All my photos lately are of ice or other winter subjects, and I’m tired of it. Let’s have some summer sun! These picotee (different color on the petal edge) gladioli, or glads for short, were in my garden early one August, just about six months away from today. That means our Australian friends are seeing these for real! Our day will come, of course. Just you wait.

Lots of fun things to see at Mellow Yellow Monday, Scenic Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Color Carnival, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) and Pink Saturday if you love photography. Isn’t the internet wonderful? If only one photo is below, do click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner on top to see the whole deal here.

Even though the focus is a little softer than I’d like, this image of pink cyclamens from a recent Garden Club district meeting flower show pleases me. It’s funny how challenging it can be to photograph something that is so beautiful, graceful and perfect in person, so full of life and freshness, and make it convey even a small amount of that liveliness. You’d think the camera would just record it, but no. Such is the challenge of a person who loves to take photos of flowers.

Do wander over to Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Color Carnival and Pink Saturday for more photo fabulousness. And of course, if there is only one photo below, you can click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner above to see the entire blog.

We had our first snow this winter two days ago. I love that brief time when the snow has fallen but no wind has come along to disturb the frosting on trees and shrubs. I went outside to our patio, standing under the eaves so my camera wouldn’t get the silll-falling snow on it, when I heard that familiar Anna hummingbird whirrr. There she was, and what a scenic, snowy backdrop she had as she rested on her red feeder! I like this for the snow frosting everything like icing as much as the beautiful little bird, so I am calling this my Best Post of the Week.

Since several of you asked, they do stay in this lattitude nowadays because people like us provide feeders. It is not usually freezing here, and if it does freeze, we take the feeder in overnight so it’s liquid in the day.

Snow counts as water for Watery Wednesday, doesn’t it? Also, visit Outdoor Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Camera Critters and Ruby Tuesday 2. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog collection here. Or try a tag like “Scenic” in the right sidebar down a bit, or a search for “Snow” in the upper right field, perhaps, to see something new.

There’s a family not too far from me that really goes all out in holiday decor. The years that this address makes it into the newspaper holiday light guides the cars are double-parked outside, but this year no one called it in, so we were able to enjoy it in peace, you might say. See Santa waving? This is only a small part of the display. I love  over-the-top shows like this, don’t you?

A very merry Christmas and holiday celebrations of all kinds to you.

Visit Thursday Challenge (Light), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Color Carnival, Ruby Tuesday, Pink Saturday, and Mellow Yellow Monday for a romp through the world of photoblogs. Click around here first, if you have a minute. The banner Sara’s Fave Photos will get you the complete blog.

This photo is about the green, green leaves as least as much as the simple but pretty yellow-and-white blossoms. How DO they get that foliage to be so perfect? And it’s straight out of the camera (see SOOC Sunday), too.

Check out Mellow Yellow Monday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday and Floral Friday for lots of fun in the photoblog world. Try something new here before you go, and click on Sara’s Fave Photos to get the entire blog at your fingertips.

Hope you don’t mind my continuing to delve into the archives at exactly six months opposite our weather right now. These irises in my garden were photographed on the same session as the sunny June garden photo a couple of posts down. In June there are so many lovely candidates for the blog that many pretty flowers get passed over. In December we are extra glad to see them. I hope you agree.

Take a look at Shadow Shot Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday. Macro Flowers Saturday, and a new one, Floral Friday. Have fun! If you’d like to see more here than the one photo that might be showing below, click on a tag like “My Garden” below the photo, or just click on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

Since it’s so gray and cold out now as we approach the winter Solstice, let’s take a look at its opposite, a scene from my garden in June. Isn’t the pink, fluffy meadow rue sweet? Looking at the photo data I see that it was taken at 6pm. It’s a long time dark at that time now, of course. But isn’t it nice to know that the sun will return, in all its garden glory?

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, Scenic Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers, and Weekend Flowers for more photo entertainment. Fun and free! Of course, feel free to browse around here first, perhaps checking out a new tag or category. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog.

You have to love nice weather after a rain. Nothing makes a walk better than to come across a scene like this one, wandering around the neighborhood. This was over a week ago and by now those leaves are history, I am sure, but, like a flower in bloom, they were good while they lasted.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Scenic Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) and Weekend Reflections for some fascinating photographic fun. If you have a moment to poke around here, I think you’ll enjoy it. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog. Thanks for visiting!

A visit to a friend’s garden yielded some actual flowers blooming. These little pretties look as good from the back as the front, I think.

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Shadow Shot Sunday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, and Macro Flowers Saturday for lots of photo fun. Of course, you are invited to look around here. Clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos will give you the complete blog.

Oh, I love the Volunteer Park Conservatory. Is it any wonder I made a book about it? A recent visit to their unendingly beautiful and changing displays yielded this photo of orchids in a stray beam of sunlight. And just for fun, there’s a bonus photo below showing one of the unusual and creative plant combinations that delight me so. That one is SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), but I have tweaked the orchids slightly.

Visit Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday and Shadow Shot Sunday when you get a chance. And if you’ve arrived via a link, be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see the entire blog.

We have two columnar apple trees, about six feet (two meters) tall and two feet wide at most. They bear full-size apples! With apples, you must have another tree for pollination, so you need two trees, or a neighbor with an apple tree. The trees never get much bigger, so you can have them in pots. We used to have them in big pots on our deck, but when we moved to this house we put them in the ground, and they are happy. This year my hand-pollination efforts, and the plastic sandwich bags against pests, paid off well, and we have a bumper crop. Time for apple sauce!

Take a look at Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Scenic Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday, and Shadow Shot Sunday if you have a minute or two. Browse around here with a new category or tag (“My Garden”?) and click on the banner above, Sara’s Fave Photos, to see all the posts here.

Finally I got to be outside in some good, sunny weather the other day. Went for a walk in the afternoon and it wasn’t hard to find some beauty for the camera. I wonder if the trees enjoy being admired, the way I sincerely believe that flowers do. At least in the fall, wearing their very best, they must. What a red!

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Scenic Sunday, Friday Fences (a new meme, to me) and Outdoor Wednesday, why don’t you? If there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the others. Thank you for visiting!