Sunrise 47: Ault Park (More Spring Blooms & Scented Geranium Garden)

Purple and Purple.

Sunrise Over The Valley

Orange Bloom. Love the center of it.

A harvestman. I love his white and black pattern.

This morning was another beautiful sunrise in the Cincinnati Valley. The sun seemed to come up about 10 minutes late from the scheduled time, something that bothers me when I think too hard about it but I know can’t be possible. In fact I didn’t even see the sun until about 6:25 due to the haze in the sky. By the time it made itself visible it wasn’t even that far above the horizon. Weird…

Looking at Armleder Park through the shallow mist.

Purple Sunrise through the clouds

A deep orange/red sunrise through the haze

I decided to stay in Ault Park this morning and enjoy the clear sunrise. With my recent bouts of wanderlust I haven’t had a great chance to get pictures in that small window that occurs after the sun is above the horizon but before it gets so bright that you can’t stare directly into it.

Zoom of the orange sun

Lookin’ at the layers of fog across the trees.

There is a small period of time, maybe 3 minutes, where the sky sheds the red/orange hue and takes on a brilliant orange gradient. Soon the sun light becomes strong enough to hurt the eyes and any pictures featuring the sun will be washed out. It is hard to guess when this window will occur, but that’s half the fun. On morning like today when the sky is clear but the humidity is high, the window occurred about 25 minutes after sunrise. On an overcast or foggy day, that window might not be for 45 minutes to an hour after the sunrise. On a low humidity day with no clouds, the window could be as early as 8 minutes after sunrise.

Canadian Geese

The Jet.

As I was standing at the overlook taking a final picture before the sun became too bright, two things happened in a row that provided perfect picture opportunities. The first thing was that a crew of canadian geese flew right into the sunrise as I happened to have the camera on and ready to go. About 10 seconds behind them came the familiar jet that took off from Lunken also into the sunrise. I’ve seen this jet probably 5 times now, sometimes I refer to it as the jet “with the wing tips folded up or down”. I think it is an old WWII jet but I’m not certain. I wonder where it has traveled to since I saw it last week.

Once the sun light started to become more intense I realized that it was another perfect morning for checking out the spring flowers. This time I ventured down into the arboretum along the tree-lined sidewalk.

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Timelapse Overlook

After being surprised at how the “washed out” rose pictures turned out from sunrise 45, I experimented again with the neutral color filter on my small Canon SD1200IS.

Sunrise over the pavilion

The first thing that caught my eye was a family of aphids on a nearby bush.

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I know of the aphid herding ants after finding them by the overlook a few weeks ago, but I haven’t seen these larger winged creatures. They’re probably adult aphids.

A green flower bloom getting ready for the show

There were several small flowers that were looking fresh and radiant. Species unknown! These are the same flowers from the beginning of the post but without the neutral color filter.

Purple and white

The center of this flower is interesting. I might have had an accidental high saturation setting on for this picture, not sure. Looks almost too orange.

The male and female on the same plant?

I spent the remainder of my time in the garden looking into this beautiful purple bush. There were ants, katydids, beatles, and spiders hanging out in the foliage. The sun had opened up to bathe the arboretum in a strong orange light that allowed the camera to take some great pictures.

The purple flower bush

Can you see the katydid in the center of this picture? I almost missed him. The giant antennae always give them away.

Got lucky with a shot of his face

A white speckled harvestman. A different variety from the one I saw a couple days ago

A young sweat bee taking a break

Or is it a fly?

On the way out of the park I stopped and looked at one of the adopt-a-gardens that looked recently planted. There were probably 43 plants all with individual names. It seemed like an herb garden, given how unique the naming was, but upon further inspection it appears to be a scented geranium garden. The names were unique and all over the place. I can’t wait to check this out in a few months when they’re all in bloom. I guess geraniums are bred like roses and have all kinds of hybrid versions and sub-species. Some of the names:

• Capitatum
• Candy Dance
• Chicago Rose
• Concolor Lace
• Peacock Fair
• Silver Edge Rose
• Lady Plymouth
• Variated Mint Rose
• Mrs. Taylor
• Dr. Livingston
• Roger’s Delight
• Oak Scented
• Frosted
• Frutti
• Lavendar
• Charity
• Nutmeg
• Maple Gray
• Scarlet Unique
• Atomic Snowflake (my favorite name haha)

The Scented Geranium Garden

“Scented Geraniums”. Thanks Cathy & Tom Moon!