My mom usually handles the flower beds and my dad is the yard guy. He’s the one who keeps it green, mows it regularly and had my brother and I, in the 100* summers of Texas, moving the sprinkler for spot to spot while we were at home. There’s nothing like running barefoot through the St. Augustine.

Now the name Moosie formed for my mom back in high school. Somehow “mom” morphed to “moo moo” and then to Moosie. Initially she thought she might use Moosie as her grandma name but she didn’t stick with it and went with Mimi.

I’ve been weeding and planting and we’ve got the tomatoes going now. Things are looking better with new blooms forming on all sorts of plants.

Arkansas Traveler tomato, one of my very favorite heirlooms. We found plants at Marshall Grain, lots of heirlooms there.

Some of her plants are coming back from last year, though she is worried about a few because of the harsh last two winters they’ve had.

Just noticed this amaryllis bloom coming up.

The radishes are doing good, forming their ruby little roots. Can’t wait until they are bulbous and ready to slice into a salad!

Mom started lettuce before we arrived back from the Florida Trail, the plants nearest in the photo. Chris sowed more so we’d have a lot of greens for salads.

Chris harvested our first greens for salad a few days ago—delicious!

The old wagon is holding variegated sunflower seedlings…

Started these four o’clocks from seed.

Do tomatoes need any more explanation? Ok, maybe they do, but I don’t remember which ones are which, ooh, wait, the oblong ones are Roma, but I’ll have to get back to you on the others.

The honeysuckle will be satisfyingly sweet on warm summer nights.

This whole thing fell to luck, really. I happened to check my email in Orlando when we were on the Florida Trail and see an email from a woman who said she was with Woman’s Day magazine. Apparently she’d found a photo of a tomato of mine from a few years ago and wanted permission to use it in a special issue called Woman’s Day Garden and Outdoor Living. I was a bit suspicious so I did some Googling and found out that she was completely legit. I figured she might need a full res photo or something so I emailed her back and gave her my number since I didn’t know the due date and the specs for it all.

Thankfully she called me that night in the hotel because the due date was the next day! Luckily she didn’t need a full res image and could pull it from the internet.

I’d kinda forgotten about it until we got back and we thought it was due to be out earlier in the month but I found out it was supposed to be late March instead. Yesterday we got a call from Chris’ mom that she saw it but wasn’t sure which photo was mine. Chris and I tracked the magazine down at Walmart and I found it! Not how I figured it would be used, but I’m going to be paid for it so I don’t really mind! Here’s the original photo in my Etsy shop. I wish I could tell you I had some seeds to sell to you now but they are still in storage.

I will definitely be doing more ‘tomato portraits’ in the future and hey, now I’m published! heh!

Thanks Woman’s Day, you can call me any time to use more photos!

Don’t forget to schedule a portrait session with me in March or April for portfolio building rates!

Chris and I ventured to Tandy Hills on Friday to check on the trout lilies for the season. While we did find a lot of the plants up and growing, we didn’t find a single bloom. We couldn’t decide if we were too late or a bit early, even though last year we saw blooms at about two weeks prior to this time. So, who knows? It has been dry this year so perhaps a rain event would trigger some blooms? If not, I guess I will have to wait until next year.

I didn’t leave empty handed photograph wise, though. We did find a few flowers poking out and I want to go back within the next week and explore some more. I love that there is this great big natural area in the middle of the suburbs!

The trout lilies not blooming—bummer. We wayyyy underestimated how many there were in the area last year. Last year we went in one area, found them pretty quickly and just kinda assumed there weren’t more. Boy, were we wrong! I bet they are beautiful when they are all blooming.

A few butterflies were out and this sulphur managed to let me get a few decent shots before I startled it into leaving.

A trout lily seed pod. See, I figured if more had bloomed there would have been more seed pods and we didn’t see but that one.

A redbud tree, Cercis canadensis, flower.

Purple paintbrush, Castilleja purpurea var. purpurea, I have to go back and get these when they are fully open. I’m guessing by the end of the week!

I think this is lotus milkvetch, Astragalus lotiflorus, another common bloom right now.

Same flower as above!

Chris checking out something on the overgrown side trail we took.

Have yet to id this one.

Most of the agave have dried seedpods on all of the leftover stalks from last year.

We came across this bamboo ‘teepee’; it appeared that perhaps there had been a small thicket of bamboo and some kids were having fun in the woods. Looks like a fun little place to play to me!

A fruiting shrub that I need to identify still.

I came across two bulbs sitting in the middle of the eroded trail and nudged them to the side with my foot before deciding they deserved to be photographed. I’m loving how this one turned out.

We followed a creek bed for awhile before deciding we weren’t in the mood for bushwhacking. Another day perhaps.

These resemble a daffodil of miniature proportions but my sleuthing on the ‘net led me to find out it is crow poison/false garlic, Nothoscordum bivalve, a member of the lily family. While visiting my brother’s house I noticed that this plant was growing everywhere in the neighborhood yards and was coming up as a weed in his yard, too.

There were many patches of grape hyacinth blooming as well.

