This is my backyard, taken last week in the first snow of the season. I felt that I needed to post another shadow shot today. I love the roses below, but the shadows just weren’t crisp enough. These blue shadows are good for Blue Monday, and this is another for Scenic Sunday, too. Also, this is a good post for the Sunday Creative, on the theme of Frozen.

As always, if there’s just one photo below, do click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog experience.

I picked these roses, hydrangeas and cosmos in my garden in late September. Oh, what a couple of months does! I think people love flowers so much because they are so fleeting, but their brief perfection seems to reach our emotions like little else.

Visit Today’s Flowers, Color Carnival and Shadow Shot Sunday for more interesting photos. This one is straight out of the camera, too.

If there is only the bouquet photo showing, do click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog.

Time for a trip to the archives for some summer flowers. These roses bloomed in my front yard last July. It may be gray and dark outside now, but it’s less than three weeks until the solstice and lengthening days!

Visit Macro Friday for more things seen up close, Macro Flowers Saturday for just beautiful flowers, Color Carnival which specializes in bright colors, and SOOC for more straight out of the camera shots. Do click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see this complete blog.

Only three short weeks ago, this bloomed in my garden. Astrantia is one of my new favorite perennials. It bloomed and bloomed and bloomed, and seemed to be perfectly fine in quite a bit of shade. With pretty and unusually shaped leaves to boot, what more could you want from a garden plant?

Visit Macro Friday, Pink Saturday and Macro Flowers Saturday if you have a chance. This one is SOOC, or straight out of the camera, too. If you’ve found only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for more.

Looking at the new snow that had fallen out back on Monday, we could see from that dark, laden sky that more snow was coming. When the sky is darker than the land, it’s such a strange kind of look. I like the way this is a full color image but looks almost monochrome.

Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies seen around the world, and Scenic Sunday for great scenery. And have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Yesterday when the snow was just getting going, it collected so beautifully on the trees in the backyard. That is one old cedar tree, and I’m sure it has seen worse storms than this one. And check out the bonus little video of the snow falling in the front yard!

Visit Watery Wednesday for more versions of water in all its forms. Outdoor Wednesday has more views of the world outdoors. This one is straight out of the camera, or SOOC. Scenic Sunday has more scenery, naturally!

If there’s only one photo here, it means you’ve arrived by a link. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the entire blog.

The weather in Seattle was so cool for most of the summer that the cosmos didn’t get going until the end of September, and they are supposed to be summer annuals! The good part is that those flowers, so late in starting, are now blooming like crazy, so my backyard border (shown from my bedroom window) is filled with huge bushes of cosmos, taller than I am. The roses are few but company coming called for a bouquet.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more ruby redness gracing all kinds of photos. Color Carnival has more bright colors. Scenic Sunday as always shows us scenery around the world. Windows and Doors has lots of ’em, creatively seen. And SOOC has more straight-out-of-the-camera shots. A new meme, Monthly Garden Bouquet, features photos of blooms from your garden.

If you’ve arrived via a link, the latest photos here are at Sara’s Fave Photos.

This huge old cedar tree is what I first loved about this house. It’s actually hard to take a good photo of a tree, especially such a big one. This photo is hot out of the camera, as the weather cleared up nicely this afternoon and I just shot it.

Enjoy more shadows at Shadow Shot Sunday, the Hey Harriet blog. Scenic Sunday has more endlessly varied scenery.

While you’re here, you might try a new tag or search “tree” for other photos you might like. Or the My Garden category? To get to the latest post here, always click on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or above.

We’ve had a LOT of rain. Seattle doesn’t actually get very much rain per year, only about 36″ in an average year. What we have a lot of, usually, is cloudy and dim. But this month has been quite rainy, and due to the late onset of summer, the plants were looking better than they usually do at this time.

Here’s a shot of my backyard cosmos after a recent downpour.

Visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday for more great photos with a theme. And if you feel like it, try a new tag or category here, first. Return to the latest post here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos here or above.

I like this photo very much, the graceful arc of the stem decorated with the rain gems really speaks to me, so I’ve tagged this post Best Post of the Week.

I can hardly believe that I got any tomatoes at all, but here is proof. September is a bit late for first tomatoes, though, don’t you think? I threw a couple of handfuls of dolomitic lime on the soil at planting and it made a huge difference. No more yucky blossom-end rot, and the vines look GREAT. Here in the Pacific Northwest the soil tends to be pretty acidic, thus easy success with rhodies, blueberries and evergreens. But tomatoes seem to prefer a more alkaline soil.

Gardening note: I was always hesitant to use dolomitic lime because I was sure it must make the soil more acidic—because it was “lime” and that had to be acid, right? WRONG. Silly me. It makes the soil more alkaline just like it says on the box and is great for plants like lilacs, peonies (mine flowered for the first time!) and hellebores, all of which really hate an acid soil.

How about browsing the “Vegetables/Fruits” category here—then visit Ruby Tuesday for more things red and ruby, Color Carnival for more brilliant color, and SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera shots. And if you’ve arrived here from a link, do click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see the full blog with the latest and the greatest photos.