Sara’s Fave Photos

On a walk with a friend, I visited the Highline Seatac Botanical Garden this past week. So beautiful. If you are in the area, it’s a must. Not too huge, a perfect strolling size, flat, and wonderful. I really like it, can you tell? I’ve got to go back and really take some photos before the fall weather gets serious here.

The weather is quite changed, much colder, and summer is truly over, I’m afraid. We had rain and wind and brief sun, and luckily I was at the overlook near my house today and saw Puget Sound in its glory. Happy Watery Wednesday!

The weather has begun a rainy cycle and the roses may not recover. Here is a shot from a few weeks ago. I love roses.

For more visions of ruby redness, visit Ruby Tuesday. And this one is bright enough to qualify for Color Carnival, too. Go see how colorful the world really is.

Since I planted my rose garden only this summer, I am reluctant to cut too much off the new plants, as it can weaken them. So I take a few short stems and put them in a bowl instead of a vase. This photo is one of my top faves.

For more flowers, a regular flower shop of photos from around the world, visit Today’s Flowers.

And for more close ups, visit Macro Monday.

I just can’t get over the weather we’re having lately. Since May it has been unusually sunny and warm. I am enjoying it so very much, but you can see the season is changing. This overlook is quite near my house, looking at Vashon Island, across Puget Sound. For more scenic photos, visit Scenic Sunday.

This is one of the simple, old fashioned roses, still so perfect in its way. Visit Pink Saturday for more visions of pinkness.

And Shadow Shot Sunday has great shadows, too!

Here’s a recent sky, one of those ones full of great shapes that force you to free-associate. I see a dragon. You?

For more skies of all kinds, all over the world, visit Skywatch Friday. Post your own!

I am sorry I had the wrong link to Thursday Challenge last week. That post has been updated with the correct link.

For this week’s theme of containers, I went to the archives and found these photos from St. Xavier Mission south of Tuscon, Arizona. The interior of the mission was truly gorgeous, in a sweet and handpainted style, and in back and around there were gardens and a museum. I was charmed and intrigued by this holy water dispenser.

It’s officially autumn but amazingly enough, our Seattle weather has been warm and magnificent. A local nursery has all the right plants and accessories for the cool days that definitely await. If I take photos, I manage to avoid taking home all the plants I want but have no room for, even if I could afford them. Don’t you want the whole display, too?

I have read that swimming koi (goldfish?) must be pictured from above, or else it is not good luck. Okay, I’m hazy on this, but these beautiful specimens appears lucky to me. The many fish in this large indoor pond were large and healthy looking, and so thrilling, the way they move so quickly and gracefully.

For more water photos of all kinds, visit Watery Wednesday. You’ll like it a lot.

I really love this photo and have tagged it a Best Post of the Week. For a fascinating selection of the blogosphere, check out their site.

Begonias bloom and bloom, with no removal of spent flowers (deadheading) needed, and they are happy to bloom in the shade for you. I try to overwinter them in my garden by adding a lot of mulch, which sometimes actually works, or take them indoors if I can. The colors of the flowers and the leaves are so varied. This one is just red, but what a red!

For more ruby visions, visit Ruby Tuesday. And for those fans of super bright colors, visit Color Carnival.

This plant is poisonous, but so very beautiful. I had seen white ones, but never this peach shade or the pale yellow. For more close ups, visit Macro Monday. And for those who adore yellow, try Mellow Yellow Monday for more flashy color.

Visiting a well-designed nursery is a delight, even if you don’t have a budget for much purchasing, or even if there’s no room to put anything, a common complaint of avid gardeners. Here’s a display of asters with pansies, and in the left corner, that white little flower is called Chinese Jasmine and very fragrant, even that one little bloom.

Visit Today’s Flowers for more flowers around the world.

Here’s a shadow shot for you today. The weather continues, amazingly, to be mostly warm and sunny here in Seattle, even well past Labor Day. It’s supposed to be over 80 later this week! Hope you are enjoying your own weather, getting outside and breathing deep, wherever you are.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday for more fascinating shadow visions.

So many dahlias in these last brilliant days of summer. Here’s a pink one for your delectation, just for Pink Saturday.