Finally we spotted some bearded iris in what was once perhaps a homestead.

We’re looking forward to Prairie Fest in April! Maybe next year we will be photo exhibitors!

Give me a call or drop me an email. We can shoot on location at your home, garden or natural area of your choice. I shoot in natural light with on-camera flash so please consider lighting when choosing a location. I’ve got some ideas for locations if you are stumped on places to go.

Pricing information.

For the record, I’ve been horrible are remembering to take photos every day, so these aren’t consecutive days. I’ll try harder.

African penguin, Fort Worth Zoo
Tech specs: ISO 1600, f/8, 1/20sec, 55mm

Miniature rose
Tech specs: ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/250sec, 55mm

Leaves in the pond
Tech: ISO 100, f/2.8, 1/100sec, 100mm

Now that I am finally getting back into ‘normal life’ again we are ready to start doing more with our photography and Wildscape Photo. That means that we are available to take fine art photography orders, talk to people interested in stock photography and also to start scheduling portrait sessions!

There are some business aspects we are still working on but plan to have done soon, like fully registering as a business, getting a tax id number and all the other little legal paper aspects associated with having a business. I’m sure we will be small for awhile, but wouldn’t it be grand if we could make a living taking photos? Ah, isn’t that every person’s dream with a favorite hobby?

Since I still have quite a bit of free time until a job comes along, I want to make photography my job for the meantime. There will be introductory offers for the portrait side of things since I am building my portfolio, too.

For now, why don’t you meet my ‘sister-in-law’ Mitzi. She’s Chris’ mom and step-dad’s dog, one of two and she’s a sweet little thing.

This one of my favorite.

I am planning on taking them somewhere tomorrow to get some more shots of them together so look for those later this week! Yes, I’m interested in pet photography too!

Send us an email if you are interested! oceanicwilderness at gmail dot com!

Tech info: ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/80sec, 55mm

Chris started a bunch of tomato seeds the other day. We worked in the plot, too, planting lots of new seedlings including carrots, okra, dill, basil, parsley and cilantro. Grabbed a few already growing tomatoes to get a head start and put cages over them. Got some fertilizer going on them. Mom’s potatoes are coming up and her onions are thriving.

I’ve been weeding out some of the flower beds in the backyard. A few more afternoons and I might have them done. One bed at a time!

Anyone else growing anything?

Having grown up in the suburbs of Ft. Worth I am partial to this town versus its neighbor Dallas. I love walking through the streets, checking out the old buildings and when the Tandy Center was still in existence, my friends and I would drive down to the subway that took you to the Tandy Center and we’d go shopping or ice skating and then walk around Main Street or Sundance Square. It’s an easily maneuverable city and in the past several years has seen a revitalization on the west side of the town. I particularly love the arts district on the west side and with the new shopping and loft housing in the area it has a nicer appeal than it used to.

On NYE we went downtown during the day to sightsee and get out for a bit. It was chilly and the wind tunneled through the streets between the buildings. Lots has changed, art galleries that I remember were gone, Billy Miner’s restaurant was gone, but there is a lot of new stuff to see and I was glad to have gone.

I hadn’t seen the Ft. Worth Water Gardens in ages and thought it might be busy but there weren’t many people there. The water was also not running for the winter season.

My mom.

I’d forgotten about the ‘mountain’ you could climb!

Dad climbing the ‘mountain’.

We walked over to the Omni hotel afterwards to warm up and get some coffee.

Dad reminisced about the many times he volunteered with other parents from my softball team in highschool, working the vending booths during various concerts and boat shows. I remembered doing it at least once and wondered why the players didn’t do it more.

A Chris portrait of me. My hair has gotten long!

I’m fond of all the ornate decorations on the buildings.

A little courtyard near Sundance Square. I have some real black and white film that I shot during an art class field trip. We were supposed to take photos I think to come back and draw from. I remember trying to draw an opposite view of this courtyard and failing miserably!

Reata restaurant in the old Caravan of Dreams club.

My dad wanted me to take the photo on the right so I did…he seemed excited for me process it and so here it is—is it as cool as you thought it would be, dad? I like it in b&w more than in color…what do you think?

When we get back from our hike I want to do a lot more walking around downtown and the arts district, taking similar photos. Maybe spend a couple days seeing what I can see!

On our last break we took a visit to the Trinity River Audubon south of Dallas. Not much was going on in the way of wildlife, but it was still a beautiful place to visit. I had no idea the place even existed until a few months ago. It was cold and windy the day we were there so the wildlife was probably hiding as well. I am sure migratory birds enjoy a nice stopover here.

Now some photos:

The education center. It hosts an area for school groups to eat lunch, nice restrooms, and great exhibits, including a hands on build your own river exhibit. Pretty cool!

Near the Trinity.

Smilax berries.

The mighty Trinity!

Gone to seed….goldenrod past its bloom.

A little Toxicodendron radicans in fall colors. That would be poison ivy!

My mountain man.

Chris and his dad. A bit bummed the focus didn’t get to Chris’ face; it was a last second photo I took.

Hope to go back in the spring and see what is blooming!