Sara’s Fave Photos

Driving near Seatac (Seattle-Tacoma, in case you wondered) Airport recently, the weather was changing quite rapidly, and I thought you’d like to see this dramatic sky for Skywatch Friday. Yes, it rained hard not long afterwards! Visit Skywatch Friday for skies seen and posted from everywhere, through the magic of the internet.

It’s still June, so how can you resist roses? Here’s one for you to wish you could inhale off the computer screen. Some day, I am sure, it will happen.

For more rubiness of all kinds, visit Ruby Tuesday, here.

A close look at a poppy flower that was blooming in my neighborhood about three weeks ago. The blossom was quite large, maybe 4 or 5 inches across. After this kind of poppy fades, the seed pods are quite interesting, too.

For other close looks at the most amazing assortment of things, visit Macro Monday.

I think this is bright enough for the Color Carnival folks, also. Hope you agree.

I am so happy to see the sweetpeas finally taking off. I planted them from seed myself, and that always adds to the gardening enjoyment, I find. And sweetpeas love to be picked! You can only enhance and prolong the blooming period by picking them as they come into flower. Of course, I always leave a few.

For more flowers around the world, visit Today’s Flower.

I know there’s a special name for this sort of statue, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it is. Anyone? She is from the prow of an old ship, and has a nice, inspired look about her. A goddess in an old-fashioned dress? And is that a very low cut neckline, or not? She is a bit dusty, but still so lovely. She lives at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), a wonderful and unusual museum in Seattle. And she casts a great shadow, I think! Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more shadows seen around the world.

I looked this up in Dave’s Garden, one of my fave garden sites, and they say it is Sea Thrift, Sea Pink, Common Thrift, Armeria maritima, but I call them Pinks. They were blooming their heads off last week, and what better post for Pink Saturday? Click for the incredible world of pink visions.

This is from a couple of weeks ago when there were some fires burning, not sure where but far away, that for several days made our sunsets smoky but beautiful. Visit Skywatch Friday for more views of skies around the world.

It wasn’t much rain, but it was enough to glisten up this exquisite daylily I found on my walk the other day. It has a ruby throat and so can post for Ruby Tuesday, and the water droplets will have to qualify for Watery Wednesday. I apologize for all the flowers I’ve been posting lately, but they are blooming everywhere, so what can I do?

This clematis just knocked my socks off. And the rain didn’t hurt the photo either. For more marvellous macros, visit Macro Monday.

These are also called digitalis, and I love them. They bloom in shade or, up here in Seattle, in sun also; they reseed, and they are so showy! These are from seedlings I brought from the other house. They bloom the second year, like most perennials started from seed, but if you know in advance, that’s fine, as their leaves make a lovely rosette pattern all by themselves. Actually the foliage looks a bit more gray-green than in this photo, but I just liked the photo the way the camera saw it.

For more photos from around the world, visit Today’s Flower in Brazil.

Ah, gray Seattle! I can tell I’ve lived here a while when I start to get excited about different kinds of gray skies. The overlook near my house provides some scenic views, that’s for sure. Visit Scenic Sunday for more scenigasms.

We’re planting a big rose garden out in front. What a lot of work! But it will be worth it, absolutely. This is one of the 18 roses waiting in pots, named Broadway. In a rare burst of sunshine, it created this shadow, almost like another petal form. Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more fascinating shadows.

Peonies are some of my favorite flowers. Their mysterious depths, the petals like angel feathers, the indescribable fragrance—plus when peonies bloom, summer is not far behind. This one bloomed the other day in my garden; such a welcome sight.

For more Pink of all types, shapes and sizes, visit Pink Saturday.

After our anniversary dinner the other day, we took a little stroll along the pier, but it was too windy to stay long. You can see the Puget Sound water surface is not that smooth, but the rays of the sunset was welcome with its brilliant color enlivening the gray skies and dark water. Happy Skywatch Friday, everyone!

These chive flowers are so pretty and the plants so easy to grow. I read they make a nice little hedge in front of bigger plants, but I have room only for one nice one. It’s near the kitchen door, and when I’m cooking, I just go outside and snip, snip, there you are.

I think that growing herbs and other food crops are a great way to garden, and good for the planet also. If you’d like other ideas about being green, visit Think Green Thursday.

A recent sunny day yielded reflections on a pond for us all to enjoy. For other watery delights, visit the Watery Wednesday meme, filled with fascinating water photos from all over.

These perky flowers were at a home I visited recently. I was so impressed with how healthy and vigorous they are. I learned from Digital Flower Pictures, (link on my blogroll to the left) that they are called Blanket Flowers. I like them!

Happy Ruby Tuesday to all. Check out more rubiness there, seen by eager eyes around the blogosphere.

And hello to the Color Carnival folks. Is this bright enough, do you think?

We planted so many bulbs last fall, some tried and true, other new ones to take some chances. This is one of the ones I’d never heard of. And it’s fragrant, like most white flowers, a bonus! So amazingly graceful. And for other close ups, visit Macro Monday and take a look around.

It’s June, and we were lucky enough to attend a wedding. Dan and Misty tied the knot, and here’s the cake and Misty’s bouquet for Today’s Flowers. What a wonderful party it was, too.

I’m a little late for Pink Saturday, but there’s a world of pink out there; go look.

This mostly building photo gets included as a Skywatch post because the building seems to looks like part of the sky to me. I took this from the car on the upper West Side; I think we were on the Henry Hudson Parkway. If anyone knows what this building is, please let us know. [Later note: This is the IAC office building designed by Frank Gehry, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Edificio_IAC_InterActiveCorp.JPG]

For more views of skies around the planet, visit Skywatch Friday.

Visit the new site of Think Green Thursday. I know that posts do not have to be green color, but photos of green are some of my faves, so that is what I am submitting.

These are hostas and the leaves are several inches big, actually not in my garden, but I wish they were. Slugs love hostas, but slugs also love beer in a tunafish can even more, and crawl in and drown a happy death. Thus we can have hostas, irises, and other slug attracting plants. The slugs seem to prefer Trader Joe’s very cheap import beers, quite good for people also.

Watery Wednesday is here, and all is dry today here in Seattle, but a few weeks ago this pond told a different story.

Again, anyone have any CafePress.com experience to share?

That trip to New York City’s Chinatown was a great photo excursion. Here’s a Ruby Tuesday post for you, full of good luck red lanterns. Visit there for lovely visions of red of all kinds.

I think this is bright enough for Color Carnival, too. Check out all the bright colors!

By the way, has anyone had experience, good or bad, with CafePress.com? I’m thinking of making some notecards and such to sell there. With my fave photos, of course! Any advice about that? Thanks in advance for sharing any experiences selling (or buying) with them.

I don’t usually like flower photos with insects, but I’m making an exception for this bee working the red rose. But then again, the non-bee one is pretty nice, too. Which do you prefer?

For more lovely flowers around the world, visit Today’s Flowers.

Here’a a shadow shot of my friend’s sofa in the Bronx, New York. For more interesting shadows of all kinds, visit Shadow Shot Sunday, aka Hey Harriet.