The 366-day photography project: week 50

On Sunday, I began week 50 of my 366-day photography project. Father Earle is leading a group of youth on a pilgrimage to France. Here, Father Earle, the youth, and their two adult leaders are being commissioned for their pilgrimage. They are traveling with another church group from Western New York. I am sure that they are safe; they were nowhere near Nice and the horrors that occurred there recently. We live in a sad and sorry world, where humans harm and take the lives of other humans for reasons that are nearly impossible to understand. 

My photography project is about documenting my world. But, as a journalist, I would be remiss if I never mentioned the bigger world outside of my own personal experiences. I feel that we are all connected, that humans bear responsibility for one another, and that we can do better. 

The images of the beautiful world that I've captured this week feel more poignant than ever. The flowers keep growing. Then sun continues to shine. The birds continue to sing. We have a beautiful earth to enjoy and to share with all humans. It is our home. It is that beautiful earth home that I've been photographing for 50 weeks.

So, on Sunday afternoon, my friend Amy and I went to visit gardens in Grand Island's Garden walk. It was a warm, pleasant day for seeing people's gardens.

I saw Eloise (in the floral shirt) and her friend enjoying a garden. I have interviewed Eloise several times for the Island Dispatch. She is one of the people who works busily behind the scenes to make the community Thanksgiving dinner at Island Presbyterian Church the success that it is every year. 

Here is an old wagon that was repurposed as a planter.

Little bicycle, little planter.

Mmmmm, delicious beverage. Fruit-infused water.

There is so much creativity in these gardens. It was a delight to visit them and to see what people have been doing to bring color and delight into their world.

A shoe shaped planter is definitely an unusual object.

Daisies are cheerful looking. There's a fly sitting on one of them. Flies are seen as annoying creatures who get in the house and sit on your food when you'd rather they just went away. Flies actually have some useful purpose in the world. Their scientific class is "insecta," and their order is "diptera." They have one set of wings, unlike many other flying insects, such as butterflies and dragonflies, which have two sets of wings. In their larval state, flies are decomposers, which help to break down dead organic matter. This brings new life to soil. Some flies, in their larval state, are parasitic, and they feed on insects in the garden that are seen as pests. Adult flies that land on flowers are considered to be pollinators of flowering plants. Flies are plentiful; there are more than 110,000 species of them in the world.

Flies, however, can also be destructive. They can carry all sorts of disease, including malaria and yellow fever.  Some flies, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly, are destructive of fruit.

Here is a bumble bee. It is a gentle, easy going, and fairly large bee and is well known as a pollinator.

This looks like a nice, relaxing place to sit.

Old industrial building. Not sure if it is still in use.

View of the bridge from a garden.

Water features in a garden are usually quite pleasant and relaxing. Below are some of the other delightful sights at the various gardens that I visited on Sunday.

On Monday, I finished rehabilitating a garden that had been badly overgrown. Then I came home and made a small bouquet.

Here are some of the things that grow in my garden.

The tree is loaded with apples, which should be ripe by early September. Considering the fact that we are experiencing drought conditions, it is quite amazing that the apple tree is doing as well as it is.

On Tuesday, I was busily pruning shrubbery at a garden that faces the river. Watching the water felt peaceful and serene.

This bridge is quite lovely.

Closer view of the bridge.

Docks along the river.

Wednesday was a hot and humid day so I stayed at home and finished this painting for Amy.

Later, I went back to the river and took these pictures. In the distance, you can see Niagara Falls, Ontario.

I found this face at the straw bale house at Riverside-Salem Environmental Chapel.

Walls of the straw bale house.

Later, I spotted this rabbit in the back yard at home.

This is Zoe. She is very photogenic.

On Friday, I went to work in a different garden and found these two little squirrels snacking on the seeds that fell out of a bird feeder.

They are not afraid of humans. They allowed me to get quite close to them to take their pictures.

The world doesn't seem to frighten this snail, either, as it emerges from its shell.

On its way.

On Saturday, I took this picture of a honeybee in a daisy.

Next week: More adventures and more stories.

Note: This blog post was hard to write. I write it in the memory of all those who were lost in Nice, France, and the men who died well before their time here in the United States. Philandro Castile and Alton Sterling, whose deaths at the hands of police is a reminder that racism is far from dead. The deaths of the five police officers in Dallas is a reminder that no problem will be solved with more violence. Brent Thompson, Patrick Zamarripa, Michael Krol, Lorne Ahrens, and Michael Smith.