Friday (28-February-2020) — New Jersey

Indoor Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Focus stacked image of a Red Poppy flower.

Red Poppy flower. Composite of 51 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens + 2.0x TCE-III (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/8, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)
Red Poppy flower. Composite of 51 focus stacked images taken with a Nikon D850 camera and 105 mm f/2.8 macro lens + 2.0x TCE-III (ISO 100, 210 mm, f/8, 1/30 sec). Raw images processed with Capture One Pro and Helicon Focus Pro. (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (81.0 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (39.8 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Clouds and sun. A deficit of 41.8 kWh.


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Sunday (16-February-2020) — New Jersey

Indoor Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

A Red Poppy flower opened this morning. The seed was planted 113 days ago in one of my indoor AeroGarden hydroponic gardens. I have been watching the bud for the last several day wondering when it would finally open — each day setting up a camera to record a time-lapse video.

Daily Electric Energy Used (78.4 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (32.5 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Not as much sun, but warmer so the Geothermal HVAC didn’t have to work as hard. Still a deficit of 45.9 kWh.

Weekly Electric Energy Used (536 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Weekly Solar Electric Energy Produced (181 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Total deficit of 355 kWh. Usage should be going down now that the Server/Storage upgrade is complete. On days that the sky is clear more power is being generated as the sun gets higher above the horizon.

Current Weather Conditions


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Sunday (09-February-2020) — New Jersey

Indoor Wintertime Nature in New Jersey.

Finally, one of the Red Poppy flowers has bloomed. It has taken about four days for the flower to open completely. There are a couple of other buds that I hope will open in the near future. It has been 96 days since the seeds for the Red Poppies were planted. I’ve also added images of Pink and White Zinnia flowers.

Red Poppy Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Red Poppy Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
Pink Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
White Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)
White Zinnia Flower. Image taken with a Fuji X-T3 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 OIS macro lens (ISO 160, 80 mm, f/8, 1/60 sec) (DAVID J MATHRE)

Daily Electric Energy Used (75.2 kWh) from Sense Home Energy Monitor and Daily Solar Electric Energy Produced (43.3 kWh) from SolSystems and Locus Energy. Sunny most of the day. Actually, the most solar energy produced since 05-October-2019. Still not enough to completely power the indoor hydroponic gardens, keep the house warm, and power the Synology image servers. A deficit of 31.9 kWh.

Current Weather Conditions


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Friday (07-June-2019) — New Jersey

Backyard Springtime Nature in New Jersey.

I know, it has been a while. I’ve been dealing with Server Upgrades (running out of space to store my images), Lightroom Catalog Upgrades (needed to increase the size of the catalog images to match my new computer and monitor), home renovation, patio garden, and yard work. I am about caught up. I was taking pictures every day, which I will be posting. The wildflower gardens are starting to bloom. Lots of Red Poppy and Cosmos flowers. New flowers this year are Blue Spiderwort and a White Allium. I am starting to harvest Strawberries from the Grow Towers. Today’s bird pictures are a Female Cowbird. The Cowbirds have been laying their eggs in the Robins nests.

Tiny Green Grasshopper on a Daisy. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Tiny Green Grasshopper on a Daisy. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)





Strawberry. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Strawberry. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Strawberry. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Strawberry. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)


Daily Power Use (est 56 kWh) and Solar Production (64.95 kWh) from Sense. The power use is an estimate since there have been a number of data dropouts beginning about noon. I am waiting on a response from Sense regarding the problem.
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Sunday (01-July-2018) — New Jersey

Backyard Summertime Nature in New Jersey.

Daily walkabout looking for flowers. Daisy, Baby’s Breath, Red Poppy, California Poppy, Cosmos (notice the spider), Zinnia, etc.

Cosmos. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)
Cosmos. Image taken with a Fuji X-H1 camera and 80 mm f/2.8 macro lens (DAVID J MATHRE)