Here’s a view of Santa Rosa from the hills of Windsor, California. I may have mentioned that dusk is my favorite time of day, especially with peaceful winter views like this one. The tangles in the oak tree branches to the right are mistletoe.

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When the petals are not just one flat row, the flowers are called doubles. The edge of a different color around the petals is called picotee. These azaleas with maidenhair ferns on the side from the Volunteer Park Conservatory are pretty special for both reasons, and you probably won’t find too many like this in your neighbor’s front yard. I think they are so sweet and cheerful!

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Visiting my friend in Santa Rosa, California, I was so pleased to see her geranium plant blooming, in January! This orchid color is a beauty, isn’t it? Here in Seattle, now that I’m home again, not much happening out there in the garden, but soon, we hope.

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While recently in San Rafael in Northern California, I had a chance to visit the big hispanic supermarket Mi Pueblo, one of a chain of ten stores around California. It was so great! Very entertaining. Everywhere I looked were perfect displays of all kinds of delicious-looking foods, a perfect photo op for a photo junkie like me. Here’s a peek at the ceiling decor over the fruits and vegetables.

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Oh, the glories of a sunny morning. This image is hot off the memory card, as I took it minutes ago. Christmas cacti rule!

Visit Today’s Flowers for more amazing flowers, Color Carnival for more bright colors, and Cactus Monday and Macro Monday for you know what. This shot is straight out of the camera, too.

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This little beauty was on sale at Pike Place Market this afternoon. These succulent plants don’t look like too much (for most of the year) with their flat, sort of leathery “leaves,” but this time of year they are such a blessing. I am now the proud owner of two of them and I see the appeal. Wonderful, showy and complicated flowers, brilliantly colored, just when we need some color in our lives.

Visit Macro Flowers Saturday, Color Carnival, Cactus Monday and Pink Saturday for some more photo fun. This one is straight out of the camera, too.

Try a new tag today. What about pink? As always, if there is only one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos here or above for more.

One from the archives, for sure. I was going through the tulip collection because I felt like creating a calendar for 2011 with tulips and I don’t think I ever posted this one on the blog. I will definitely include it in the calendar. It was taken in April of this year at the Skagit Valley Tulip Fest, a couple hours north of Seattle in Washington. Hope you enjoy this blast of springtime as we are entering winter.

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I really like the expansive feeling I get when I look at this photo so I’ve categorized and entered it as Best Post of the Week.

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This photo was taken about a year ago, when I had just gotten my new camera, the Canon Powershot S90. My New Year’s resolution last year was to learn its features, and while I haven’t learned them all by any means, I feel much more comfortable with the manual settings and am far more likely to get the shot I want, closer to what I am seeing right then. Sunsets give me such a great feeling and thought I’d share this one, even though the quality could be better.

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I picked these roses, hydrangeas and cosmos in my garden in late September. Oh, what a couple of months does! I think people love flowers so much because they are so fleeting, but their brief perfection seems to reach our emotions like little else.

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I’m not sure if princess crowns is the right name for these dress up things I saw in the Pike Place Market last week, but I do know that if I were about seven years old, it sure would make me feel like a princess to wear one. Note that they are in the “important colors” of pink, lavender and red. There was a time when my own little girl would wear nothing else.

Visit Pink Saturday for more visions of perfect pinkness. Color Carnival has more great, bright colors. If there’s only one photo here, do click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog.