Finally a weekend day with sunshine! Yesterday I had such a happy half hour down there with the camera and the flowers blooming; these days it’s mostly too wet to even see them up close. Photo tip: Put your camera on its flower setting and get down there to get some background in that will be blurry. Simple but effective.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Scenic Sunday,  Today’s Flowers, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Macro Friday and Macro Monday for more intriguing photos. Browse around here first, why don’t you, by clicking on a new taq or category. Try the “close up” tag, at the lower right? Or the “My Garden” category might be fun.

This year I think it’s even too cold for the slugs. The lupines are coming up all unmolested, although maybe it’s my campaign with the clippers last year that’s having an effect. Last week the sun peeked through and sparkled in water caught in these lupine leaves.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, Macro Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, Macro Friday and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) if you have time. While you’re here, check out more photos in this blog by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

There’s a garden meme called Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, and each month on the fifteenth people post what’s blooming in their garden that day. It encouraged me to go outside just now, because the rain actually did stop. For now. Aren’t these tiny bells cute?

Also check out Macro Friday, Today’s Flowers, Blue Monday, Macro Monday, and SOOC Sunday. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or above, to see the whole blog.

I’m pretty pleased with this bouquet because the flowers are from my garden, and with the current wintery, so-called Spring we are having, I need all the bright and cheery I can get. Also, the rhododendrom blossoms have been forced. I learned you can do this one year when I had to cut back a big old rhodie before it bloomed, and there were all these branches lying on the ground. The flower buds were showing just a touch of color, and I thought, why not? I put them in water and was amazed to see them open fully and perfectly.

Visit Macro Friday, Color Carnival, Mellow Yellow Monday, Today’s Flowers, Flowers on Saturday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday, Macro Monday, and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) for more fascinating photos. As always, click on the banner above, Sara’s Fave Photos, for the full blog here.

I know that rain creates great photo ops in the garden. The challenge is, I don’t really like bending over and getting rained on. Those raindrops are so pretty, though! It’s hard to time it right when it stops, if it does, because then the droplets go away pretty quick. But I did get ONE shot out there this afternoon before it began to rain again.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Macro Friday, SOOC Sunday and Wordless Wednesday for more photo fascination. Be sure to browse around here first. Try a new tag or category, maybe?

We have plenty of rain right now, but not the pretty, tall flowers nodding in it, yet. This macro of a mauve pink cosmos flower, grown from seed and drooping with rain in my backyard last September, will remind all of us gardeners that the season of blossoms and lushness will come again.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Macro Friday, Pink Saturday, Today’s Flower and Wordless Wednesday for more photo fun. Before you run off, take a look at the newest photos “next door” at Free Photos, and maybe a tag like Flowers or Rain here (at the right). And one more thing: click on Sara’s Fave Photos if you see only one photo below.

Not sure whether this is best called Japonica, Pieris, or Andromeda, this big shrub with tiny bells is actually fragrant! The white-flowered one is, too. Lean your nose in and inhale. Very sweet. I had no idea until someone told me last year. This pink one is blooming at my driveway and I caught it on our rare burst of sunshine on Saturday.

The red stems count for Ruby Tuesday, I think. Visit Macro Monday, Outdoor Wednesday and Pink Saturday, and if you have a minute, do click on Free Photos “next door” for an additional selection of pretty flower and scenic photos.

This shrub used to be seen all over, but not so much any more. Plants have fashions, and this one is passe, apparently. I grew up seeing these blooming forsythias everywhere in the earliest spring. My old house had a big one that was hardly flowering because big trees had grown up around it, shading it, but one branch touched the ground and rooted, so I took it with me. And three years later in some sun, look at it!

Visit Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival, Outdoor Wednesday, SOOC Sunday and Today’s Flowers and be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to view the complete blog if you see only one photo below.

This weekend is finally sunny! Yay! The garden is basking. These daffodil buds in my front yard are trying so hard to become flowers. Happy Spring, everyone!

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, Today’s Flowers, SOOC Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday and Macro Monday for more photos with a theme. Check out Free Photos next door to see what’s new, and do click on Sara’s Fave Photos here if there is only one below.

This is a very special cactus to me. A couple of little tiny pieces, the size of the tip of my pinky finger, were taken from a 6-inch plant of my mother’s in Florida after she passed away in 2003, and each eventually rooted and became a plant itself. The great thing about this particular cactus is that the spines are curved so that you can touch it, lightly, and not get stuck. Each plant now has “fingers” the size of my thumb, and this morning I was shocked to see it blooming! And do you see all the little buds on it?

I love this cactus and its surprising flowers and am calling this my Best Post of the Week.

Visit Today’s Flowers, Macro Flowers Saturday, SOOC Sunday and Cactus Monday for more fun blog sites. Check out Free Photos next door to see what’s new, and do click on Sara’s Fave Photos here if there is only one below.