Soon the Kousa dogwood leaves will begin to turn. See part of the little red fruit on the left? They are edible, if nothing to write home about. But cute!

Kousa dogwood in autumn

Connecting with Through My Lens Monday, Our World Tuesday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Tuesday’s Wordless Wednesday, Tuesday Treasures, Wordless Wednesday, Thankful Thursday, Little Things Thursday, Friday Bliss, Garden Affair Saturday, and Pink Saturday. Thanks so much for visiting here and hope to see you again soon. Please sign up at upper right for notifications of new posts.

These are Korean dogwood leaves, in my front yard.

Curvy Korean dogwood leaves starting to turn color, up close

Joining in Our World Tuesday, Macro Monday, Monday Mellow Yellows, Ruby Tuesday 2, Outdoor Wednesday, Wednesday Around the World (WATW), Thursday Challenge (Orange), Photo Friday, Orange You Glad It’s Friday, Pink Saturday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, and Saturday Show Off. If only one photo is showing here, please click on the curly letters of Sara’s Fave Photos Blog above to see a few more.

Dark red cherries of some kind on my backyard 5-graft tree, right before I picked them. I lost the tags, so don’t know the exact name. But they are delicious! I really love this image and I am calling it my weekly Saturday Top Shot.

Shiny dark cherries hang from the tree

Check out Our World Tuesday, I Heart Macro Saturday, Macro Monday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Outdoor Wednesday, Wednesday Around the World (WATW), My Romantic Home, Weekend Reflections, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, and Saturday Show Off. Thank you for visiting here first. Hope to see you again soon.

After weeks and weeks of sunshine in Seattle (I heard that we had over 72 days with blue skies!) it finally began to rain. I guess it had to happen. My garden is so relieved, I can tell you that. Hose watering just doesn’t do the job that rain does. We had quite a bit of water, and more is predicted, but this morning there was a sunshiny period so I went outside for a walk. Here are some wet and colorful autumn leaves with peeks of blue sky, for your enjoyment.

Participating this week at Mellow Yellow Monday, My Romantic Home, Scenic Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Ruby Tuesday 2, Outdoor Wednesday, Water World Wednesday and Nature’s Footsteps Waters. If only the leaves photo is below, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos Blog above to see recent posts. Thank you so much for visiting! Be sure to leave a comment if you like what you see.

Sometimes I just have no idea what a flower is, especially trees. Anyone have an idea? But isn’t it pretty, with the light coming through the petals like that?

Various flower memes worth visiting include Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, plus there’s  Pink Saturday, Macro Monday, Skywatch Friday and Outdoor Wednesday, just for fun.

If you’re in Seattle, be sure to hit the Volunteer Park Conservatory plant sale tomorrow, Saturday. It’s the best, and I’ll be there, signing books, too.

A couple of weeks ago at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show I really enjoyed the bouquets and arrangements in the lobby area, especially since the windows and daylight was so much better for photographs than the main garden displays inside. I don’t know why the tradition at this show is to have the display garden lighting so low that all the gardens look like it is nighttime. Perhaps it keeps the flowers from going past peak bloom too quickly, or saves electricity, or some other practical reason, but my desire for beautiful photographs without a tripod makes that so challenging. So here is a quirky and lovely bouquet in a branch in the lobby, just because.

You might want to check out Mellow Yellow Monday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Color Carnival and Ruby Tuesday 2 for more floral fun, but always know that the search function here in the upper right corner holds lots of treasures.

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.

Alert the newspapers, spring has been sighted! I saw these branches blooming in downtown Seattle a couple of days ago, while all else remains bare. As I circled the (cherry blossom? or flowering plum?) branch in full digital-camera-mode of taking LOTS to choose from later, a woman passerby said, “C’mon, spring!” and I couldn’t agree more.

For more flowers from all over the world, or to post your own, click HERE.

For more scenic photos, click HERE.

It’s so gray and rainy now, I crave the bright days of summer. This was taken in June at a neat little garden South of Seattle. Go visit it if you are in the neighborhood.

For other watery posts, click HERE. It’s amazing how differently people interpret Water as a theme.