Visiting a well-designed nursery is a delight, even if you don’t have a budget for much purchasing, or even if there’s no room to put anything, a common complaint of avid gardeners. Here’s a display of asters with pansies, and in the left corner, that white little flower is called Chinese Jasmine and very fragrant, even that one little bloom.

Visit Today’s Flowers for more flowers around the world.

Here’s a shadow shot for you today. The weather continues, amazingly, to be mostly warm and sunny here in Seattle, even well past Labor Day. It’s supposed to be over 80 later this week! Hope you are enjoying your own weather, getting outside and breathing deep, wherever you are.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more fascinating shadow visions.

So many dahlias in these last brilliant days of summer. Here’s a pink one for your delectation, just for Pink Saturday.

Here in Seattle a sunny sky is a serious thrill. This is from a few days ago, travelling north on the Viaduct. I know it’s not right to hold up the camera and take a photo (or, ahem, more than one) but as you can see, traffic was nowhere near. And the windshield was pretty clean, so what else could I do?

The tall black building is the Columbia Tower, whose 75th floor has been the source of the view of a couple of photos in this blog. In front of it is an oldie, Smith Tower. To the right you can see part of Qwest Field. Just beyond the railing to your left, not visible, is Puget Sound and the ferries and giant cranes of the harbor, but that’s for another photo.

Happy Skywatch Friday, everyone!

I am trying out a new meme called Thursday Challenge, and the theme this week is “Fresh.” This here is one fresh flower! I sure love dahlias, in their infinite colorations and forms, and the way they truly embody the word “fresh” as they open their petals to our view.

Today may have been the last perfect day of summer. In honor of this fabulous season that’s fading fast, here’s a hymn to lovely, warm weather. I took this in August at Lake Cushman of some gentleman trying his luck.

For more watery wonders, visit Watery Wednesday.

Well, the tomatoes aren’t too big, but in Seattle any ripe tomato is a wonder some years. The little yellow ones were from a volunteer plant in a flowerbed, unlike the started plants I bought and planted in black containers back in May, and sure enough, the volunteer is far bigger and happier in every way. It’s a puzzlement, because the plants in the ground last year refused to ripen, even cherry tomatoes. Sigh.

There’s also broccoli rabe in the basket. I planted seeds pretty early, and they were so spindly, went to seed right away, but THOSE seeds grew and now I have these huge, healthy plants, yielding like crazy. I like it steamed with olive oil, soy sauce and lots of garlic.

Happy Ruby Tuesday!

This is another bouquet creation that I photographed at the recent flower show put on by the local garden clubs. The lighting wasn’t as good for the “designs” (arrangements) as it was for the horticulture. And I detest flash on most things and especially flowers. But even so, the warmth and cheeriness of this one seems to shine through. I hope so, anyway. It’s for you, dear reader!

For more close ups, visit Macro Monday. And for more splashes of yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And for extremely colorific photos, visit Color Carnival.

I was lucky enough to be given a gift of a green Depression glass vase. I am thrilled! The green is my favorite color, and it’s in perfect condition. Here it is with a bouquet of dahlias, picked after the big rain last week toppled a tall, brittle stem that was covered with blossoms. Sometimes I find it hard to cut as many flowers as I want, but if they’re down already, I am exonerated of all guilt.

For more flowers of all kinds, visit Today’s Flower.

Here’s another photo from our camping trip last month. The weather last couple of days has been exceptionally fine, and I was reminded of this woodland path near Mt. Rainier. Dappled sunlight is my very favorite thing. Shall we take a walk?

For more mysterious shadows creatively seen, visit Shadow Shot Sunday. And for more scenic loveliness, visit Scenic Sunday.

We had a heavy rain recently and dahlias stems can be quite brittle. This one bent over very far but thankfully didn’t break. Somehow the back of it looked even better to me than the front. At least this way you can get an idea of the border beyond it that I’ve worked on so hard. I love to garden, that’s for sure, so it’s not truly work.

For more pinkness, visit Pink Saturday. Delightful.

This recent sunset was in the Burien Fred Meyer’s parking lot. I like the way the single streetlight almost looks like a star on a Christmas tree.

For more skies of every kind and color, visit Skywatch Friday. And post your own; it’s tons of fun.