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.

When the sun comes out, Seattlites get outside. We live for sunbreaks. This is the beach north of the Des Moines, WA, fishing pier, taken on a brief sunny interlude the other day. The clouds were doing their Spring thing, and only moments later looked completely different. These neat clouds make me call this my Best Post of the Week.

Visit Skywatch Friday for more skies from around the whole world. Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Blue Monday and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) are great memes, too. I’m trying a new meme, Photo Challenges (nature) this week. Be sure to browse around here first. Try a new tag or category at right, perhaps?

Someone was dropping french fries off the Des Moines, WA, fishing pier, feeding these seagulls at the water’s edge. I know that it’s very bad for the birds to do this for many reasons, but I totally understand why people do it even if they know better. The birds look so cute as they fly and flutter around!

Visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday, plus Camera Critters this week. Shadow Shot Sunday has more neat shadows, Weekend Reflections and Wordless Wednesday are great, too. 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.

I have no idea what kind of flower this is. It was blooming recently in the Volunteer Park Conservatory, and I was taken aback by its perfect beauty. Any of our blog readers from Singapore, the Phillipines or Malaysia, perhaps, know its name? [Thank you, Flitterkit of California, telling us it’s a red passion flower!]

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more photos with some red. Macro Monday, Color Carnival, Macro Friday, Today’s Flowers, SOOC Sunday are all great places in blogland as well. Click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner above to show the full blog here.

I love the purity and delicacy of white daffodils. I took this at Volunteer Park Conservatory recently. Some day I’m going to have them coming up in my yard. Last year I bought a whole lot of “mixed” daffs but was disappointed to find them all plain yellow when they came up. Not that there’s anything wrong with yellow daffodils, it’s just that I really like the white fancy kinds, too. What kinds do you grow?

Visit Macro Monday, Macro Friday, Mellow Yellow Monday and Flowers on Saturday. I didn’t tweak this one at all, so it’s good for SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), too. It’s neat shadows qualify for Shadow Shot Sunday, as well. Check out Free Photos next door to see what’s new, and do click onthe  Sara’s Fave Photos banner on top if you see only one image below.

Puget Sound views can be glorious, and sunshine really helps. I heard that we have had rain on 36 of the last 40 days (and those four were probably cloudy), and continuing showers and rain in the forecast. But Friday had a bit of sun, and I was lucky enough to get out to the Des Moines, Washington fishing pier for this euphoric view.

Visit Shadow Shot Sunday, Scenic Sunday, Blue Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, and Watery Wednesday for more intriguing works. Remember, the banner above with Sara’s Fave Photos brings you to the full blog here.

I love the way these little plants look like flowers. They are succulents, quite small, of the “hen and chick” kind, and these particular ones thrill me with their pink edges. Sedums can live in an old birdbath planter, which few plants can do. Do not overwater!

Pink Saturday, Macro Monday and Cactus Monday are great memes. Check them out! And the banner above with Sara’s Fave Photos will get you to the complete blog here.

The last sunny day we had around here, at least one I have photos from, was March 19. Three weeks! It a view looking north at the Cove beach at Normandy Park, WA, in the Pacific Northwest, in the “convergence zone.” Today they do predict sunny weather, but it’s solid clouds as I write this. Sigh. It’s true yesterday we did have a sunbreak, and I finally got to take a few photos of the bulbs flowering in the yard (which I will show shortly), but how can you enjoy them if it’s cold and cloudy all the time?

Enough complaining. That’s what photos are for, to transport us to another time and place. Check out Skywatch Friday for more skies of all kinds around the planet, Blue Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, and SOOC Sunday for more photos with a theme. Click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner above to show the full blog here.