Dear bloggers, Here is one of my newest photos I was blessed to be able to spend my weekend outdoors and go hiking and have a pinic with my family and this was one of the beautiful wildflowers that we saw while we were out there. Its a Blanketflower I am not cetain of the exact species but it is in the Gaillardia family and there are several types that commonly grow along roadsides here in west Texas when we are fourtunate to get enough rain.  I have added hundreds of new products to my zazzle site  in the last few days so please have a look around and tell me what you think. Here is a link where you can see some of my newest greeting cards, postcards and postage stamps that I have designed. http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88/cards+stamps
Also check out My website

West Texas windmill sunset

Here is a photograph that I got here back in late January but have just gotten around to designing products with it. It is a beautiful shot of a sunset with our old windmill in the foreground. I hope you love this shot as much as I do. You can also purchase prints of this photo here on My Website as well as view the rest of my sunset photos in this gallery.

Texas windmill sunset case for the ipad by Meganrene88
Create an iPhone picture case from Zazzle.

Some cool pics

Please check out some of my Sister in law's photography as well! Here is her link http://michellehoover.artistswanted.org/atts2012 

Customizable belt buckles

Greetings bloggers! I have some great news! I am now featuring Belt buckles on my zazzle site I will soon have a buckle featuring every picture I have used in my store. There are quite a few designs to choose from already. Please have a look and tell me what you think.

All of my products are fully customizable and have a money back guarantee if you do not like the final product. Here is a sample of what the buckles look like, you can choose from Oval or Rectangular.
Click here to visit my store and see my new Belt buckles. http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88

Silver-leaved Nightshade

I love these flowers even though they are annoying weeds, we have so many of them blooming this year because we have been blessed with a good amount of rain compared to the horrible drought we were in last year. I have several products that I have designed featuring this photo. I will have another post very soon introducing a new product to be featured in my store so check back in a day or so.

Please also check out My website where you can check out my photo galleries and also buy prints of many sizes and even on canvas and metal as well.  

I hope you enjoy my photos as much as I do.  http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88 

 

Silver-leaved Nightshade or Silverleaf nightshade, Solanum elaeagnifolium, is a common weed of western North America and also found in South America. Other common names include Prairie Berry, Silverleaf Nettle, White Horsenettle or Silver Nightshade. In South Africa it is known as Silver-leaf bitter-apple or satansbos ("Satan's Bush" in Afrikaans). More ambiguous names include "bull-nettle", "horsenettle" and the Spanish "trompillo"

It is a perennial 10 cm to 1 m in height. The stems are covered with nettle-like prickles, ranging from very few on some plants to very dense on others. Leaves and stems are covered with downy hairs (trichomes) that lie against and hide the surface, giving a silvery or grayish appearance.

The leaves are up to 15 cm long and 0.5 to 2.5 cm wide, with shallowly waved edges, which distinguish it from the closely related Carolina Horsenettle (S. carolinense), which has wider, more deeply indented leaves. The flowers, appearing from April to August, have five petals united to form a star, ranging from blue to pale lavender or occasionally white; five yellow stamens and a pistil form a projecting center. The plant produces glossy yellow, orange, or red berries that last all winter and may turn brown as they dry.

Its range is from Kansas south to Louisiana, and west through the Mexican-border states of the United States into Mexico, as well as Uruguay, Argentina, and Chile. It may have originated in North America and was accidentally introduced to South America or the reverse. It can grow in poor soil with very little water. It spreads by rhizomes as well as seeds, and is common in disturbed habitats. It is considered a noxious weed in 21 U.S. states and in countries such as Australia, Egypt, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. It is toxic to livestock and very hard to control, as root stocks less than 1 cm long can regenerate into plants. However, some gardeners encourage it as a xeriscape ornamental.

The Pima Indians used the berries as a vegetable rennet, for those of you who don’t know; because before I did a little research I myself did not know this, that a Rennet is a complex of Enzymes produced in any mammalian stomach. This is one of the few plants that produce a rennet.  It is used to curdle milk in the production of cheese, it helps separate the whey from the curd.
 Kiowa Indians used the seeds together with brain tissue to tan leather. Kinda gross I know!!!

Yellow Cactus Blossom

Greetings fellow bloggers, I had a chance to get out and snap a few pics this weekend this is one of the beautiful shots that I was blessed to have captured.  The photo features a beautiful yellow prickley pear cactus blossom. I had quite a few close up photos of the centers of these flowers and thought it would be interesting to get a different view point. This particular cactus is  "Engelmann's prickly pear"
Opuntia engelmannii also know as Texas prickly pear.

