Breath of Life Photography

This is my Black Labrador Retriever, Midnight .. having fun at the beach. She just loves to play and swim in the water, even if it’s freezing cold! She also loves it when we throw balls or sticks for her to fetch … loves it so much that she’ll stand in the water and literally [...]

I think this red tulip is a bit of an exhibitionist. There’s a clump of red tulips in the oval flower bed in the center of my garden and each year when they come up they look like nice normal tulips … for about a day … then they open their petals wide wide wide [...]

It seems to me that Helebores love their shade so much that even their flowers try to shy away from the light. I only have one Helebore plant left (I did have three once but two seem to have died out) and it’s flowers, when they bloom in late March or April, always hang their [...]

My back yard garden is divided into two distinct areas – one small patio just large enough to fit a nice patio table that seats four comfortably, and the back garden area lined with 3 to 4 foot deep garden beds along the edges, with grass in the center of the back garden area. Between [...]

I took this photo of some of my Pink Hyacinth when it was just getting ready to bloom. This was mid-April … of course it’s been blooming it’s pretty little head off and smelling up my yard with it’s heady perfume for about two weeks now. I have several clusters of Hyacinth growing in my [...]

All of the spring flowers in my garden are coming up earlier than they usually do! My crocuses came up on March 15th and bloomed until about the middle of April. They usually come up toward the end of March, but we had a beautiful winter this year with much warmer than average temperatures (above [...]

You know summer is here when the clematis and roses begin to bloom and oh what lovely blooms they are! The photo above is of one of my favorite Clematis flowers. It’s a hybrid Seiboldiana Clematis and it produces large blue flowers several times each year. Absolutely gorgeous, isn’t it? Related Reading: One Dozen Assorted [...]

Yes you are seeing double. I planted my Daffodils close together and when they bloom the flowers are all in clusters of two or three or more. It’s lovely.  The petals are so thin you can almost see through them. Beautiful and delicate. Related Reading: Fresh Flowers – Yellow Mokara Orchids Forever Roses – Small [...]

I love these tiny Spring flowers. From a distance they appear to be purple, but when you get up close or take a macro photograph like the one above each tiny blossom appears to be more of a Sapphire blue. Lovely. Related Reading: One Dozen Assorted Roses with FREE Chocolates Spring in Action Just Spring [...]

I couldn’t resist posting just one more photo of my favorite iris. Of course these flowers are long gone … they bloomed in the second week of April in my Toronto garden and were gone only a few days later … but this picture and other photos I took of them will make them last [...]

I took this photo about a month ago and these lovely Chionodoxa are long gone now … but I was happy to see them as they began to emerge. I love how they can poke through dead leaves and other debris no matter how heavy and still end up blooming. I’ve even seen these flowers [...]

As far as I’m concerned this is one of the prettiest irises of all. Oh sure, I love my Dover blue German iris too … but nothing beats the Danfordia iris for it’s combination of delicate blooms and vibrant colors. Do you have a favorite iris or flower? Related Reading: Steel Spring Shop Assortment – [...]

Glories of the Snow or Chionodoxa … a real close up of these lovely delicate blue flowers. I love nothing more than seeing the first flowers of Spring after our long cold winters here in Toronto. Crocuses are usually the first to come up in late March, but these Glories of the snow are often [...]

Who wouldn’t be happy seeing lovely pink striped hyacinths blooming in their garden? Especially once you got a whiff of their lovely scent! Several years ago I planted at least 100 hyacinth bulbs in colors of blue, white, pink and coral. I still have lots of hyacinths blooming in my garden each spring, but unlike [...]

Here’s a close up of a Danfordia iris. I love these delicate little flowers. The detail on the underside and deep within the petal is lovely. The vibrant yellow and white pattern in each petal is amazing isn’t it? Related Reading: Forever Roses – Small Bud Wooden Roses Bouquet – Dozen Fresh Flowers – Yellow [...]

These are my favorite irises. They are called Danfordia irises and they are dwarf irises. I love their vibrant color, but hate that they only seem to bloom here for just a few days. Perhaps it’s because even though they bloom in early spring we’re usually warming up fast here in Toronto just as they [...]

