Bromeliads are fun. They are pretty like flowers but the center part is only colored leaves (called bracts, I believe). This kind likes to get watered from above and collect water in the center. My mother used to grow different kinds in Florida where they can grow outdoors, and she had quite a collection. This one is in the Volunteer Park Conservatory here in Seattle, where they certainly cannot grow outdoors, or at least not in January.

Visit Macro Monday, Color Carnival, Cactus Monday and Ruby Tuesday for more cool photos with a theme. And do poke around here before you go!

On a trip up to Camano Island yesterday, just loving that sunshine, there was the Stillaguamish River (the “Stilly”) and the magnificent snow-capped Cascade Mountains as a backdrop. Today all is cloudy again, but it was so nice while it lasted.

Speaking of sunshine, I am headed south to the San Francisco area (Wine Country, here I come!) to visit and take in the Impressionist show at the de Young Museum, as the show is soon to head back to Paris. Paintings just look so different in person, and it’s much easier to get to San Francisco than Paris. I can’t wait, as great weather is predicted and it will be so good to hang with the peeps again. It will mean time off from this blog and Free Photos, but just for a week. I’ll be back before you know it with lots of new photos.

In the meantime, be sure to visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday, and do browse around here and Free Photos while you’re here. Ta-ta!

It was clear overhead but all misty and mysterious out on the water. Can’t you just hear the foghorns?

Visit Watery Wednesday for more interesting kinds of water photos, Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday, Weekend Reflections, Skywatch Friday and Sunday Shadow Shots. This one is straight out of the camera, too.

Do browse the little images, or thumbnails, next door at Free Photos, linked to searchable larger photos you can copy and use for your enjoyment. And if this photo is the only one below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the rest of them.

I grew these paperwhites and did the vodka-and-water technique I read about on the internet and it worked great. They did not fall over and are doing their festive thing for us. Don’t they look cool in front of our tree? Let’s call this the Best Post of the Week, too.

Happy Christmas and New Year to all!

Visit Today’s Flowers for more flowers from the entire planet and Color Carnival for more bright colors, Macro Monday for close ups and SOOC for straight-out-of-the-camera shots. Check out Free Photos for more flower and scenic photos, while you’re at it, too.

Here’s a stunner of a view, if I do say so myself. It’s amazing what a little patch or two of sunlight can do to an otherwise gray vista. This overlook near my house has been such a great scenic boon to me, and I am grateful.

Visit Watery Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday, Weekend Reflections, Skywatch Friday and Scenic Sunday, too, for more great photos.

I continue to be excited by the lucky break I encountered in the cloud cover and am calling this my Best Post of the Week.

Want to see the latest posts? Click on Sara’s Fave Photos here or above. And do leave a comment and let me know how you like this blog’s new look.

Looking through the old files from May of this year, I found this photo taken at the marina (Boat Haven?) in Port Townsend, never before published. What a rainbow that was! I remember that it was unusually long lasting, its arc in the east getting flatter and flatter as the sun sank in the west.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, Skywatch Friday, Scenic Sunday and Weekend Reflections for more interesting photographs on a theme. This one is also straight out of the camera. And because I like it so much, I’m putting it in the Best Post of the Week category.

Please try a new category or tag while you are here. And if there is only the one photo below, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the whole blog experience.

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.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday and Scenic Sunday for more interesting photos contributed by people around the world. I love photo memes!

The U.S. Pacific Northwest has an interesting climate. Even though it’s quite far north, the ocean currents and the large amount of straits, bays, inlets, rivers and other water features gives us quite temperate weather, although mostly cloudy. The temperatures vary here less than any other place I have ever lived. We are lucky that certain broadleaf evergreens like the holly tree flourish here.

This large tree in my neighborhood, perhaps 5 or even 10 yards/meters tall, has wonderful berries, but I noticed that they begin fairly high up. I am pretty sure that is due to people helping themselves to these very attractive holiday decorations. I was tempted.

Visit Ruby Tuesday for more splashes of red, Outdoor Wednesday, Scenic Sunday and SOOC for more straight-out-of-the-camera shots. If the berries is the only photo here, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for more.

There’s a very scenic overlook near my house, and sometimes even in gray weather the view is good. A little sunshine sifting down from the clouds, a bit of reflection on the water, and there you have it. It feels so good to look out to a far distance, doesn’t it?

Visit Skywatch Friday and Scenic Sunday for more skies and earth worth viewing. Watery Wednesday has more water photos of all kinds. Weekend Reflections showcases visual reflections.

If you see only one post on this page, click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the whole blog.

Before I began visiting the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle regularly, I had no idea anthuriums existed in so many forms and colors. Here’s sort of a holiday look for you in red and green. And don’t you just love the heart-shaped leaves?

This tropical plant is a great entry for the Hot, Loud and Proud plant and flower meme out of Hawaii. And Color Carnival has more bright colors for you.

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.