What can you say except wow? I think this neighbor’s Japanese laceleaf maple tree has green leaves in the summer, but I don’t really know for sure. Some late afternoon sun lighting up its glory now is just the ultimate in autumn leaves, for me. Hope you enjoy it.

This one is SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera). Also visit Ruby Tuesday, Scenic Sunday, Shadow Shot Sunday and Outdoor Wednesday for more photo frolics. If there’s only one photo below, it means there are tons more for you if you click on Sara’s Fave Photos here or above.

Oh, I love the Volunteer Park Conservatory. Is it any wonder I made a book about it? A recent visit to their unendingly beautiful and changing displays yielded this photo of orchids in a stray beam of sunlight. And just for fun, there’s a bonus photo below showing one of the unusual and creative plant combinations that delight me so. That one is SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), but I have tweaked the orchids slightly.

Visit Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday and Shadow Shot Sunday when you get a chance. And if you’ve arrived via a link, be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see the entire blog.

I like the early parts of autumn, where the leaves are just starting to show their true colors and tease us with the color to come. The Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle has some lovely old buildings, including this one—so scenic I wish I lived here!

Browse around SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, and Ruby Tuesday, why don’t you? and be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to view the complete blog if you see only one photo below.

Each year I buy a string of peppers at the farmers market. They are so beautiful, and I hang it up in the kitchen and the peppers dry out nicely. Then I first take the seeds out of one (I’m a pepper lightweight; not too spicy for me!) and put it in a soup or stew I’m making, then take it out later like a bay leaf. I only wish I could actually use up the whole string each year. Time to make some chili!

Make a little visit to Blue Monday, Macro Friday, Color Carnival, Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Ruby Tuesday, and Outdoor Wednesday. Why not? While you’re here, browse around, clicking on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner to view the complete blog if you see only one photo below.

I have a hanging basket with four Rieger begonias planted in it, and each fall I take it in, it dies back, and in the spring as it starts to come up again, I repot it and put it outdoors. Very easy and successful. The four plants are similar but not the same, so it makes a great display, blooming in mostly shade the way they do. A very good plant!

Take a peek at Macro Friday, Color Carnival, Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Pink Saturday, and Today’s Flowers, for more fun in blogland. See the complete and up-to-date blog here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or on the banner above.

Farmers markets are so great. I took a look at the prices in our local Burien Farmers Market and realized that sometimes they are only a quarter of the cost in the supermarket, and fresher to boot. Next year I am going to make more of an effort to make the Thursday market each week. I like that the money goes right to the farmer, too.

Take a look at what people have posted at Macro Friday, Color Carnival, Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow Monday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Shadow Shot Sunday and Thursday Challenge (Golden) for more interesting photographs around the blogosphere. And if there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see a nice bunch here.

With a nod to the king of peppers, Edward Weston, I choose this as my Best Post of the Week.

The Burien WA Farmers Market was a perfect place to visit on Thursday. Fruit and vegetables were plentiful, beautiful and cheap, and look at these flowers! The grower said he cuts back his mums not once, but twice, to get them flowering so compactly and timing them to bloom for this fall display. I wish I could have bought them all!

Visit Ruby Tuesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Today’s Flowers, Color Carnival, Outdoor Wednesday,  Scenic Sunday, Mellow Yellow Monday, and Weekend Flowers for more fascinating photo fun, and be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to view the complete blog if you see only one photo below.

We’ve been having meetings at the Volunteer Park Conservatory (check out their brand-new website!) to help get the much-needed completion of the restoration funded. An extra benefit is going there after hours and catching the late afternoon light. There’s a wonderful video they’ve produced and you might notice that the plantings in it show it was taken just recently. Don’t you just love sunflowers?

Sorry for the late notice, but I will be at the Conservatory’s Plant Sale on Saturday, September 17, 10-3pm, signing copies of my new book, Flowers of Volunteer Park Conservatory: Blooming Month by Month. Directions on the Conservatory’s new website above. The plant sales there are always fabulous and the book is pretty neat, too! And the special launch pricing for my new book on this website will end Thursday, September 15, so if you were thinking about getting one for yourself and maybe one for a gift, now’s the time.

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Skywatch Friday, Today’s Flowers, Color Carnival, and Mellow Yellow Monday. See the complete and up-to-date blog here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or on the banner above.

Some scenes just beg for their picture to be taken. While all the world loves to photograph a hot air balloon, or, even better, a bunch of them at a balloon event—since that’s an extremely early-in-the-morning sort of deal, it’s not for me. But kayaks! Just sitting there, floating on the water of Puget Sound, waiting to be rented. Or photographed. I obliged. And I’m calling this my Best Post of the Week.

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Color Carnival, Mellow Yellow Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Weekend Reflections, Watery Wednesday, and Shadow Shot Sunday for neat sites with photos on a theme (a meme!) Remember, if there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the others. Thank you for visiting!

Have I mentioned how much I love camping? A tent, in the woods, the whole thing. I just love the air outdoors, the oxygen. And what could be better than a campfire? Just the quiet sounds of the flames whispering, the logs snapping, the crickets. I could stare at this for a long, long time.

Visit Thursday Challenge (Fire), Outdoor Wednesday, Color Carnival, Scenic Sunday, Macro Monday, Macro Friday, Mellow Yellow Monday and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera). And if there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos to see them all.