PICTURES! YES, AGAIN! (she shouted)

The apple blossom edition of my photography madness. Unfortunately, all of these photos were taken on a grey day; I think they "pop" better visually when there's a blue sky. Oh well! Let us proceed with the huge pile of apple tree photos, then (warning: there will be uninspired captioning because I'm in a hurry to get back out to the orchard - lots and lots and lots AND LOTS of work to do):

Fuji variety

Down a row

Apple blossom buds

Side view of apple blossom buds

And more buds!

And... more.

Down another row

Flowers!

You guessed it - flowers again!

Loveliness. I don't care how many times you see this sort of thing - the delicate beauty and the sweet scent of these blooms is something to be celebrated and adored, even if it means taking a gazillion pictures of the very same thing.

Small break in the flowery madness - a random shot of the garage here at work, apple buckets and all.

Close-up view

'Nother close-up

Aaaannnnd... another!

Alrighty, then. Now I can move forward in time when I have a moment. Moments are looking a bit scarce in the near future, given the list of tasks my boss gave me this morning plus the glorious fact (chagrin!) that school starts today yet again. It does seem to do that, doesn't it? Very annoying. This semester is only seven weeks long, though, so that's something.

So... I know it's been too long since I've commented on your blogs, though I've visited most of you. I'll try to make it up somehow, some way, at some point! Meanwhile, as usual, I wish you all the best. More perhaps on the morrow. Ta.

Yes. More photos.

Plum blossoms

And again.

Catkins in the hedgerow

Up.

Workload. Fun! Seriously.

Youthful Virginia creeper leafies.

Grape buds with the usual grapevine twistiness in the background. I ask you, how can you not take pictures of such spirally beauty?! Ahem.

Pear blossoms

...and more pear blossoms. I was leaving on vacation shortly before I took these photos, so I had no choice as to the grey weather. They probably would've looked prettier with a blue sky behind them, but... oh well. And I think they're pretty anyway, and I also like a nice grey sky, so... um... there.

Well, that's it from me for the weekend. I hope you all are well, and have good things to do. I shall be doing housework, reading as much non-textbook material as I can stuff into my brain (and believe me, it's a prodigious amount), and other random things. I will kiss my cat probably several hundred times (poor baby!), I will water my few plants, and I will try to be grateful for the good things in my life. I'm a bit of a grabby, nongrateful type if I don't watch out for it. Ta, then, until Monday.

Random photos

I have a gazillion or so more tree blossom photos to get up here - which needs to be done post haste, given that bloom time is well past at this point! - but I wanted to get these random shots out of the way first. They won't be all that exciting to you, I'm guessing, but I want them up for myself. The nature of blogging is rather self-centered, so that's alright by me. Without further ado:

Pear tree with kaolin application

Same as above, from a distance

Yes, I know. More grape vine stuff.

And more!

Reflection

Up the hill, west entomology block

Down the hill to the lab

Cedar-apple rust lesion

And another. Alien-looking, aren't they?

Looking out to the north 40

Alrighty, then. Those are some of the random photos I'm getting out of the way before I end up publishing spring photos in September. I'm already way behind; my camera is full of more current stuff.

First off, I want to apologize if I've gotten way too personal for you readers of late. I'm not taking down anything I've written, because it adds to the whole of the text, so to speak, but I'll try not to go there again. I know I've already said this, but I wanted to reiterate. My aim wasn't to denigrate M., it was to support myself. That doesn't need to be done online, necessarily, so - I'm sorry.

In other news... there really isn't any. Work is very busy, as usual, and school starts on Monday. The highlight of my day thus far was watching three pairs of birds (grackle, starling, and mockingbird) verbally harrass and take swoopy dives at a pair of crows. The noise level was astonishing - and somehow really fun to hear - and the attacks made me laugh. I know it's serious business for the smaller birds, given the crows' tendency toward nest-raiding... but such things make me smile anyway. The crows were finally driven off, after much ado. It was a wonderful drama to behold. Well, on that note... I'm signing off for now. I probably won't have time to write again till Monday, so - happy weekends to you all! Ta.

More spring, belatedly.

Ok, I did try to put these pictures in an order that makes sense, but I messed up my posting order and I really don't have time to correct it. That I am posting at all is a small miracle, and I'm sure I'll end up regretting the time spent at some point! At any rate, more spring stuff. Peaches, this time.

Row of peach trees pre-bloom.

Out-of-the-timeline photo. This was supposed to come later in the series, but here it is, in all of its glory! It really is pretty, isn't it?

Back in time again to the bud stage!

More buds.

Another shot like the out-of-order one above.

Flowers!

An inexplicable shot of my feet. On a rock. Yay!

Peach flower close-up. Can you see how lucky I am to work here, getting to see this each season? (this is my last season here, as far as I know, which makes me very sad.)

Aaaaannnnd.... more peach blooms!

Now for something completely different: maple keys on a grey day. Don't ask. I don't know why I put it here.

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So - hi there. I don't have much to say, nor much time to say it in. School starts next week, something that I am simultaneously glad for (the sooner I'm done, the sooner I'm done, after all, plus I get to see my friends again) and not glad for (will I have the ability to do well when my home life is in an uproar? Am I terribly cold to even be thinking that way? And also - yuck. I am so tired of studying. Or, more to the point, because I do love learning - I am so tired of taking tests). Work is very busy, which is good. Other than those things, I have nothing to add that wouldn't dive back into the realm of the Too Personal, so I shall sign off. I hope to have some time to write tomorrow or Friday. Meanwhile, best to you all.

Spring

Apricots

Pretty, eh? I think so. I'll try to mete out my flower pictures - wait till I get to the apples, I was out of control with those guys!. Anyhow - pretty.

I'm going to make an announcement that will surprise exactly no one: things are once again bad in my relationship with M. Horrible, in fact. Henceforth, though, I am not going to be talking about it here. It serves no one, and it's just ugly to put it out there. I'll leave up what I have up, but no more after this. Whatever happens will happen, and I will probably allude to it because major changes are in order one way or the other. However, no more details, no more moaning and complaining. He doesn't deserve it, and it feels wrong to talk about these things so publicly. So - there you have it.

That's all for now. Ta.

Once more, I am busy busy busy!

SEXAY!

So, in lieu of the spring orchard shots I have gazillions of, I present you instead with this marvelous shot of me and Shelby-cat. I might have time later today to organize all the fruit blossom photos I have (probably far too many, but I just couldn't help myself - so ephemeral! so pretty!); we shall see. I have a ton of work to do, so maybe, maybe not. Since getting back from vacation last Wednesday, I've been running like a maniac here at work - which is good, but I do miss reading your blogs and writing here. C'est la vie, I suppose. I'll get around to it sooner or later!

Things are more or less the same in my life, though much more relaxed for the lack of school. Unfortunately, it starts up again in a week and a half - ugh. UGH, I say! And now, I am off to do orchard work... cutting root suckers (one of my least favorite jobs, as it involves much troll-like bent-over hobbling around - back-killing stuff), and then tying tree supports to their overhead wire. And then... a fire blight experiment in the lab, and then pressure testing of a bunch of apples from a post-harvest experiment, and then trimming potted trees in the greenhouse... and then weeding those same trees... and then fertilizing those trees... and etcetera. As you can see, a full slate. And so, my dears who still bother to read here - ta for now, and best to you all!