I love our two columnar apple trees. These are dwarfer than dwarf trees, bred to do well in containers or on patios. These two trees are 7 or 8 years old and have been in the ground a few years. One has red apples and one has yellow, and both are yummy. At this stage, the most important thing you can do for your fruit trees which need pollination is to make like a bee. Unless you have lots of bees and other helpful insects around, go out there with a little dry paintbrush, or a Q-tip, and go back and forth between the blossoms of the two trees. It’s incredible what a huge difference this makes in the amount of fruit that you get. Do it a few times so you get the early blooms and the late ones. Apple crisp, here I come.

Two columnar apple trees blooming in a bed of forget-me-nots

Linking up at My Romantic Home, Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Scenic Weekends, Pink Saturday, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Floral Love and a new meme, Fishtail Cottage Tuesday. Thank you for stopping by here, and happy Spring to you. May your garden flower well for you.

I took this awhile ago when I was at the Skagit Tulip Festival in Washington. Who can resist the message, whatever it is—Bloom where you are planted? Be who you are? Primary colors rule? What caption would YOU put on this image?

One red tulip blooms in a field of yellow flowers

Linking up at Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Scenic Weekends, Ruby Tuesday 2, Straight out of the Camera Sunday and Monday Mellow Yellows. I love this image and I’m calling it my Best Post of the Week. Thank you so very much for visiting. Why not browse around a bit, long as you are here?

Puget Sound has so many beautiful water views. This was taken at Redondo, a little town south of Seattle, and those are the snowy Olympic Mountains out there in the distance.

A seagull flies over Puget Sound in this Pacific Northwest view of the Olympic Mountains

Check out the great photos at Outdoor Wednesday, Straight out of the Camera Sunday, Pink Saturday, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Scenic Weekends, Water World Wednesday, Nature’s Footsteps Waters Sunday, Monday Mellow Yellows and Weekend Reflections. Thanks so much for stopping by!

The magnolias are gorgeous this year. This tree in our backyard is one of the many dotting the neighborhood right now. And the horses in the pasture adjoining our property just love the fallen petals. They even eat the blooms that they can reach off the tree! No harm seems to be done.

Pink Japanese magnolias against a sunny sky in springtime

Two horses graze magnolia blossoms on a sunny spring day

Visit My Romantic Home, Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Ruby Tuesday 2, Pink Saturday, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Scenic Weekends, Camera Critters and Macro Monday. I appreciate your stopping by here and hope it’s flowering gangbusters where you live.

These red fritillaria, or checkered tulips, decorating my garden this week just float my boat. Both this kind and the other more purple-and-cream color a few posts below are doing so well in my garden. I love things that just come up and bloom, all by themselves. Those are grape hyacinths in the background, also easy and fun, and so welcome in springtime.

Dark red checkered tulips, or fritillaria, in the garden

Participating in My Romantic Home, Outdoor Wednesday, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Ruby Tuesday 2, Pink Saturday and Macro Monday. Thank you so much for visiting and come back again soon. Sign up for email notification on the upper right so you don’t miss a post.

I’m wishing camping season was here already. I love getting to spend all day and night in the fresh air, even if the weather is not so perfect. I don’t want to tent camp in the rain because cooking is just impossible, but gray is OK. Here’s a photo of Bowman Bay, at Wahington’s Deception Pass State Park, on a gray and slightly foggy July day last summer.

A sailboat at rest in Bowman Bay at Deception Pass State Park in Washington

Participating with this post at Water World Wednesday, Nature’s Footsteps Waters Sunday, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Scenic Weekends, Weekend Reflections and Outdoor Wednesday. Thanks so much for visiting! If there’s only one photo here, click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to see the rest of the blog’s recent posts.

Daphne odora marginata is a fabulous, mostly evergreen shrub that grows very well in the Pacific Northwest. It likes acid soil and not too much sun. I’ve always had good luck with them and adore them for their intense fragrance and also for the cheerful start to the spring blooming season they provide. One little bouquet of these tiny flowers will scent up the house.

Daphne odora marginata blooms on a sunny windowsill in late March

Linking in My Romantic Home, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Scenic Weekends, Pink Saturday, Thursday Challenge (Spring), and Macro Monday. Have a great weekend, and hope you get some sun and fragrance in it. Thanks for dropping by here.

The sun was out! Our five-graft plum tree in the back is popping into bloom! This is its second year so we might get a plum or two. I love the idea of five different plums on one dwarf tree. Jars of jam, here I come!

Young plum tree opens white blossoms in the sunshine

Participating this week in My Romantic Home, Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Scenic Weekends, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday 2, Thursday Challenge (Spring), and Macro Monday. Thank you so much for stopping by here, and hope it’s Spring where you live. 

Saw these incredible trees today in Georgetown near the Seattle Design Center. That neighborhood has the most magnificent old cherry trees! If you are a fan of streets lined with masses of pink, head on down there. For your oooh-ing pleasure! I love this image and I’m calling it my Best Post of the Week.

Linking in Floral Friday, Weekend Flowers, NF Blo-Ma Tuesday, Today’s Flowers, Scenic Weekends, Outdoor Wednesday, and Pink Saturday. Maybe try a new tag or a search, just for fun. You never know what you might turn up.

Took this photo of Seattle’s iconic Space Needle in early spring just on Friday in Belltown. Don’t the clouds look pretty? We do clouds well here, or at least have lots of them. Usually all seamless gray, unfortunately. This kind is so much nicer, especially when there’s a bit of blue, too.

Seattle’s iconic Space Needle, seen from Belltown, against a cloudy sky

Participating with this post at Skywatch Friday, A Piece of Heaven, Scenic Weekends, and Outdoor Wednesday. Thanks so much for visiting! If there’s only one photo here, click on Sara’s Fave Photos above to see the rest of the blog’s recent posts.