Flowers are so lovely, but so ephemeral, their fleeting beauty one of the reasons we respond so emotionally to them. These peonies, roses and snapdragons from my garden are on their way out, but still so worthy of contemplation.

Bouquet with peonies, roses and snapdragons begins to fade

Linking up at Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, Garden Tuesday and Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home. Do browse around here. “Bouquet” is a fine choice for the search bar at the upper right for some very fine images, if I do say so myself.

This is a banner year for roses, I can tell. One of my top fave roses is Double Delight with its strong, sweet and spicy fragrance. This elegant rose bud in the late-day light poses with some Proud Land red roses blooming their heads off behind.

Double Delight rose bud begins to open

Please visit Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday, Thursday Challenge (Outdoors), Garden Tuesday and a new one, Creative Weekends Friday at the Pink Home. Don’t forget that you can download some great tips for better flower photos with no fancy equipment in the sidebar at the right.

My next door neighbor has a Chinese dogwood tree planted on our common property line, and we are lucky to enjoy the blossoms every spring. This tree is getting pretty big already and I’ve read that they can get to 30 feet tall. Whew.

White Chinese dogwood tree blossoms in close up, about 3″ or 10 cm. across

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Scenic Weekends, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday and Garden Tuesday. Thanks for your visit here and do come again soon.

This year the roses in front of my house are doing very well indeed. I fertilized them at the right time and it made all the difference. The sweet alyssum border reseeded itself very vigorously and just adds to the general fragrance. Wish you could come to my house and I’d pick some for you.

Roses blooming in a Seattle front yard garden

Please visit Scenic Weekends, Outdoor Wednesday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Monday Mellow Yellows, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, and Garden Tuesday. Thank you for your visit here and please come again soon.

My roses look like they are going to be really good this year. A combination of alfalfa meal (slow acting) and shameful systemic rose food has finally come together for a sturdy, healthy and abundant bunch of buds.

One rosebud gets ready to bloom

Visit Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Pink Saturday, Ruby Tuesday 2, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday and Garden Tuesday. Thank you for visiting and please click on a new tag (perhaps “rose”?) at the lower right, now that you are here.

Finally, those fat peony buds are opening. We’ve had two warm days and the peonies and the roses have leapt into bloom. We are happy.

A pink peony blooms in my Seattle garden

Participating in Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Scenic Weekends, Pink Saturday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, My Romantic Home, Fishtail Cottage Wednesday, Macro Monday and a new meme, Garden Tuesday. Thank you so much for your visit here!

This duck was swimming right for the visitors with food in their hands, in the Japanese Garden at Seattle’s Arboretum. I like the V-shaped wake it left behind.

Duck swims on water-lily decorated lake at the Japanese Garden in Seattle’s Arboretum

Joining up at Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Scenic Weekends, Water World Wednesday, Pink Saturday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Camera Critters, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, and Weekend Reflections. I so appreciate your browsing around here.

This photo was taken exactly one year ago at the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle. Orchid cactus plants have the showiest blooms, many times a few inches across, but for some reason red flowers are the very hardest for my Canon camera’s sensor to capture accurately, and I wish the petals looked more like the actual plant did instead of like a finger painting. But the white center parts make this flower photo pretty special anyway.

Red orchid cactus, or epicactus, blooms at the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle, WA

Joining in at  Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Ruby Tuesday 2, and Macro Monday. Your visit here is much appreciated. Browse around a bit while you are here if you have a few minutes.

In general, I am a fan of the most natural look possible of the natural world. I like photos because they capture a beautiful sight that I’d like to revisit. But sometimes, the lure of “art” beckons. I’d like your opinion. Which of the two images below appeals the most? Which would you like hanging on your wall? Thank you for your input.

Yellow flowers reflected in a pond at the Arboretum in Seattle, WA, color image

Flowers reflected in a pond at the Arboretum in Seattle, WA, sepia image

Linking to Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday (the green one), Scenic Weekends, Water World Wednesday, Monday Mellow Yellows, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers and Weekend Reflections. Thank you for stopping by and have a great weekend.

We have a neighbor who does a fine job with foxgloves, or digitalis, and yesterday I finally got to stop and take a photo when the flowers were at their peak, the sun was out, and the light was at a nice, slanty angle. Flowers look good all the time, but taking a photo of them is not as easy as all that, at least to get a photo that you want to look at twice. Isn’t their white picket fence the perfect backdrop?

Tall foxgloves, or digitalis, bloom along a white picket fence

Linking in at Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Scenic Weekends, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, My Romantic Home, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Pink Saturday, and Fishtail Cottage Wednesday. Thank you for visiting and please let me know how you feel about what you see.