Beauty’s a pretty broad concept, and of course mine has flowers in it. This is from August, from my bedroom window. The horse’s name is Ranger, boarded in the neighbor’s pasture, and the flowers I planted with my own little hands. To me, a scene like this gives me feelings I can’t describe, so I guess I’ll call it beauty.

For more interpretations of the idea of Beauty, visit Thursday Challenge.

I’m still in that rose mood. The sun’s been shining, and there are still some flowers on the rosebushes, although this particular photo was taken a few weeks ago. If only that transporting scent could be conveyed to you, dear readers. Perhaps computing power will achieve that some day, but until then, the photo will just have to suggest it.

For more perfect pinkness, visit Pink Saturday.

FREE PHOTOGRAPHY COURSE: http://creativetechs.com/training/category/10-week-digital-photography-course/ Another plug for the best deal on the web, a free photography course. It’s in the middle of the ten weeks, but on Wednesday they are going to cover Part 2 of Aesthetics, and Part 1 was fabulous. It’s free to watch the online seminar, but if you want to rewatch it or watch later, you have to pay a bit. Totally worth it, and so many free resources on their site. Definitely check it out. Superior to anything I’ve seen out there.

Taken from the shady part of my yard, looking to the sunnier area, you can see there’s no problem with having flowers in shade, thanks to fuschias, wax begonias and red impatiens. I love that they need almost no care after planting except watering. The coleus (those spiky things) grown easily from seed did very well also. The sunflower is a volunteer from feeding the birds.

For more flowers around the world, visit Today’s Flowers, and for more scenic shots, visit Scenic Sunday.

On a walk with a friend, I visited the Highline Seatac Botanical Garden this past week. So beautiful. If you are in the area, it’s a must. Not too huge, a perfect strolling size, flat, and wonderful. I really like it, can you tell? I’ve got to go back and really take some photos before the fall weather gets serious here.

This Des Moines, Washington nursery goes in for petunias in a big way. Bigger than anything I have ever seen in the way of petunias, or any flower grouping, really. They must have over 100 feet of the most amazing installation of petunias I have ever seen. And they are fragrant, too! It had just rained pretty hard earlier, so these were not even at their perkiest, but wow, is all I can say.

For more flowers, visit Flowers for Today. It’s great.

And be sure to stop by Color Carnival for more amazingly bright colors.

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.

Oh, the joys of a sunny day are so much magnified when spotting shadows is your game. Here’s a bouquet of shadow shapes for you today, aka a tree. If you crave yet more of the ephemeral penumbra, visit Hey Harriet’s blog at Shadow Shot Sunday. It’s one of the best places in the blogosphere.

I realized it’s been just a year since we moved in. We dug up lawn and planted bulbs, dug the vegetable beds, and in general dove in to a very neglected situation. Today the sun peeked out and this is what it looks like out there. Not as good as it will look next year, but such an improvement over last year!

This daffodil created flower lust in me. I don’t know why its frilly pale looks appealed to me so much when I saw them last week. I’ll have to find some like this and find a spot in the yard for them for next year. A gardener always looks ahead hopefully. For more flowers around the world, click HERE.

Usually it’s quite gray around here (I know I repeat myself) so when we have sunny skies it’s an event. This week we had a couple of days of glorious weather, so here’s a look at a sky from Wednesday for you. For more fascinating skies around the world, click HERE.