Today's Flowers # 12

My friends Luiz and Denise have a Today's Flowers Meme, check it out. Come and join with your flower photos. Sunday at 7GMT is the post time. I thank them both for allowing me to share my Ohio Buckeye tree with the Flower's Today group.

I have shown on the opening page flowers from the tree that is in my front yard. It is the focal point of the yard and I planted it myself 36 years ago as a 5 foot tree. I did this when we moved into our new house. It is now over 30 foot high. Ohio Buckeyes Trees are a sturdy tree and slow growing. It will definitely still be growing long after I'm gone from this earth. Here is the tree in the this years Spring season in full flower. Here are the buds as they emerge from the tree.

They start to open and you can see the little flowers as they get ready to pop.

The flowers come out as yellow blooms and are a real attracted to the bees. The bees are so busy that they are easy to capture. I shot this one with it's wings blurred as it sipped the nectar. Please note all the yellow pollen on the leg that is helping the tree produce the buckeyes in their symbiotic relationship.

The tree produces a buckeye that helps to feed the local squirrels and chipmunks of the area. buckeyes are poisonous to humans but are truly beneficial to the wildlife.

Here is one of our famous Black Squirrels as he feast on a Buckeye treat. He is a cute little bugger. Yesterday, around the Maple Tree in the back yard, I had 4 Black Squirrels and 2 Grey Squirrels all playing a version of a game of tag.

I would like to share with you an interview I did with David McMohon who is an Australian based writer. I really enjoy David's site and participated in his Sunday Roast. If you click on the link you can read the post. This is another time I am happy I have friends around the world because of the Internet.