A few days ago I posted a photo of a single hyacinth, if you read the post you might remember me discussing how my “purple” hyacinths seems to have different shades of color ranging from blue to deep purple in different lights … well this picture is a good example of that range of color. [...]

I love how these pale pink Glories of the snow seem to be peeking out from between the leaves. usually these flowers stand high above the leaves, but I think mine were suffering from a lack of water when I photographed them and they were nestled among the leaves giving them a little more of [...]

Ah, the sweet perfume of hyacinth is once more enhancing my backyard. A few of my hyacinth plants started to bloom on Friday and the flowers are just beginning to open. I love the rich shades of color of these purple hyacinths. They are blue to deep blue in some light and purple at other [...]

Why these lovely flowers are called “Glories of the Snow” (Chionodoxa) I don’t know. Mine never come up while there’s still snow on the ground. Nope … they tend to come up somewhere between the beginning of April and the end of the April depending how warm a spring we’re having. This year they came [...]

The crocuses that I grow in my back yard are just about finished blooming. It’s sad in a way as they are so pretty and being one of the first flowers to bloom in my garden they are one of the sure signs of spring for me each year. I love how the sunlight lights [...]

These lovely, colorful, Crocus’ were blooming in my garden on Saturday. That day was absolutely beautiful, it reached 14 Celsius here in Toronto and I was able to get out and not only photograph the flowers that were blooming but do some much needed work in the garden. Unfortunately the nice weather didn’t last. On [...]

It’s said that Hellebores bloom in the snow, often around Christmas time – but mine don’t! Mine bloom near the end of March or early April. They are not blooming yet, but their leaves are greening up so I expect to see lovely flowers like the one above (photo take a few years ago in [...]

It’s looking a lot like Spring around here in Toronto, but I’ll have to wait until June before I see these tiny Heuchera flowers again. Heuchera plants only seem to bloom once a year- at least the ones I have only bloom once each year, and it’s usually in late Spring or early summer. Oh [...]

This Hyacinth isn’t blooming in my garden yet- but give it two months or so and I’ll have several of these beauties making my garden look lovely! Oh and the scent! Just looking at this photo brings to mind the heady scent of Hyacinths! On nice warm spring days I love to open the windows [...]

It’s amazing how fragrant just a few of these tiny Lily of the Valley flowers really are. I’ve been trying to grow these plants for a few years and this year several came up in two areas of my garden. The scent carried throughout the whole garden and into the neighborhood. Do you grow Lily [...]

It’s quite normal for Peony buds to be covered in ants. I’ve heard that the ants help protect the buds from invasive insects so it’s a symbiotic relationship. Most of my peonies are blooming now but I haven’t had a chance to take any photos. I’d better do it soon as Peonies don’t last all [...]

Last year I planted some hybrid columbines (Aquilegia) in my garden. They didn’t really do much last year. Oh they produced a few flowers, but nothing hinted at how delightfully gorgeous they would be this year when they bloomed! They came up in clumps, thick with these beautiful rose pink flowers. Aren’t they just gorgeous? [...]

It’s such a shame that these lovely delicate blooms only flower for approximately one week each spring. I love their delicate flower and fuzzy leaves. I have a couple of Pasque flower plants and each produce only one or two flowers in Mid May. Once the weather starts to warm the blooms fade and the [...]

The Astilbe is in full bloom and I managed to capture this hot pink Astilbe while it was still covered in morning dew. The spring flowers are just about done blooming, but my roses are just about to start. I love my ever changing garden. Related Reading: One World, One Day (Barbara Kerley Photo Inspirations) [...]

I took this photo of pink hyacinths in my garden as they were just starting to bloom about three weeks ago. Unfortunately the flowers are long gone now. The weather is finally starting to warm up here in Toronto and the rest of my flowers – ones that bloom most of the summer season, all [...]

Earlier this month my daffodils were in full bloom. I have them planted near clumps of red tulips and lavender. They all look beautiful together. Related Reading: Steel Spring Shop Assortment – 200 Springs in 20 Sizes/Styles Spring in Action Pro Spring 3 (Professional Apress) Epson WorkForce Pro GT-S50 Document Scanner (B11B194011) One Dozen Assorted [...]

