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.

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!

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.

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?

Today is my dear sister-in-law Shree’s birthday. We were together in the fabulous Steinhardt Garden in Mt. Kiscoe recently, and what a photo op she provided with her slicker and umbrella. A Ruby Tuesday post just for you, and many happy returns!

Looking at the sky from an airplane is only sort of a sky view, but when there are clouds right there, what else is it? Anytime I fly, it’s a reminder of how beautiful and huge our country is, and mostly seemingly empty.

For more beautiful skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday. Join in, if you like; it’s loads of fun.

This is not my garden; again it’s from the Bronx Botanical Garden in New York City. This section was to inspire and inform the home gardener. While I have planted vegetable beds with flowers in them, I have never seen the plants planted in diagonal rows. So simple, but such a great idea. If you are going to have neat rows, might as well be at an angle, for pretty.

I like this photo for Think Green Thursday because to me the idea of growing your own food is about as green as you can get, especially if you do it the simple, cheap way with kitchen compost to enrich the soil, seeds, and there you go. No expensive supplies needed, just a bit of know how. Just ask a gardener and you’ll learn enough to get you going.

Just for the heck of it, here is a photo of the raised beds from October of 2007 in my last house. The string trellis at the right is for the flat peas which were already done by then. It was a nice garden, but the current one will be even nicer, eventually.

In one of the back areas of the incredible and huge Conservatory in the Bronx Botanical Garden in New York City, I found this fountain. The sound of splashing water was wonderful, and the air smelled so good. I like the way the water looks dark and mysterious.

For more photos of water in its many manifestations, visit Watery Wednesday.

Yet another photo from the Bronx Botanical Garden and my recent New York City trip. This was taken in the beginning of May, and the peonies were ALMOST ready to pop. For more ruby redness of all kinds, go to Ruby Tuesday, a fine place in blogland if ever there was one.