My Maine This Week: Terry Sprague

I love fall in Maine. Gathering the last of the garden harvest.. squash, pumpkins, extra long leeks and super sized zucchini! And preserving the bounty but not in these jars...a recent find in the cellar of an old island home. Vintage ~ Ball, Atlas, Lightening and Clark ~ 2 quart canning jars. Doesn't get much better than Maine!

Taken May 15, 2007. This beautiful warbler collided with my living room window landing among daffodil foliage and emerging hosta in my garden. Stunned but not hurt, allowing a photo op. Note from NRCM: To help prevent birds from colliding with your windows, decrease reflectivity by pulling the shades, break up the reflection by hanging a window clinger such as a bird silhouette, or create vertical stripes using tape every few inches.

Rural mailbox along North Shore Road on North Haven Island

A beautiful November afternoon sky on the North Haven Golf Course.

Nature's fireworks....Jet streams meet sunset on North Haven Island. 12.26.2007.

I think winter is my favorite season for capturing the sometimes unexpected natural beauty of Maine. I have walked the 2 mile stretch of Ames Point Road on North Haven countless times, eyes always searching, the beauty astounds me. Captured these 2 images recently. First of an ocean inlet that feeds a saltmarsh, usually flowing with open water. The recent storm and frigid temps have buttoned it in!

The first batch of garden peas!

The poplar trees in my yard have been prompted by the unseasonal warmth to set catkins and drop them very early. This is a macro shot of a catkin caught in the honeysuckle bush. I call them creature-kins, this one looks like a dragon!

Nothing captures the season on a beautiful spring day like a bunch of daffodils and an old apple tree getting 'twiggy'!

I think winter is my favorite season for capturing the sometimes unexpected natural beauty of Maine. I have walked the 2 mile stretch of Ames Point Road on North Haven countless times, eyes always searching, the beauty astounds me. This is a little balsam fir standing tall in the shade, still heavy with recent snow but seeming to give it a thumbs-up!

Goldfinch helping himself to newly ripening sunflower seeds from a volunteer Moulin Rouge seedhead in the veggie garden.

This is a photo from last summer of a Black Swallowtail caterpillar enjoying a tasty dill frond in my vegetable garden. Looks like he/she is sipping a straw!!

I have three highbush plants loaded with ripening berries but will harvest limited numbers. A bumper "crop" of juvenile Blue Jays has discovered them!

Monarch nectaring on cosmos diablos.

This photo was taken last week of a cardinal singing his heart out in the top of a backyard aspen! I love this tree's silvery undersided leaves just before unfurling, when fully developed they are green like other poplars.

The simple elegance of fall, one perfect maple leaf.

Unfurling Wood Ferns along my property

First crocus, March 24, 2008! Celebrate with jubilation Nature's coming of the spring First to shine on frosty morning Burst to bloom the sunrays bring.

Friendly frog in my daughter’s pond on North Haven

“Sunburst on Fox Island Thoroughfare” I was experimenting this day with metering modes and exposures, using Photoshop to remove some of the orbs caused by light refraction. Always learning!

Sun setting over the trees in my backyard.

Sow-thistle fluff along the ocean edge at Iron Point, North Haven

Early turning maple foliage among spruce and pine trees, North Haven

Spruce reflections and rockweed in cove at Iron Point on North Haven

Windswept waves of snow on the North Haven Golf Course

Early spring blooming Amelanchier canadensis, aka Shadblow or Juneberry, planted near the bird feeders. Cedar Waxwings devour the juicy berries that form later on.

Submitting my favorite spring photo subject! The lowly symplocarpus foetidus, aka skunk cabbage, is a truly photogenic harbinger of spring!

First Snowdrop, February 19, 2008. Can spring be far behind?