Why I like close-ups

As you may have noticed, I've finally caught up with the technology all the other garden bloggers out there are clearly already conversant with—after two years of blogging, I have a camera that will take super-close-ups. Not that I mean to overuse this function, but you do need it for certain things. Roses need it because otherwise they're colored blobs on a messy bush. Lilies (I guess) have the same issue, though I like to take a whole truss of them rather than one bloom. And of course you must have it to get small items of interest, like this rose seedhead, above. This rose was sold to me as a Gloire de Dijon. Give me a break. However, I do enjoy the small apricot semi-double flowers and this seedhead is unusual for a rose. More like what you'd see on a clematis, maybe.

And then you need it to capture butterflies, bees, hummingbirds, and the like. Today I took a picture of the rattiest-looking butterfly I've ever seen. Really pathetic. However, it's sitting on my white heliotrope, which I often boast of and which does have a gorgeous musky vanilla smell, much stronger than the purple. If I were a butterfly, I'd go to it.