I know this is not my usual kind of subject, but heck, gotta go with these things sometimes. This was a bouquet of roses given to a friend (my roses!) and I just loved how the water and stems looked on her desk. I hope you enjoy the photo. [Note: see the August 22 post, three above this one, for the roses!]

Watery Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) and Macro Monday are all neat blogs and memes, well worth a visit. If there is only one photo below, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the others.

While I was in the Las Vegas trip archive yesterday, I found this shoe photo. Perfect for Ruby Tuesday! I love to look at them but go for comfort in my own shoes. I’m always amazed that anyone actually walks in them.

If there’s only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the full blog experience. And visit Free Photos next door for even more, with new ones added all the time.

A bit of sunshine perks up everything in the house. These days in Seattle’s northern lattitude when the sun is so low in the sky, the our rare sunshine reaches far into the room. This was taken at my south-facing kitchen table a week or two ago. But now the days lengthen and eventually the sun’s rays will not enter the window at all.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more interesting shadows of all types, and Blue Monday. Such creativity!

Remember, only one photo below means more will show if you click on Sara’s Fave Photos. And do see what’s new in Free Photos “next door.” Rate your favorites!

Nothing like a waterfront park, is there? Seahurst Park, this little gem of a local park in Burien, Washington, looks out over Puget Sound to some islands and the Olympic Mountains in the distance. I think it’s lovely in the late afternoon, with the soft light falling on the new grass, happy with all the rain we’ve been getting. The leaves are going to sleep, but the lawns are waking up!

Visit Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Midweek Blues (a new meme!), Blue Monday and Scenic Sunday for more photos on the theme.

If you’d like to view the complete blog and there’s only one photo on this page, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the whole enchilada.

This is one from the archives. I remember it was a very hot day in northern California, and the eggs just looked so beautiful before we lit into them. I am glad I preserved them for posterity. I was just learning how natural light is so superior to flash, and this soft light really proves it.

Today’s Thursday Challenge is FOOD (Meals, Restaurants, Eating, Vegetables, Unusual Foods, Cooking, BBQs…). To return to the full blog with my latest post on top, click on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

Visiting a friend I was surprised to see the amount of papers on her desk and all around her office. I’ve heard that “a clean desk is the sign of a sick mind,” but I can’t look at too much disorder without getting antsy. How do you find important things? Sometimes I’ve just got to straignten things up, or at least line up the piles. But we’re all different, aren’t we?

In any case, the theme for Thursday Challenge is “Messy.” This qualifies.

Today’s Thursday Challenge is WRITING (Pens, Paper, Words, Signs, Graffiti, Books, Magazines,…) and I’ve got to go back to the two printing-related workshops I took for more cool photos to show you.

Here are two from the snowflake block print class. We each made a little paper snowflake by folding and cutting a square of paper, then tracing it onto linoleum, cutting away the snowflake or the background, then inking the blocks.

And voila, giftwrap! Later sheets got better.

And then the letterpress class had (besides the colorful inks I showed a couple of posts back) this fabulous array of letters you could arrange on a tray. It was fun figuring out how to spell things backwards, sort of.

One more photo, I can’t resist, of one of the the truly magnificent presses:

I am sorry I had the wrong link to Thursday Challenge last week. That post has been updated with the correct link.

For this week’s theme of containers, I went to the archives and found these photos from St. Xavier Mission south of Tuscon, Arizona. The interior of the mission was truly gorgeous, in a sweet and handpainted style, and in back and around there were gardens and a museum. I was charmed and intrigued by this holy water dispenser.

Sorry I haven’t posted this earlier, but there’s still time to sign up for the last session (composition, should be fun) of the free Digital Photography online course offered by CreativeTechs.com. I’ll be there!

Their course offerings have been spectacularly wonderful, and all free. You can purchase the webinar and handout downloads, but you don’t have to. Highly recommended.

4-Week Digital Photography Course

This is the final week of John Greengo’s digital photography course. And this is the topic we’ve all be waiting for. You’ve learned the technical aspects of your camera, is the fun part.

http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/free-4-week-photography-course/

Date/Time: Wednesday Aug 5, 11am Pacific
Length: 90 Minutes

This is a from a trip to a wholesale florists supply store in Kent. You might think that the flowers would be the subject of choice, but these ribbons were amazing. There were several long aisles of them!

Wordless Wednesday (not just Wednesdays any more) is a fascinating opportunity for photographers around the world to show their photos. You can find it HERE.

When we went to the Fair yesterday, there was a section I have never visited before: people’s collections. This one (I’m showing just a tiny part) made me laugh out loud. I thought it was a good Wordless Wednesday submission as it really needs no caption to enjoy.

I have been posting lots of flowers, and they truly thrill me, but here is something different. I was walking in Old Burien and saw a The Yarn Stash (http://www.burienyarnstash.com/), a knitting shop with a storefront display of . . . knitted food. Or maybe crocheted. I loved it. Here are the doughnuts . . .

. . . as well as knitted angora marshmallows and the knitted food pyramid (high fiber!), all by Christine Moulton. Too funny!

And not to neglect our general garden theme, a teensy treefrog on the leaves of our super dwarf peach tree in Des Moines. You can just see the colorful peach peeking through the leaves on the lower right.