used to be my container garden and redo them.
The flowers died over the summer and fall because we had an unusually hot and dry season. To be fair, I had some high-maintenance plants (like Gerbera daisies). Anyway, I wanted something fresh, but also something I wouldn’t have to invest too much time or money to maintain. So I bought annuals.
I got a variety of them this time: petunias, vinca, salvia, dahlia, zinnia, fuscias (which are apparently considered annuals here, which is weird), dusty miller, some tiny yellow daisies, and a few other things. All of them looked nice together, so I mixed them all together in the containers.
Another idea I had (because I didn’t want to buy too much new soil) was to take the big pots and upend them and use them as plant stands for the smaller pots. I think it turned out really well, A) because it gave height to the garden and B) because it was free.

References: V.

 V.

 V.

 V.

 V.

 V.

 V.

 V.