In honor of tonight’s Solstice, I am featuring a photo taken on the other Solstice, the first day of summer in June. Please enjoy these pink peonies from my garden. In just a few hours, the sun dips to its lowest point in the northern hemisphere, and then begins its stately progress towards more light. We are ready.

You might like Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Pink Saturday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), and Floral Friday for some fun in the world of photoblogs. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog here, and thanks for visiting!

Don’t you wish someone gave you this bunch of roses? I know I do. Let’s pretend you have them right now. “For me?” “Yes, for you!” “Why thank you!” “You are so welcome. You deserve them.” There, doesn’t that make your day?

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, and Macro Flowers Saturday, when you get a moment. While you’re here, try a new tag or category. And always find the latest post here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

There’s nothing like natural light, is there? These cosmos from my garden were catching just a bit of sun in their vase on the windowsill. This image, like most of the ones I show here, is straight out of the camera. When the light is right, most of the photo is just right there for you. Keep your eyes open and be quick!

Visit Pink Saturday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Today’s Flowers, Color Carnival, Macro Flowers Saturday, Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Weekend Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday and Macro Friday. See the complete and up-to-date blog here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or on the banner above. The light and shadows in this one float my boat so I’m calling this my Best Post of the Week.

A few posts down there’s a vase with rose stems, and you probably wondered what the roses looked like. I would have! Here they are, straight from my garden, for your viewing enjoyment. So sorry computers aren’t quite up to transmitting fragrance, yet.

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Farmers markets are supposed to be all about fresh, healthy, local produce, but I mostly go for the flowers. Buckets of fresh flowers, there for me and my admiring camera. I usually ask if I may take photos, and they almost always say yes. The berries and cherries usually get my dollars, but those flowers fill my (mental and electronic) memory card.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Color Carnival, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday and Macro Friday. Browse around here first, why don’t you? Clicking on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner will always bring you to the latest post here.

I went outside and picked a few roses. I hate to cut them but I love bouquets, so I compromise by cutting only the full-blown ones, leaving as many as possible out there. But oh, my goodness, the perfume in the room from garden roses. No florist roses ever come close.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Color Carnival, Pink Saturday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday and Macro Friday. Be sure to browse around here first. Try a new tag or category at right, perhaps?

The peonies have been spectacular this year. Some new ones have flowered for the first time. I love the delicacy of this white one, showing faint pink and yellow tones but still that perfect peony pearlescent puff.

Mellow Yellow Monday has more posts with a splash of yellow; Pink Saturday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Macro Monday and Macro Friday are good, too. If there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for others. Happy Fourth to all my USA readers!

This Spring is late, late, late. I checked my garden photo archives and this sweet mini-bouquet was taken last year, two weeks before this date, and we are not up to several of these flowers quite yet. I did see a few lilies of the valley out there, yes on the violets, and the forget-me-nots definitely, but not yet for the blue bachelor buttons or lavender scabiosa. I don’t know what that magenta one is; maybe a kind of geranium. Soon all will bloom. We are waiting!

Visit Watery Wednesday (the water in the vase counts, doesn’t it?) and Wordless Wednesday for more photo fun. Also check out Today’s Flowers, Macro Friday, Blue Monday, Color Carnival and Macro Monday. After browsing around here, of course. If you see only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for more, and possibly more recent photos.

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.

From about a year ago, here’s a breath of Spring for you from the Pike Place Market near the waterfront in downtown Seattle. I sure love those bouquets. I’ve got to go down there again soon, just to breathe the scent of the flowers. And to take photos, of course.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival and Ruby Tuesday for more neat photos, and SOOC has more straight out of the camera stuff. Do check next door at Free Photos to see what’s new. And if there’s only one photo below, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see the rest of them.

Haven’t been to Pike Place Market in awhile. If you want to experience the flower vendors and their incredible flowers to the nth degree, the best day is probably Friday, as they pick on Thursday and on Friday ramp up for the weekend crush of a crowd. All year long, rain or shine. The greatest free show in Seattle, and the bouquets amazingly cheap.

These dahlias were photographed in September. Right now it seems as if flower season will never get here, but of course it will.

Thursday Challenge‘s theme this week is “Many.” I’m submitting this for an entry. It’s a good one for Color Carnival, Today’s Flowers and SOOC also. While you’re here, try a new tag like “dahlia” or “bouquet.” Be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to view the complete blog if you see only one photo below.

Oh, the flowers of late summer! I’ve noticed that the items in my archive that are half a year away always seem to be the most compelling. Do we always want what we don’t have? I do love dahlias and especially miss them since my own were such no-shows last summer. Maybe this year I’ll get some going so I can have bouquets like this again.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more interesting photos containing red. Color Carnival has brilliant color, Mellow Yellow Monday has yellows, and SOOC has more straight out of the camera stuff. And don’t forget to check out the latest uploads on Free Photos next door. Remember, if only one photo here, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog.

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