A hummer flitted into our screen porch though the open screen door, and in it's imprisioned panic pinned its long beak into the plastic screen. Guide BonnieBlue was able, in her gentle grasp, to rescue the tiny emerald green female hummer Archilochus colubris and release her toward the lush flower garden and nectar feeders.

To get an 8x10 (these are thumbnail versions), suitable for framing, email askaguide.

Pictures taken with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens (Black).

This book helped understand the complexity of this professional grade digital camera: Magic Lantern Guides: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi EOS 400D (Magic Lantern Guides).

This understory shrub has been everywhere popping spectacularly, in spite of the very dry Spring we have had. Perhaps the dry Spring has something to do with the most bountiful displays I've seen in five years or more here in the Southern Appalachians.

Pictures shot with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi 10.1MP Digital SLR Camera with EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 Lens (Black) by AskaGuide.

Hiking near Blue Ridge at about 3,000 feet altitude, I found this solitary bloom growing along a trail, as if it wanted to be noticed and appreciated. Called "Blue-Eyed Grass, this member of the Iris family is only a few inches tall, with a flower no wider than a dime.

This lone bloom pushing up through dry leaves appears to be a Crested Dwarf Iris. Only about 4 inches tall, it and the uncrested Vernal Iris Iris verna are abundant along mountain trails.

This Foxglove wearing an unusual violet raiment seemed lost and lonely, the first I've seen along the BMT. It may be kin to heritage foxgloves grown by the hill and holler dwellers near the beginning of the last century or older.

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