It’s the most wonderful time of the year again!  After six months of pansy deprivation, our feline friends finally got their teeth sunk into a fresh batch of pansies this weekend.  The guy at Lowes Pansies-R-Us thought Rich and I were nuts when I walked into the garden center, saw the pansies, and squealed “they have them!”  (We didn’t even tell him that the pansies were feline consumption!)

We waited until the boys were happily occupied on the porch, then I got the iPhone video ready while Rich bought out the first plant.  We carefully choose pansies with lots of “leafy greens” because Squirt devours them!  Whiskey is more refined and delicately eats the flowers.  (Goldy likes pansies but prefers to partake of hers in private, thank you very much.)

While the boys enjoyed the first batch, I quietly took a second plant outside and photographed it.  I love the face of the pansy.  Usually I do macro close-ups, but this time I tried some zoom blurs with my telephoto zoom lens.  The weather wasn’t cooperating with me, though.  I was trying to zoom out with my lens centered on the yellow center, such that the zoom lines would radiate like the black lines coming from the middle of the flower.  But it was windy, and I couldn’t keep the flower still!  Oh well, maybe next time.  Here’s a consolation prize shot…

Whiskey eventually realized that I was withholding pansies, and he had something to say about it!  It’s going to be  a fun winter while the supplies last… :)