This tulip has variegated (white and green) buds and leaves. I believe this tulip is the Canada Tulip. It’s bloomed now and the flowers are red and white. It’s quite a pretty plant both in bud and in bloom. Do you have an tulips that have variegated leaves or buds? Related Reading: Pro Spring 3 [...]

I have to buy more of this kind of hyacinth. It looks so lovely in the garden next to the rest of the other spring plants with their light green leaves. Oh and the scent! I love the smell of hyacinth blooms. Related Reading: Fellowes Powershred 100% Jam Proof 79Ci 14 Sheet Cross-Cut Paper Shredder [...]

This is a hybrid tulip called Texas Flame. It’s also a fringed tulip – not the fringes on each petal? It’s quite lovely even when partially closed as in this photo. When the flower opens you can see an array of yellows, orange and red colors on the inner petals. It’s just lovely. Related Reading: [...]

My Labrador Retriever puppy is quite the ham. I was trying to take her photo last month and she kept coming up to investigate the camera. I guess she was trying to figure out what I was up to in this photo. Related Reading: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring Royal & Langnickel Painting by [...]

One of the most flamboyant tulips that grows in my garden is the Texas Flame tulip. The blossom opens up wide to expose a blend of yellows, oranges and red. I just wish these flowers would last longer. They’re just about blown now. Related Reading: Fresh Flowers – Purple Dendrobium Orchids with Vase Brussel’s DT8045FF [...]

The daffodils are blooming! So far it’s mostly just the yellow ones that are blooming in my garden although a few of the white ones are blooming now too. I grow a few different varieties of daffodils so I should have some salmon colored ones coming up around mid-May unless the squirrels have dug them [...]

My lavender is beginning to grow again. It looks kind of strange. There are parts of the plant that look dead, but at the top of each branch there’s new fuzzy green growth. The plant doesn’t look very nice yet from afar, but in closeup like this I think it’s quite pretty. Do you grow [...]

Purple Hyacinth … this is the first one to bloom in my garden this year. Oh I now have several hyacinths in bloom, but this was the first to fully flower. Isn’t it lovely? The weather was so nice last week that we had our doors and windows open most of each day. The scent [...]

My crocus’ are almost finished blooming, but I did manage to capture them when they were at their finest. I love this purple and yellow combo. Most of my crocus flowers are in little clumps in the grass beside the garden beds. I don’t know why I didn’t mix more of them, as most are [...]

I have a lovely pink Hydrangea growing in my back garden, but when I saw this potted hydrangea in a local store I couldn’t resist buying it. It’s now sitting in a plant urn on my front porch and looking lovely. Luckily this hydrangea is supposed to be hardy in this region so I’ll try [...]

Now that the snow finally melted in the garden and our yard it’s time to get outside and clean up the garden. There’s lots of dead foliage from last fall to cut down or remove. The above photo is of a Crocosmia seedpod. I actually took the photo in the fall. The seeds wouldn’t have [...]

There’s still snow on the ground here in Toronto, but it’s melting. I’m hoping it will be all but gone by sometime next week. At this point there’s obviously no hyacinths blooming, but I can look forward to blooms like this one soon! Do you have any spring flowers growing in yard or garden yet? [...]

I took this photo of one of my beautiful pink tulips last year. The flower was just about blown and the petals were almost spread out flat. Usually by this time of year here in Toronto the snow’s melted and some of the first flowers of spring have started to make an appearance. That’s not [...]

Enough with snow and frigid weather already! Geesh! Are you as tired of winter as I am? It’s -23 Celsius with the wind chill here in Toronto today. That’s -8 F if you don’t know the metric system. Cold huh? It’s no wonder that I decided to post a photo of a lovely tulip that [...]

Our local ground hog didn’t see it’s shadow yesterday so that means Spring will soon be here. I’m so hoping that, that’s true! Either way I’m eager for Spring to arrive and to show you just how eager I am I decided to post this lovely photo of Muscari which is also known as Grape [...]

These are small spring Iris blooms. I took this photo a couple of years ago and now these flowers no longer grow in my garden. They must have died out. I must replace them this spring or next fall as they are so very lovely. I love spring flowers, especially the first few of the [...]