OK so her name really is MERL... sort of

So I was saying a couple of weeks ago that I met a lady named Merl who has the most beautiful flowers in our neighborhood. I was pretty sure it was spelled with a Y, like Meryl. Not so. I stopped by last week on my way to Sand Plum, of which I did not make it due to my wonderful visit with her. She is 78 years old and was born in Dewey county (northern Oklahoma) where no one moved. Ever. Including her. Since her parents expected she would always live in the county where everybody knew everybody, they name her Merl and spelled it M-U-R-I-E-L. It is not a family name and she wasn't named after anyone, they just like the sound but not the spelling. When MERL got married to a military man, she broke expectation and left Dewey county. And because no one could spell her name the way she said it, she introduced herself as MURIEL (me-yur-ee-ul) to the rest of the country. Once she made friends, she would tell them her real name.. She is the nicest person! I also met her husband (but I forgot his name) and he was very nice and helpful in getting some photos taken. I look forward to visiting them again.

These were taken in the evening light on Aug. 23rd. It was a bit breezy so it was tricky to get some good shots but I did it! I set the ISO at 125 to bring the subject forward and blur the background. They turned out pretty good.

This was the one that Muriel's husband helped me with. It is a house plant. The 3rd one is the one I took inside the house. The lighting was not so great but can you see the sparkles?! It really did have this sparkly texture! You can't see it as well in the outdoor shots so I am keeping the indoor one too.

My next task will be to write down the names of all of the flowers I photograph. There is nothing worse than trying to find specific images in my folder named 'purple flowers'. If you know the names please help me out. I have a lot of research to do. lol