     I have created many new products in my store today featuring this photo so please check them out and let me know what you think. http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88

You can also buy a print of this photo here : http://meganrhoover.smugmug.com/Flowers/Plants-and-flowers/i-KCtww59/0/Th/DSCF9898-Th.jpg



Please also visit My website to view my other galleries.

Here is a little more info on the Prickly pear cactus.
Opuntia, also known as nopales or paddle cactus is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae.
The fruit of prickly pears, commonly called cactus fruit, cactus fig, Indian fig or tuna in Spanish, is edible, although it has to be peeled carefully to remove the small spines on the outer skin before consumption. If the outer layer is not properly removed, glochids can be ingested, causing discomfort of the throat, lips, and tongue, as the small spines are easily lodged in the skin. Native Americans, like the Tequesta, would roll the fruit around in a suitable medium (e.g. grit) to "sand" off the glochids. Alternatively, rotating the fruit in the flame of a campfire or torch has been used to remove the glochids. Today, parthenocarpic (seedless) cultivars are also available.
USES
Cactus figs are often used to make candies, jelly, or drinks such as vodka or lemonade. My family and I have made jelly ourselves out of the fruit and it came out wonderful.
Prickly pears typically grow with flat, rounded cladodes (also called platyclades) that are armed with two kinds of spines; large, smooth, fixed spines and small, hairlike prickles called glochids, that easily penetrate skin and detach from the plant. Many types of prickly pears grow into dense, tangled structures.
Fluid ("cactus juice") extracted from Opuntia pads and stems, especially O. ficus-indica, is one of the most commonly additives in earthen plaster for walls and bricks, it had been discoverered that many Native tribes in Mexico used this technique thoughout history.

Like all true cactus species, prickly pears are native only to the Western hemisphere; however, they have been introduced to other parts of the globe. Prickly pear species are found in abundance in Mexico, especially in the central and western regions. They are also found in the Western United States, in arid regions in the Northwest, throughout the mid and lower elevations of the Rocky Mountains such as in Colorado, and especially in the desert Southwest. Prickly pears are also the only types of cactus found to grow natively far east of the Great Plains states.

Charles Darwin was the first to note that these cacti have thigmotactic anthers: when the anthers are touched, they curl over, depositing their pollen. This movement can be seen by gently poking the anthers of an open Opuntia flower.
                                           Thats all for today hope you enjoy! :)

Pink Hedgehog Cactus blossom

This is a photo of a beautiful cactus flower that I found this week out in our pasture.

It is a species of hedgehog cactus and is in the Echinocereus family.  I am not sure of the actually speices of this cactus because there are so many varieties and very few are well documented.  I created many new products on my Zazzle site today that feature this photo, Please feel free to check them out. http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88  

Many other new products coming soon so please check back!

Echinocereus is a genus of ribbed, usually small to medium-sized cylindrical cacti, comprising about 70 species from the southern United States and Mexico in very sunny rocky places. Usually the flowers are large and the fruit edible.
The name comes from the Ancient Greek ἐχῖνος (echinos), meaning "hedgehog," and the Latin cereus meaning "candle."

Vibrant Photo

I hope you all love this photo as much as I do, I know that Lantana is fairly common in the southeastern united states but it grows wild around the deserts in some spots here in west texas too. I loved the contrast in this photo. I have put a few products for sale featuring this photo and will have more shortly.
   Here is a link where you can buy a poster of the Photo in any size. http://www.zazzle.com/wild_lantana_poster-228988243488415110
Hope you Enjoy! :)

New Photo

   Hello fellow bloggers, I apologize for the long delay inbetween new posts.  Here is my newest photo I have created a large amount of new products on my zazzle site so please come check out my new products several feauture this photo as well. http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88. Please feel free to comment on my products as well.   This is a photo I took a few days ago of a little beetle that was happily pollenating a wildflower, I took many photos of him but I like this one best because it looks as if he is looking back at me.

New Products!

    Greetings Bloggers, I am sorry That I have been away from the my blog for so long, I Finally have a computer that will access the internet.  I Have dozens of new products on my zazzle site, many with the photo of the Pink cactus blossoms featured here on my blog.  There are many other new products on the that feature my photographs and designs.  Many of the new products featured on my zazzle site are Made in America.... thats right I just said that they were Made in America!!!  I am very happy that Zazzle is starting to help support american jobs , It makes me feel better to know that the people that have worked on the products that feature my Photos are paid decently.  Here is a link please visit and tell me what you think about some of my new products.  http://www.zazzle.com/meganrene88/gifts?cg=196977180946138329&st=date_created   I am also designing a handful of items with a patriotic design as well so stay tuned.   Thank you for your patients and I hope you are still following my blog!