Ron Hanko's photostream  

Take on an autumn walk with my wife. We had a spell of warm weather last autumn and some of the Forsythias had started to bloom even though the leaves were changing color. I thought the contrast of the flowers and foliage was striking.

This is the opened flower of the bud whose picture I posted several days ago. The tiny plant is also visible behind the flower. As I wrote when I posted the previous picture, the plant is a little fan 4 cm (1.5 in.) across, the flower is 3 cm (1 in. plus) in size and the spur is over 10 cm long (approx. 4.5 in.) when the flower opens and it is fully uncurled.

This was taken at the Pacific Science Center in Seattle. I believe I have the identification correct and if so the Latin name is Anartia amathea. This shot was taken in a darker area of the butterfly house and though shot at an ISO of 1600 it was hard to get good depth of field. I am not particularly proud of the picture, but wanted to post a butterfly today and this photo caught my eye in my archives.

I believe I have the shrub identified correctly. In any case this was a picture taken on a frosty morning several weeks ago. The photo is slightly underexposed but I liked the effect and did not mess around with it.

This shot was taken last spring and it won't be that long before the tulips are blooming again, but at about this time of the year, I become so starved for some color that I thought I would post an old photo. This is one of the fields of Roozengaarde, a Skagit Valley bulb grower.