The other day at the Normandy Park Cove, near Seattle, I looked outside and there was that pretty effect when the clouds in the distance look almost like cut paper. Then it went back to just plain old dull gray. We take what we can get when it comes to scenic in this part of the world. Did you know that the Seattle area gets only about 36″ or a little over a meter of rain a year, which is about what New York City or Santa Rosa, California gets? BUT it has far, far more cloudy days. Don’t tell me how many; I don’t want to know. So we get to be conoisseurs of gray skies!

Visit Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Skywatch Friday and Watery Wednesday if you have a minute or two. If only one photo below, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos to view the complete blog here.

Happy note: Only 8 days ’til the solstice means just 16 days until days are lengthening and longer than today!

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’m back from a conference at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, and here’s a pretty fountain with flamingo sculptures for you, taken early this morning. The statues were metallic but the light was pink.

More water photos at Watery Wednesday and more scenic things at Outdoor Wednesday and Scenic Sunday. It’s also straight out of the camera (SOOC), with no tweaking at all.

If there is only one photo here, be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see the rest of them.

Our recent visit to Anacortes, WA to go crabbing with friends was topped off by a lovely late-day stroll from the Cap Sante marina to a nearby gazebo. There’s no way it shows up at this resolution, but there’s actually a line of birds flying low in the sky near the gazebo. I love the light at this time of day. It’s brief, but everything looks like it is dipped in gold.

Visit Scenic Sunday for other scenic shots. And you might try the “scenic” tag while you are here, first. If you’ve arrived from a link or search engine, be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos above for the latest post.

I like this photo very, very much. I might frame it. Anyway, I’ve tagged it Best Post of the Week.

We have a road in Seattle, the Viaduct, that is not very safe in case of a big earthquake, so they are probably going to tear it down and build a tunnel, but oh, the views from that marvellous road going north into town. I considered cropping this so you could see the birds on the lamppost on the left side of the road, and eliminating the road altogether, but I decided to leave it as taken. It’s a great road.

For more skies around the world, visit Skywatch Friday.