Dilly Dahlia-ing Around

TGIF! To be honest, the acronym doesn't mean as much to me now that I'm semi-retired as it used to, but since I'm involved in my freelance writing activities from Sunday to Thursday evening most weeks, Friday remains a day to be thankful for. When we awoke this morning after 8 a.m. -- unusually late for both of us -- we found a gorgeous sunny day with nowhere special to go.

Hmmm, we agreed -- that would have to change. But since we were planning a visit to our son's house on Sunday, we didn't want to stray far. Well, we reckoned, there's always Mill Creek Park -- and hey, maybe those dahlias are blooming by now!

When we arrived at the visitor center, though, we first headed to Fellows Riverside gardens and those gorgeous roses. After a couple of nasty rainstorms, the blooms looked a bit bedraggled, but better than at our last visit. I was determined to get some decent photos with my Canon EOS Digital Rebel and special EF-100mm f/2.8 macro lens; in recent weeks, I've become way too dependent on the Canon PowerShot A590 and its wonderful, powerful macro mode. Just to be on the safe side, though, that pocket-size camera was around my neck as well.

While my husband Jack wandered around elsewhere, I snapped away at the roses, ending up with a few that I'll upload to my gallery of roses at Zenfolio.com -- including, finally, a fairly decent shot of the bumblebee on a flower that you see above. We planned to leave the gardens and drive through the park to see what else we could see, but first, I made Jack park near the dahlia garden at the back entrance to the visitor center.

Luck was with me, or sort of. No, the dahlias weren't in full swing, or anywhere near it. But the signs were positive; here and there, one was in bloom, so I was able to get a few shots. More important, I now know it will be but a matter of a few short weeks before the entire garden will be awash with what I now consider to be one of my all-time favorite flowers.

After that, we drove through the winding roads of the park, stopping at the Newport Wetlands to see the goose bridge and take the boardwalk to the end of the observation deck (that's Jack taking a photo). Tall purple flowers were everywhere, with some cattails and small yellow flowers buried in between. When I saw a lovely white water lily -- something I've never seen here before -- I wished I hadn't removed the macro lens before walking in here. Oh well, I consoled myself, it's solid white -- a tough color to photograph. Then it was on to the golf course, where I found more gorgeous flowers (and yes, I'd put the macro lens back on).

By then, we were hungry, so we headed back toward home and stopped at one of our favorite eateries, Salvatore's Italian Grill, in Austintown. Combining lunch with work, we ordered up a couple of pasta entrees -- chicken cacciatore for Jack and penne alla vodka for me -- that I'll be writing about in a feature story for the newspaper. Once again, a great time was had by all!