Here in Seattle a sunny sky is a serious thrill. This is from a few days ago, travelling north on the Viaduct. I know it’s not right to hold up the camera and take a photo (or, ahem, more than one) but as you can see, traffic was nowhere near. And the windshield was pretty clean, so what else could I do?

The tall black building is the Columbia Tower, whose 75th floor has been the source of the view of a couple of photos in this blog. In front of it is an oldie, Smith Tower. To the right you can see part of Qwest Field. Just beyond the railing to your left, not visible, is Puget Sound and the ferries and giant cranes of the harbor, but that’s for another photo.

Happy Skywatch Friday, everyone!

I am trying out a new meme called Thursday Challenge, and the theme this week is “Fresh.” This here is one fresh flower! I sure love dahlias, in their infinite colorations and forms, and the way they truly embody the word “fresh” as they open their petals to our view.

Today may have been the last perfect day of summer. In honor of this fabulous season that’s fading fast, here’s a hymn to lovely, warm weather. I took this in August at Lake Cushman of some gentleman trying his luck.

For more watery wonders, visit Watery Wednesday.

Well, the tomatoes aren’t too big, but in Seattle any ripe tomato is a wonder some years. The little yellow ones were from a volunteer plant in a flowerbed, unlike the started plants I bought and planted in black containers back in May, and sure enough, the volunteer is far bigger and happier in every way. It’s a puzzlement, because the plants in the ground last year refused to ripen, even cherry tomatoes. Sigh.

There’s also broccoli rabe in the basket. I planted seeds pretty early, and they were so spindly, went to seed right away, but THOSE seeds grew and now I have these huge, healthy plants, yielding like crazy. I like it steamed with olive oil, soy sauce and lots of garlic.

Happy Ruby Tuesday!

This is another bouquet creation that I photographed at the recent flower show put on by the local garden clubs. The lighting wasn’t as good for the “designs” (arrangements) as it was for the horticulture. And I detest flash on most things and especially flowers. But even so, the warmth and cheeriness of this one seems to shine through. I hope so, anyway. It’s for you, dear reader!

For more close ups, visit Macro Monday. And for more splashes of yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And for extremely colorific photos, visit Color Carnival.

I was lucky enough to be given a gift of a green Depression glass vase. I am thrilled! The green is my favorite color, and it’s in perfect condition. Here it is with a bouquet of dahlias, picked after the big rain last week toppled a tall, brittle stem that was covered with blossoms. Sometimes I find it hard to cut as many flowers as I want, but if they’re down already, I am exonerated of all guilt.

For more flowers of all kinds, visit Today’s Flower.

Here’s another photo from our camping trip last month. The weather last couple of days has been exceptionally fine, and I was reminded of this woodland path near Mt. Rainier. Dappled sunlight is my very favorite thing. Shall we take a walk?

For more mysterious shadows creatively seen, visit Shadow Shot Sunday. And for more scenic loveliness, visit Scenic Sunday.

We had a heavy rain recently and dahlias stems can be quite brittle. This one bent over very far but thankfully didn’t break. Somehow the back of it looked even better to me than the front. At least this way you can get an idea of the border beyond it that I’ve worked on so hard. I love to garden, that’s for sure, so it’s not truly work.

For more pinkness, visit Pink Saturday. Delightful.

This recent sunset was in the Burien Fred Meyer’s parking lot. I like the way the single streetlight almost looks like a star on a Christmas tree.

For more skies of every kind and color, visit Skywatch Friday. And post your own; it’s tons of fun.

Even with the warm weather we had this summer, it’s not too easy to ripen tomatoes in Seattle. But of course, I must try. The small ones seem to have the best shot at it, but I’m still learning with tomatoes, as with so many things. These are Husky cherry tomatoes, and the plant is particularly strong and sturdy. The tomatoes aren’t bad, either. I slice them on a sandwich, even the small ones, for flavor that can’t be beat.

Interesting fact: See the little star-shaped caps at the stems? There are five points. Fruits (and tomatoes are fruits, I think actually berries) that have patterns of fives, like an apple’s seeds if you cut it crosswise, are USUALLY safe to eat and not poisonous.

Visit Think Green Thursdays for more ways to live lightly on the earth, besides food gardening, that is.