Highline Botanical Garden had an event today with Ciscoe Morris giving a talk, so I had to go and check it out. They had the place all decorated, including these roses in the big fountain. Cloudy weather can be great for certain types of flower photos, can’t it? I like the moody quality of this photo and am calling it my Best Post of the Week.

Mellow Yellow Monday, Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Color Carnival, Pink Saturday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) Scenic Sunday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Monday, Macro Flowers Saturday and Macro Friday are all neat blogs and memes worth a visit. If there is only one photo below, please click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the others.

A warm evening in the summer is heaven anywhere, but here in the Seattle area we feel particularly blessed when we can eat dinner on the patio and take in the garden view. This was last evening’s lovely view. Hope you can enjoy it with me.

Visit Pink Saturday, Scenic Sunday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Color Carnival, Today’s Flowers, and Wordless Wednesday. Also, I think it is so cool that my new book and the launch party at Volunteer Park Conservatory on Thursday, August 4 got a mention in the Seattle PI garden blog!

Looks like Seattle is going ahead with the tunnel, but we still get these great views, for now.

Visit Scenic Sunday, Skywatch Friday, Outdoor Wednesday, and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) for more fascinating photos with a theme.You can always see the complete and up-to-date blog here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos, or the SFP banner above.

If you are in Seattle on Thursday, August 4 at 6-8pm, please come to the Conservatory’s free Open House and book signing for my new book, Flowers of Volunteer Park Conservatory: Blooming Month By Month. Take a tour and meet the author! You can find more info about the book on the home page here, or order at pre-launch prices with free shipping on the Book Order page. Thanks for visiting!

From a couple of weeks ago, some flowers in my garden. The orange and yellow ones are alstroemeria, the purple on the left is linaria (VERY easy to grow and reseeds vigorously) and the blue and pink in the middle are bachelor buttons, also reseed well. I love gardening for moments like this one.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Outdoor Wednesday, and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Scenic Sunday, Color Carnival, Today’s Flowers and Blue Monday. Please click on the banner above, Sara’s Fave Photos, to see the latest photos here. And thanks for visiting!

This alstromeria or peruvian lily is one vigorous plant in my garden. It does give you pause when you planted a few rooted but shabby looking, scrawny plants last year and this year the clump is about 5 feet tall and almost as wide. They are beautiful but hid my peonies and so they will need to find a new spot. I read that any good garden spends about a third of its life in a wheelbarrow, and I must say that rearranging is what it’s all about. You can’t really know in advance how something will do, can you?

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday Shadow Shot Sunday, Today’s Flowers, Macro Flowers Saturday, Macro Monday, Macro Friday, Color Carnival, and SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) and Ruby Tuesday for more photo fabulousness. Browse around here first, why don’t you? Clicking on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner will always bring you to the latest post here.

Oh, it was a glorious Fourth! In addition to everything else, the weather was PERFECT and warm and totally sunny. We were at a party on the shore of little Lake Burien in Washington state, near Seattle. Dusk and calm and trees and water make for a happy scenic-photo person like myself.

Like many of us, I’m a sucker for sunsets and am calling this simple photo my Best Post of the Week.

Visit Wordless Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Watery Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Skywatch Friday, Pink Saturday, Shadow Shot Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), and Weekend Reflections. Click on the banner above, Sara’s Fave Photos, to see the latest photos here. And thanks for visiting!

Lupines don’t last all that long, although if you deadhead them (remove the spent flowers) they can rebloom a bit. This amazing patch of them is in a neighbor’s yard. The other afternoon when it was sunny late in the day, I knew the light would be perfect for taking photos of them, so I hustled up the hill and there they were, in their glory. That was just a week or so ago, and this perfect peak has passed now. But the photo lives on!

As you’ve probably noticed, this photo is similar to the lupine header photo. It’s hard finding header photos that work in a very skinny slice! I thought you wouldn’t mind seeing a more rectangular composition of the same scene.

Visit Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Scenic Sunday, Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers, Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival and Ruby Tuesday for more photo awesomeness. Do click on the banner above, Sara’s Fave Photos, to see the latest photos here. And thanks for visiting!

The huge poppies are blooming. These unusual ones, the size of my hand, were discovered in a neighbor’s garden on a recent walk. Aren’t they something? The photo doesn’t really do justice to the red color, either. That tomato red, and the dark, dark center just do it for me. Flower thrills.

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Color Carnival, Today’s Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), and Macro Flowers Saturday when you get a chance.

And you can always see the whole blog by clicking on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner above, if there is only one photo below. Check out a few more while you are here!

You can’t go wrong with a huge field of tulips and a barn in the distance. Scenigasm! Just a tiny bit of sunshine peeked through the very cloudy skies to give these red tulips a little happy boost. It’s been so cold this year that I bet there are still quite a few blooming in Skagit Tulip Festival near Mt. Vernon,WA. If you’re nearby and it’s a nice day as is predicted for tomorrow, do go and see.

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Wordless Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Color Carnival and Today’s Flowers for a great photo browse. Before you do, maybe try a new tag or category here? To see the full blog, click on the Sara’s Fave Photos banner at the top.

Took this in the ever-present rain a couple of weeks ago. I like the jewel tones of the colors and think I might do something like this in my garden next year. Doesn’t the daffodil look like it’s holding its arms up?

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, Color Carnival and Ruby Tuesday for more neat photos. Do click on Sara’s Fave Photos if there is only one photo below. Thanks for visiting!