I’ve discovered a park with hiking trails near me—Seahurst Park in Burien, WA. I am so pleased to be able to take advantage of them, since I am more mobile than I have been for quite awhile. Five weeks after my first try here, I see a lot of improvement!

Crisp shadows beckon me for a walk in the woods

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Not sure if this looks like a giant crab or what. What do you see? I love the clear skies Seattle has been having. We are blessed and lucky.

They look like something, but what?

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Happy Solstice! May your days be bright always.

Double Delight rose sends its love to the sun

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We visited Woodland Park Rose Garden in Seattle yesterday, in perfect weather. I need more pink roses in my life.

A planting of pink roses in Woodland Park Rose Garden

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Smelling like grape soda, these irises in a friend’s garden were a spring delight. The dark purple color of the lower petals is the finest velvet.

Colorful iris flowers in a spring garden

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Yesterday Seattle had just incredibly gorgeous weather: delightfully warm, sunny, and calm. Did I mention warm and sunny? It has been so very cold and gray this year, so I treasure these rare bursts of heaven. The irises are gearing up.

My garden and part of my neighbor’s. Bluebells and forget-me-nots, plus irises to come.

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Also called Japanese andromeda, pieris is a stellar shrub that thrives in the Pacific Northwest. And they are fragrant! Little bells of wonderfulness.

Pink pieris, backlit in the late winter sun

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This is what’s commonly called a Christmas cactus, but it’s really a Thanksgiving cactus, or schlumbergera truncata, not a regular cactus. This year, this one is acting more like a Valentine’s Day cactus! When growing them, treat them more like a regular houseplant and don’t let them get super dry, before you soak the soil.

Such showy, iridescent, magenta and white flowers, on this Thanksgiving cactus in bloom.

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Tonight is the year’s longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. In Seattle, today was only eight hours long. But now the light returns! Today is Winter, but we move onwards every day towards the Equinox, and Spring.

The shortest day of the year means the darkest times are behind us.

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This cedar tree in my back yard looks like a regular-sized tree, until you realize the fence is six feet tall and the bench is a regular garden bench. Our guess is that the tree is maybe 300 years old. It is getting ready to drop some needles like it does every fall. It is waiting for rain, like we all are in Western Washington.

Very old cedar tree dwarfs the bench below it.

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Finally spent a little time cleaning up the rose bed. I get to be out there among them, admiring them, and they get all tidied up. My favorite time of day, too.

A spray of Peace roses, backlit in the late afternoon sun

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I love these tiny, lacy flowers within the flowers, within the flowers! that some hydrangeas have. With our acidic soils here in the Pacific Northwest, they are certainly blue!

hydrangea in the garden

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