You have to love nice weather after a rain. Nothing makes a walk better than to come across a scene like this one, wandering around the neighborhood. This was over a week ago and by now those leaves are history, I am sure, but, like a flower in bloom, they were good while they lasted.

Visit Watery Wednesday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Scenic Sunday, Outdoor Wednesday, Shadow Shot Sunday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera) and Weekend Reflections for some fascinating photographic fun. If you have a moment to poke around here, I think you’ll enjoy it. Click on Sara’s Fave Photos for the complete blog. Thanks for visiting!

Before the pretty leaf season is well and truly over, I wanted to post this image I took in a parking lot a few weeks ago. I’ve never done a nighttime shot of the outdoor, natural world that I’ve liked so much. Hope you like it also.

Mellow Yellow Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Scenic Sunday, Ruby Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, and Shadow Shot Sunday are all good photo meme sites where you can compare different approaches to a visual theme. And as always, browse around here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos to view the complete blog if you see only one photo below.

A visit to a friend’s garden yielded some actual flowers blooming. These little pretties look as good from the back as the front, I think.

Visit Ruby Tuesday, Outdoor Wednesday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Shadow Shot Sunday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, and Macro Flowers Saturday for lots of photo fun. Of course, you are invited to look around here. Clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos will give you the complete blog.

It rebloomed! I’ve read all kinds of complicated instructions, but they sound like way too much work to me. All I did was keep it in a sunny (south) windowsill and keep watering it with the weak liquid fertilizer in the water that I always use for houseplants (so I don’t have to remember when to do it). Like all bulbs, amaryllis must have great drainage. After the leaves died back I still kept watering it when it was very dry. And lo and behold, a serious flower stalk emerged two weeks ago and now is in full bloom! The only other thing is that they must be inside a heavy pot because they are so top heavy and can easily fall over.

Visit Scenic Sunday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Ruby Tuesday, Mellow Yellow Monday, Today’s Flowers, Weekend Flowers, Macro Friday, Macro Monday, and Macro Flowers Saturday if you have a few minutes for some photo fabulousness. Be sure to click on Sara’s Fave Photos to view the complete blog if you see only one photo below.

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.

Last year I planted several different lilac shrubs in front by the street. I had a few flowers this spring (they are young plants, and lilacs are very long lived and so take their time about flowering) but this season I am surprised to find that some of the leaves are yellow, some purplish, and some have these pretty red and yellow leaves, with pink tones. All right!

Try some new sites: Mellow Yellow Monday, Ruby Tuesday, Pink Saturday, Macro Friday, Macro Monday and Outdoor Wednesday. Quite interesting, you’ll see. But first, be sure you have the complete blog on view here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos.

Spathiphyllum is a very common houseplant and does well with a bit of neglect and in dark spaces. I’m pretty sure that the white part is a bract, or a differently colored special leaf, and the true flower is the pebbly, spiky part. It was one of the very first houseplants I ever got to bloom. This particular one is in the Volunteer Park Conservatory, which is my favorite flower haunt in Seattle.

Visit Mellow Yellow Monday, SOOC Sunday (straight out of the camera), Macro Monday, Macro Friday, Shadow Shot Sunday, Macro Flowers Saturday, Today’s Flowers, and Weekend Flowers, if you get a chance. But first, see the complete and up-to-date blog here by clicking on Sara’s Fave Photos, here or on the banner above.

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.