This gray, gray, rainy and cold weather Seattle has been having has me longing for summer. Or spring! Seems like we are back in winter again, somehow. So it’s time to delve in the archives for a breath of warmth. This photo is from a truly halycon day at the end of July last year. I have no idea of the name of the rose as it was in someone else’s garden. Wish I had one like it!

Visit Macro Monday for more things seen close up.

Click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to the full blog with my latest post on top.

Our Japanese magnolia tree out back has been so beautiful this year. I took these photos in the last week. Which do you like the best? The top one (#1)? The bottom (#5)?

Visit Blooming Friday for more things flowering now (and sadly the last week for this great meme), Pink Saturday and Macro Flowers Saturday, too. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to the full blog with my latest post on top.

And you know what that means. I was lucky to see this scene down at the waterfront near Pike Place Market. Who wouldn’t be inspired by the scenic Puget Sound surroundings, complete with ferry, and weather like this?

Visit Watery Wednesday for more cyberwetness, and Outdoor Wednesday for more fresh air.

Click on blog header above, Sara’s Fave Photos, to return to full blog with latest post on top.

Now beginning the THIRD year of Sara’s Fave Photos. What a kick!

A little late for Shadow Shot Sunday, but still here with a shadow photo. That’s Puget sound in the distance, seen through the slats.

I really like this shot, and I can’t figure out why, really. Hope you do, too.

I got a lot of mileage out of that one sunny half-hour walk the other day. Here’s a nice winter shadow shot for you. Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more interesting penumbras. And it’s SOOC, or straight out of the camera, also.

This is one of my top faves, from the archives, from when I used to live in Sonoma County, CA, which is about an hour or so north of San Francisco. I came across it and thought I might have taken it at about this time of year, or maybe March. Those huge live oaks are so dramatic when they are bare. Sure gives you that changing weather feeling of early spring.

Visit Scenic Sunday for some lovely views of the world. And this sure is a great shadow shot for Shadow Shot Sunday.

Since this is one of my all-time favorites, I’m tagging it Best Post of the Week.

Also, I’ve fixed the little problem with comments not being available when you click on a category to the left. Now comments are available whenever you click on a page (or should be). Thank you, Marsha Perry of Perry Internet Consulting! She made this blog on a WordPress template for me, and I am so grateful. What a great addition to my life.

I guess I wasn’t the only one entranced by the scenery a week or two ago near Pike Place Market in downtown Seattle. The sunset over Puget Sound was pretty darn nice, don’t you think?

For more skies and sunsets, visit Skywatch Friday. And you might like to visit the folks at Scenic Sunday, too, even though we are early for that one.

I seem to be most attracted to photos from exactly half a year ago. This one was in a neighbor’s yard. Alstroemeria is a very nice spreading perennial that can take a bit of neglect. And they make superb cut flowers, lasting a LONG time. The only downside is no scent. I planted some pink ones and we’ll see if they do well.

For more closeups, visit Macro Monday, and for more brilliant yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday.

This was taken at my old front yard in the Des Moines house. Glads closest, yellow and orange day lilies behind, and some Asiatic (Oriental? I always get those confused) pink lilies behind that. The glads were such a thrill, and easy, too.

Visit Flowers For Today for more floriferousness. And Scenic Sunday is a great photo browse as well.

Here in Seattle we have a special kind of weather called a sunbreak. It’s so cloudy so often, that when the sun peeks through briefly, we rejoice and grab our cameras. At least I do. Here’s the view from my bedroom window, catching the very last leaves of the dogwood tree.

For more shadows scenes, visit Shadow Shot Sunday. And this photo, like most of the ones in this blog, is SOOC, or straight out of the camera. Also check out Scenic Sunday for little slices of heaven, sometimes in a backyard, like this one.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE: Readers arrive on different days, so I’m repeating about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for me and/or leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much!

Photoblog Awards 2009

There was a Fourth of July vintage autos exhibition at the Normandy Park Cove, and on a recent walk this specimen was in the neighborhood as evidence. I took a photo of the rear trunk plate because I’d never heard of a Kaiser car. Hope you like it.

I was lucky enough to be invited to tea at the home of a talented tea-maker, complete with little triangle sandwiches with the crust cut off. The weather was as superb as it gets, and here is a little slice of that heaven, with shadows. For more creative shadows seen in the most interesting places, visit Shadow Shot Sunday.