Just a spray of lovely pink orchid flowers for you to enjoy, on a typical, gray Seattle day. I took these at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show not too long ago. I can’t seem to grow orchids, but I do certainly enjoy viewing them. I think I have a lot of company on that.

As you might know, Google Friend Connect has vanished from all non-Blogger sites. Darn! Please follow this blog on the sidebar at the right with the new Linky Tools. Thank you.

There are lots more great photos at Mellow Yellow Monday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Ruby Tuesday 2, and Pink Saturday. The blogworld is so full of talented people. If you have a moment to spare, please click around on this site first. You can always view the entire blog here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos above.

One of my neighbors has a rhodie that is the first to bloom in the area. Mid-February and showing flowers! How thoughtful of them to provide such cheeriness to people walking by.

For other floral finds, visit Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Color Carnival, Macro Friday, Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, and Pink Saturday if you have a minute. And if there is only one photo below, do click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner above for more.

It may be a long haul until actual spring that has flowers and warm weather, but I am all psyched when I see these little shoots of daffodils emerging in winter’s melting snow. So brave and yet so tender looking! This inspires me, so I am calling it my Best Post of the Week.

Have a look at Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Scenic Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday and Watery Wednesday for more neat photos. Perhaps do a search here for snow, or winter, first? Always return to the full blog by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

I need to see some flowers blooming, so a trip to the archives from June 2007 is just the thing. Double Delight might be my favorite rose. It’s sturdy, available in nurseries everywhere, and supremely fragrant. Let us gaze on this image of summertime! It will get here, we know. And for you “down under” folks, hope you are enjoying your time in the sun.

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This cheerful cactus houseplant blooming on my windowsill is very happy, and making me happy in the process. It’s called hatiora (ha-tee-OR-a) or Drunkard’s Dream because the teensy cactus stems sometimes look like bottles. The flowers are only a quarter inch or a centimeter.  I call it a matchstick plant, but that’s incorrect. I actually have several plants, for one reason or another, and this is the only one blooming, and it’s covered in blossoms. I guess in the northern Seattle lattitude, full southern exposure is the way to go.

Why don’t you check out Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Mellow Yellow Monday and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) for some great pictures around the world. Find lots more interesting photos here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or above.

Seattle had a big ice storm, as you may have heard. I really wanted to get outside and take photos yesterday, but the weather was just too bad. Today it all began to melt, but I got out there before it was all gone and captured some great images. This pieris shrub is also called andromeda. I didn’t even realize it had already set buds until I was outside looking closely. It doesn’t seem to be the worse for wear.

Take a look at Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Floral Friday, Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, and Ruby Tuesday 2, for more fascinating photos. Do browse around here first by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

This ceiling was in a strip mall Chinese restaurant in Northern California, in Santa Rosa. The food was quite nice, but I think the ceiling was really memorable. It seemed like a stage set, or somehow underwater like jellyfish. My hat is off to the people who dreamed this one up and set it up.

Visit Ruby Tuesday 2, Color Carnival and Pink Saturday for lots more color fun. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see the whole blog here first, if you have a moment. Actually, it might take you more than a moment, because I’ve realized that I’ve now posted over 1,000 photos here. I amaze myself!

Yes, it is raining outside, but no foxgloves are now in the yard. Wait six months and there they’ll be! I really like the way the raindrops hang from the edge of the flower, and I hope you do, too.

Happy Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Watery Wednesday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Floral Friday, Wordless Wednesday and Pink Saturday. You can find lots more cool photos here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos any time you like.

After midnight on New Year’s Eve, I like to drink Champagne and eat crab dip with a fresh vegetable plate and ridged potato chips. It’s not the most common food for the first thing all year, but it’s what I’ve been doing for a long, long time. The crab dip is super easy.

Crab Dip 

One pkg. 8 ozs. Philadephia brand cream cheese, room temperature so it’s easier to blend
1/3 cup cream (or milk)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 and 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Dash garlic powder
Dash salt (optional)
One 6 oz. can crab meat

Put cream cheese and milk or cream in a bowl. Mix with a fork until smooth. Add rest of ingredients except crab. Mix until smooth. Add drained crab meat; mix well. There you go!

Potato chips are fabulous, but actually the veggies are all super good with some crab dip on them. Happy New Year!

View Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Ruby Tuesday 2, and Color Carnival for more neat photos. Do click on the Sara’s Fave Photos curly type above to see the whole blog here.

Another photo from my daughter, travelling in S.E. Asia. When my mother lived in South Florida and actually grew bananas (she “fed” the grass-clipping mulch with cut-up kitchen vegetable scraps and had the only fruiting banana plant in her neighborhood) I was amazed to learn that bananas grow pointing upwards. Somehow I had always assumed that the fingers pointed downwards.

Visit SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Color Carnival, and Mellow Yellow Monday for interesting captures on a theme (photo memes). Before you go, check out a new theme or tag here, and thanks for visiting. Remember you can always see the full blog by clicking on the banner Sara’s Fave Photos.