This little bouquet photo is a companion one to a post a few weeks ago featuring a red dahlia, which you can see to the left. I try to post only one when there are two similar images I like, but I am making an exception for this lovely. Flowers just float my boat, is all. Happy Pink Saturday to you!

And welcome to the Color Carnival meme and visitors. I think this one is bright enough!

This is one of my favorite garden tips.

When cooking, especially in the cold winter months when you make lots of stews and such, save those stubby bits cut off of the bottom of the garlic cloves. Really, those teensy little things! Go outside and poke them into your vegetable bed, maybe an inch under the ground. If you can, put it with the cut side up. It will grow, I swear, into a plant, and in July after the green tops wither you will have a whole head of garlic! No need to buy special “seed” garlic and waste it by putting the cloves into the ground without using them first.

I learned this after observing that the sliced off root ends of onions sometimes sprouted in the compost pile. I moved that first plant into my garden, and I’ve been planting onion bottoms and watching them turn into big plants ever since. But this is the first time I thought to try it with garlic. Look what I dug up a week or so ago! And these two dozen plants grew in maybe a square foot and a half of space, the plants just a few inches apart.

Think Green Thursday is a site about living more “greenly.” To me, growing your own food is one of the greenest things you can do.

I was lucky enough to have lunch today in the luxurious Columbia Tower Club, members and guests only, on the 75th floor of the tallest building in Seattle, on yet another blessed sunny day. This is the view. For more watery wonders, visit Watery Wednesday.

This is a variety of Swiss Chard called Bright Lights. It’s pretty as a bouquet, with some pink stems, white stems, and here you can see the yellow and the red. Chard is so easy to grow from seeds or starts, and in climates like Seattle, actually winters over sometimes.

Chard and garlic are made for each other. Lightly steam the cut-up chard (I cut up the stems separately and start them first so they cook just a bit longer), then dump all into plenty of hot olive oil that has a whole lot of lightly browned sliced garlic in it. Cook a little more and then serve. A Sicilian way is to mix in steamed potatoes. Yum!

For more ruby visions of all kinds, visit Ruby Tuesday.

Flowers, flowers, flowers. I can’t understand why some Seattlites say that Seattle only does Spring well, in the garden. Hogwash. There are so many lovelies blooming! Here’s a sweet begonia, about four inches across. I took the hanging basket in over the winter, and here it is again. How easy is that?

It’s a close-up, so fits the Macro Monday meme, and the splash of yellow qualifies it for Mellow Yellow Monday. Both excellent and exciting memes, filled with creativity. Visit or better yet, participate!

Sorry I haven’t posted this earlier, but there’s still time to sign up for the last session (composition, should be fun) of the free Digital Photography online course offered by CreativeTechs.com. I’ll be there!

Their course offerings have been spectacularly wonderful, and all free. You can purchase the webinar and handout downloads, but you don’t have to. Highly recommended.

4-Week Digital Photography Course

This is the final week of John Greengo’s digital photography course. And this is the topic we’ve all be waiting for. You’ve learned the technical aspects of your camera, is the fun part.

http://creativetechs.com/tipsblog/free-4-week-photography-course/

Date/Time: Wednesday Aug 5, 11am Pacific
Length: 90 Minutes

This was taken on a HOT day this week at Pike Place Market, world-famous tourist mecca that rightly deserves a must-see if in Seattle. I love the way they have flowers on that roof. Note that the building on the right is not Pike Market proper, but the flowers roof the entrance to the actual market.

Visit Flowers for Today (their One Year Anniversary is next week, and I am honored to be posting as Guest Friend on that special day!) for more fabulous flowers, and Scenic Sunday for more scenic wonders.

Somehow this shadow shot reminds me of a hairdo; I don’t know why. I sure love these sunny days! For more shadows around the world, check out the Hey Harriet blog’s truly fascinating meme, Shadow Shot Sunday.

The tender color of these daylilies from my friend Eileen’s garden is just so beautiful to me.

I can’t get over how many daylily forms and colors are available. These are so different looking than the orange ones I posted recently. I also like daylilies because they bloom well in part shade, which is very useful in most gardens.

One more thing about daylilies: I’ve read that they are very good interplanted with daffodils, as the daffs are dying down as the daylilies are coming up. I like continuous bloom, or succession planting, whenever possible.

For more things pink, visit Pink Saturday, a meme with a really great group of dedicated bloggers who post amazing photos.

We were at a friend’s house on Lake Washington in Seattle, enjoying the perfect weather (finally!) when my favorite super noisemakers roared by. What a kick!

Visit the other views of different skies at Skywatch Friday, a huge and successful meme that has people looking up around the world.