Looking Really Closely At Zinnia With A Macro Lens

You know, being under a cloud deck for a week is really annoying.  It is especially annoying when you are in a place called the Sunshine State but I am certain there are other places that feel the same.

In fact, it’s December 27 as I write this.  It is supposed to be the Dry Season.  I expect no rain for months.   Weather has been somewhat upside down this year so we’ll just ignore all that wet and dry stuff.

I am certain that places in England, Ireland, and the Pacific Northwest are rolling their eyes at this thing I am missing.   Sunshine indeed.

I may even have to put on some sunblock next time I go for a skate this week in the park.  It may be Winter for most, but here, we’ll see the 80s before long.  U have a bunch of rather nice tan lines from my watch, cycle shorts, skating T shirts from last week’s workouts.

Grey skies or not, the color palate here is typically green.  In a State named after Flowers, you have to have a lot of green plants to make the blooms.

I have always grown plants.  They entertain me.   I enjoy watching them grow.  There are pots everywhere on the property under drip-feed irrigation to make it easier and more ecologically friendly to engage in this obsession.   For the most part they are green – Basil for the salad stays green until it goes “to seed” then it puts out tiny flowers of white tinged with lavender.   

That’s one for the future.  My cheap little clip on Macro Zoom lens that magnifies things by about 22 times will help there.  

For now, I have been enjoying my Zinnia.  I have grown these all my life.  When I was a child in New Jersey, I’d harvest the blooms each year and replant in spring.  Here, it has not gotten cold enough for me to worry about them freezing because I am 8 miles (13KM) from the southernmost freeze line in Boca Raton.   Clint Moore Road if you’re keeping a record.

I’m bothered that I am only getting two colors, Brilliant Orange and a Riotous Pink, so I will keep planting them hoping that one or more of the other dozens of colors will leak in.  

I have a bag full of interesting seeds I have collected here and there, and thought that this would be a great time for me to plant them.  I had Mint, Milkweed, Salvia, and yes some more of those Zinnia seeds.  Since I have plenty of seed heads, I can make plenty of flowers.

You know, I have this pot that I started with all those seeds and the only thing I got so far was one single orange Zinnia.  

Yes, they look pretty, but I really did want some Mint Tea when I planted this stuff.

Oh well, back to the seed store in January.  The Peppers did not come up either so I will have to try again!  

Besides, someone gave me as a White Elephant a box that says it’s a Psychedelic Garden.  Root vegetable seeds and pots.  Radishes, Beets, Carrots, Zucchini, and Cucumber I believe.  In Pots.  It seems implausible but let’s see what we get!