The district garden club quarterly meeting with flower show is one of my fave events. People bring what grows well for them, and everyone oohs and ahs. Here’s a sprig of pink dogwood (mine earlier really was more coral) and what could be more graceful?

Visit Pink Saturday for all kinds of pinkness, SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera shots, and Flowers for Today for heavenly blooms. Macro Flowers Saturday has more great closeups. After browsing around here, of course.

I like this photo the best of this weeks’s posts. The detail on the petals just does it for me.

Our pink dogwood tree is in full bloom. What a lovely sight. I am grateful to the people who planted this tree many years ago. Plant trees whenever you can! If you won’t be there to see it in its full glory, someone else will. And you never know, do you? Time has a way of slipping away so fast.

Visit Macro Flowers Saturday, Pink Saturday and SOOC (straight out of the camera) after your visit here. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos above any time you’d like to return to the latest photo on this blog.

Here’s another view of the tulip fields taken at the Skagit Valley Tulip festival recently. See the teensy people in the distance?

For more blissful pinkness, visit Pink Saturday. Scenic Sunday has more vistas and other inspired scenery. And you can always get back to the full blog here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos at the top of the page.

Here’s the thing about apples: they must have cross pollination to set fruit. And even if there is another apple tree nearby, if the bees aren’t out doing their thing, you may have to help nature along. Here in Seattle where sunshine is an occasional thing (“sun breaks,” anyone?) it will definitely increase your harvest to get out there and help.

How? Take a clean, dry, soft artist’s paintbrush, or even a Q-tip, and brush the pollen carefully on a bunch of flowers on Tree A. Then go to Tree B (a different apple variety) and brush some more. Back and forth a few times should do it. Of course for a big tree, you can only do so much, but for dwarf backyard trees, you will make a huge difference.

We have two trees of the “columnar” type. They’re a super skinny, super dwarf size, good in containers, and both can be hand pollinated in just a few minutes. Go back in a few days when more blossoms have opened and do it again. You’ll be glad you did.

Visit Today’s Flowers for more sweet flower photos.

These were taken by my sister when we visited the tulip festival last week. I think hers are pretty wonderful. I wish I took that top one!

Please visit Macro Flowers Saturday, Color Carnival, Pink Saturday, Shadow Shot Sunday and Scenic Sunday after your visit here.

Remember, you can always click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to the full blog with my latest post on top.

This one below is of me.

I was in the back yard a couple of weeks ago, admiring the magnolia tree in the late afternoon light, when I saw the moon in the sky. Thank goodness I try to keep my camera in my pocket at all times!

Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies seen round the world, and Pink Saturday for more sweet pinkitude of all sorts. And remember, you can always click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to the full blog with my latest post on top.

I really like the way the clouds and the magnolia blossoms both seem to dance. I’m calling this one my Best Post of the Week. Hope you agree.

Our Japanese magnolia tree out back has been so beautiful this year. I took these photos in the last week. Which do you like the best? The top one (#1)? The bottom (#5)?

Visit Blooming Friday for more things flowering now (and sadly the last week for this great meme), Pink Saturday and Macro Flowers Saturday, too. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to the full blog with my latest post on top.

This view of my backyard from the patio shows the magnolia tree and a few early bulbs with a dramatic sky promising rain. Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies around the world, and Blooming Friday for more flowers happening now. Pink Saturday will show more pink of all sorts. Scenic Sunday has more scenigasms. Have fun in blogland!

You can always click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to return to full blog with latest post on top.

A recent visit to the lovely Kubota Garden south of Seattle had any number of photo ops, especially as the weather was sunny that day.  Oh, Seattlites love their sunny weather, when they get it.

Don’t you love that curvy trunk on the pine tree?

Visit Pink Saturday for more interesting takes on Pinkness. Try Blooming Friday to see what’s blooming here and there. And Scenic Sunday showcases scenery of all sorts.

I finally got to see the famed Kubota Garden, south of Seattle. Luckily, it was on one of the gorgeous days we had here last week. This pink flower also grows here and there in people’s gardens, but I don’t remember its name. Anyone know it? The leaves and flower clusters can be quite large, as big as a person’s hand or larger.

See Pink Saturday for more pink visions. And Shadow Shot Sunday for more interesting shadows.