I seem to be most attracted to photos from exactly half a year ago. This one was in a neighbor’s yard. Alstroemeria is a very nice spreading perennial that can take a bit of neglect. And they make superb cut flowers, lasting a LONG time. The only downside is no scent. I planted some pink ones and we’ll see if they do well.

For more closeups, visit Macro Monday, and for more brilliant yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday.

This is my friend Lyle’s dahlia garden. You can see the telltale shadow of me trying to photograph with one hand while holding the bouquet I had just picked in the other. Oh, the warm and sunny days of summer!

For more lovely flowers, visit Flowers For Today.

This was taken at my old front yard in the Des Moines house. Glads closest, yellow and orange day lilies behind, and some Asiatic (Oriental? I always get those confused) pink lilies behind that. The glads were such a thrill, and easy, too.

Visit Flowers For Today for more floriferousness. And Scenic Sunday is a great photo browse as well.

There’s a Winco grocery store in Renton, not too far away, that not only has great prices but has a parking lot with very sculptural trees and a big sky, too. This was taken last week. We are now entering the darkest week of the year (in the Northern hemisphere, of course), and soon the days will be on the upswing. Let’s hear it for the Solstice!

For more skies seen round the world, visit Skywatch Friday.

And thank you so much for those who clicked through to the Photoblog Awards and left a comment or a vote. I appreciate it so very much. And thank you to everyone for putting up with all that repeated blurb about it! We are done now.

This sunflower, photo taken in my garden in September, is actually a volunteer plant, sown accidentally by the birds or squirrels from the black oil sunflower seeds they love to eat. It’s a good system. The birds spill a ton of seed from the feeder on a pole on the lawn, and the squirrels who cannot raid the baffled feeder are the clean-up crew on the ground. Everyone fat and happy, and the contented squirrels seem to leave the tulips and daffodill bulbs alone.

Visit Macro Monday for more close ups and Mellow Yellow Monday while you’re out and about, along with Color Carnival.

Free Photography Lighting Class starts tomorrow, Tuesday, 11am Seattle time. I’m registered and can’t wait. These classes (I’ve taken others from this group) are just super, and they are free.

Here’s another photo from that letterpress workshop I took. Visit Ruby Tuesday for more photos with red in them. And of course, Color Carnival for more brilliant colors. Have fun in blogland!

And because this just floated my boat, so to speak, I’ve tagged this Best Post of the Week.

On Friday evening I took two craft workshops. One was making handmade snowflake blockprint giftwrap, way fun, and the other was a mini Letterpress workshop. They were both so cool. Here is a photo from the letterpress class of some of the ink ready for us students to roll over the letters we had arranged (backwards, of course) in a tray, ready to image.

For more visions of cheerful yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday. And for more thought-provoking close ups, check out Macro Monday. If you like brilliant color, toddle over to Color Carnival, too. And aren’t the Reflections cool?

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

Flowers with colored petal edges are called picotee, I understand, and they are some of my faves. This begonia has to be taken indoors to wait out the cold weather. I repotted it in the spring and it did take a good while to get going again, but then it did very well. They like a good amount of fertilizer, that’s for sure.

For more cheerful yellow, visit Mellow Yellow Monday, and for more close ups, visit Macro Monday.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Here’s a photo for the Thursday Challenge of the idea of energy. Las Vegas is sure a great place to see that in use, and lots of it. This Eiffel Tower may not be as big as the real thing, but I’d hate to pay that electric bill.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog before Dec. 15 and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009

Only two months ago, but such a difference. Outside the rain continues, but I can marvel at the perfection of a dahlia that was. Didn’t my garden look good? This was a great gardening year in Seattle, and I salute it.

For more flowers around the world, visit Flowers for Today. And visit Color Carnival for more brilliant colors. Try Macro Monday for more intriguing close ups, and Mellow Yellow Monday for more, well, yellow.

And I’ve chosen this post for my Best Post of the Week (BPOTW). If you’d like to see more self-selected posts of an incredible variety, check it out.

PLEASE IGNORE IF READ BEFORE about the 2009 Photoblog Awards. If you like my photos, please vote for this photoblog and leave a comment in the link  below. You have to register (name and password only) and then click on the word Vote in the upper left. Thanks very much! Photoblog Awards 2009