Glorious tulips! Even on an overcast day, what a show. This year at the Washington State (not Holland!) Skagit Tulip Festival I went to Tulip Town as well as RoozenGaarde and found there’s a big difference between the two. Tulip Town has really great and huge fields planted in a multitude of fabulous varieties of tulips. RoozenGaarde, however, has it all over them in the breathtaking garden areas they have planted. I’ll show a bit of them later. Below is a slice of the Tulip Town fields for your scenic viewing pleasure.

Visit Color Carnival, Outdoor Wednesday, Pink Saturday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Thursday Challenge (Spring), Today’s Flowers and Scenic Sunday for more photo fun. If there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for others.

Even on a gray and cloudy day, pink tulips are glorious and uplifting. These pink and white beauties were at the Skagit Tulip Festival earlier this week. You locals, go TODAY! Warm and sunny, yes!!!

Pink Saturday has pretty pinkness and this week, Easter themed photos. Also visit Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Macro Friday, Color Carnival, Outdoor Wednesday and Flowers on Saturday. Click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner above to show the full blog here. And because I like the pink and the gray sky, I’m calling this my Best Post of the Week. Hope you agree.

At the Skagit Tulip Festival on my birthday earlier this week, of course I took many photos. Naturally! The light was quite overcast, which is not my favorite for photographing flowers, no matter what the experts say. They just seem so much more exuberant in the sunshine, or maybe I’m projecting. But you do get lots of detail in the color. I admit I needed to tweak this one a bit to bring up the liveliness of it. Hope you like it.

Visit Macro Friday, Today’s Flowers, Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival and Macro Monday for more neat photos. If you see only the tulip photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the rest of the blog.

Driving back from the Skagit Tulip Festival yesterday (more coming on that soon, you can be sure) there was a briefly unobstructed view of our glorious and wacky Space Needle, so I held up the camera to its vague direction and snapped. Yes, I clicked the shutter several times and later tossed most of them, but I always marvel at how digital has changed photography. In film days, you can bet that the shot would never have been good enough, shot from a moving car and through the windshield, and more important, I never would have “wasted” ten or 12 frames on such an unlikely capture. Digital rocks!

Visit Skywatch Friday for more sky scenes from around the world. Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday and Scenic Sunday all have worthwhile images to browse. Yours, too, perhaps? If there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for others.

Yet another study of rain on leaves. This from a couple of days ago. Tulip leaves bead the water so beautifully. Don’t water tulips where they are planted in the summer, however, or they won’t come back.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Macro Friday, and for that little reflection of more tulip leaves in the water drop, Weekend Reflections. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or above, to see the whole blog.

Took this in the ever-present rain a couple of weeks ago. I like the jewel tones of the colors and think I might do something like this in my garden next year. Doesn’t the daffodil look like it’s holding its arms up?

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Finally a weekend day with sunshine! Yesterday I had such a happy half hour down there with the camera and the flowers blooming; these days it’s mostly too wet to even see them up close. Photo tip: Put your camera on its flower setting and get down there to get some background in that will be blurry. Simple but effective.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Scenic Sunday,  Today’s Flowers, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Macro Friday and Macro Monday for more intriguing photos. Browse around here first, why don’t you, by clicking on a new taq or category. Try the “close up” tag, at the lower right? Or the “My Garden” category might be fun.

This year I think it’s even too cold for the slugs. The lupines are coming up all unmolested, although maybe it’s my campaign with the clippers last year that’s having an effect. Last week the sun peeked through and sparkled in water caught in these lupine leaves.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, Macro Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, Macro Friday and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) if you have time. While you’re here, check out more photos in this blog by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

There’s a garden meme called Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, and each month on the fifteenth people post what’s blooming in their garden that day. It encouraged me to go outside just now, because the rain actually did stop. For now. Aren’t these tiny bells cute?

Also check out Macro Friday, Today’s Flowers, Blue Monday, Macro Monday, and SOOC Sunday. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or above, to see the whole blog.

I’m pretty pleased with this bouquet because the flowers are from my garden, and with the current wintery, so-called Spring we are having, I need all the bright and cheery I can get. Also, the rhododendrom blossoms have been forced. I learned you can do this one year when I had to cut back a big old rhodie before it bloomed, and there were all these branches lying on the ground. The flower buds were showing just a touch of color, and I thought, why not? I put them in water and was amazed to see them open fully and perfectly.

Visit Macro Friday, Color Carnival, Mellow Yellow Monday, Today’s Flowers, Flowers on Saturday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday, Macro Monday, and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) for more fascinating photos. As always, click on the banner above, Sara’s Fave Photos, for the full blog here.

When the sun comes out, Seattlites get outside. We live for sunbreaks. This is the beach north of the Des Moines, WA, fishing pier, taken on a brief sunny interlude the other day. The clouds were doing their Spring thing, and only moments later looked completely different. These neat clouds make me call this my Best Post of the Week.

Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies from around the whole world. Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Blue Monday and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) are great memes, too. I’m trying a new meme, Photo Challenges (nature) this week. Be sure to browse around here first. Try a new tag or category at right, perhaps?

Someone was dropping french fries off the Des Moines, WA, fishing pier, feeding these seagulls at the water’s edge. I know that it’s very bad for the birds to do this for many reasons, but I totally understand why people do it even if they know better. The birds look so cute as they fly and flutter around!

Visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday, plus Camera Critters this week. Shadow Shot Sunday has more neat shadows, Weekend Reflections and Wordless Wednesday are great, too. Check out Free Photos “next door” to see what’s new, and do click on Sara’s Fave Photos here if there is only one below.