Lately, I've been taking a lot of overview shots of individual items and their blooming progress. On this day, I decided to do a more in-depth look at what I have going on, starting with the first azalea cluster next to the street. It looks like the pink half may be beginning to fade. but the white half still looks great.

I don't know how this happened. but I have a white azalea bloom peeking out from a pink section. The contrast made for a good close-up picture.

The second azalea in line blooms in more of a dark red color.

Close-up of a bloom on the second azalea.

The macro setting on this camera works quite well.

The third azalea seems to have something growing up through the middle of it.

A bloom on the third azalea.

I really need to do something about the weeds and vines growing in among the rest of the azaleas.

Let's try another panorama shot.

Why not . . . I've only done a hundred or so already.

One more won't hurt anything.

Three-picture panorama of the side yard.

The crape myrtle beside the garage is fully green and should bloom sometime this summer.

The Sweetgum tree looks great and will be dropping those spikey grenades all over the place later in the season.

The flowering dogwood is fully green. I may need to do something about the long almost-horizontal branch seen in the photo above. It's hanging quite low.

Again with the panorama pictures !

This is how I can produce a large picture with a camera that lacks pixels, (i.e. taking several pictures in succession and then stitching them together).

Two-picture front yard panorama.

I spotted this guy out and about in the front yard.

I followed him around with the camera and managed to get a few good shots.

A squirrel hanging out in the front yard.

Eventually, he spotted me and scurried away.

The greenery seen in the photos above and below sits behind the small brick wall at the back of the driveway. There is also one individual plant that looks exactly like this in front of the house.

I did some searching and learned that these are Japanese Aucuba (Aucuba japonica) plants. I've seen references to several varieties of Japanese Aucubas that have names like "Mr. Goldstrike" and "Spotted Laurel." They are known to be very hardy and can thrive in a variety of conditions.

I headed into the backyard where I found a pair of single stem plants growing among the cluster of berry-producing bushes.

They appear to be two of the same plant side-by-side. I'll have to do some research and find out what they are.

I've noticed several large furry vines growing up the sides of some of the trees before.

My guess is that this is also some form of poison ivy/oak/sumac, but I'm not sure. Whatever it is has been there for a long time.

I appear to have something else blooming in the backyard. I didn't notice this before and have no idea what it is.

The vine-covered dead tree is still dead, and still covered in vines.

I never really noticed just how thick the growth was around this tree. This looks like it has been in place for a long time.

There are A LOT of vines growing on top of and around the dead tree. Note to self: Do not lose your balance here under any circumstances !

I've made progress, but still have a long way to go with the area behind where the dog enclosure fence used to sit.

Let's try a backyard panorama.

Panning the camera right into the center of the yard.

Stitching the two pics together produced a nice two-picture backyard panorama of the left side of the yard.

I decided to press my luck and add a third picture.

I wasn't able to add the third picture to the first two and make a three-picture panorama. But I was able to stitch the second and third pics together for another two-picture panorama that looks out into the right side of the yard.

I made my way to the other side of the backyard, (the side opposite of the driveway), where I spotted this colorful flower blooming. Like so many other things in this yard, I didn't know this was there, and have no clue what it is.

I believe this is English Ivy. I've got quite a bit of this stuff all over the yard.

More suspicious looking furry vines. I need to be very careful when I remove these.

Following the suspicious looking vines upward reveals more suspicious looking leafy plants that may or may not be poisonous.

This vine will grow all the way up the tree if left unchecked.

The photo above is of the leaves on the privacy hedges on the side of the yard opposite of the driveway.

In addition to the large leaves, a number of white flowers were visible.

I tried to get a closeup of the white flowers.

This is another case where I say that I need to do more research so I can figure out what I'm looking at.

Maybe I can ask this guy.