A Walk in the Garden

[Linkup to LEM Green]

I saw there were a couple of challenges today that looked fun, so I grabbed my camera and headed out to the garden.  My Japanese maple, growing in a half-wine barrel on the patio, is all leafed out and gorgeous.  It's had a bit of a rough time -- first it was on the wrong side of the house and got crispy from too much wind and sun, and then in moving it to the patio, one of the trunks broke :(  But Jana the Wonderful (who does my garden) bandaged it up, and now it's as good as new.  I have my eye on one of the small, lacy maples with really red leaves -- they have one at a restaurant near our house, and it's gorgeous.

[Linkup to Show and Tell Friday]

My roses are blooming away, most notably my Joseph's Coat, which is the most beautiful rose I've ever seen.  The colors are fabulous, the buds are often yellow and then turn all colors of orange and pink along the way.  I love how the flowers get kind of blowsy-looking when they're fully open.  My Westerland rose is also blooming, but I couldn't get a decent picture of any of the blossoms yet.

 [Linkup to Fresh Cut Friday]

Here's another bud from the Joseph's Coat -- aren't the colors beautiful?

[Linkup to Your Sunday Best,  Fabulous Friday  and Photo Feature Friday -- Vintage]

This one I processed with Silver Efex for a vintage feel.  I like how it came out.  And finally, not exactly an elegant view, but I like how the light was falling behind the house, as I looked toward the patio.  Again, Silver Efex was used to process.

 

Happy Friday, everyone!  Enjoy your weekend.  I'm thinking about starting a challenge of my own :)

 

Succulent

I love succulents.  I live close to the ocean in California, but we are subject to periodic droughts, at which point we have to conserve water and so on.  As a result, I have a fair number of succulents in my garden, and they do very well.

 [Linkup to Texture Thursday]

I'm not sure whether this works as a texture, but it's a plant I love.  The inside green part literally glows.  Right now it has four huge flowers -- some of them have beautiful flowers.  They can be beautiful colors -- 

And very weird shapes, sometimes -- 

This is one of my favorites -- string of pearls.

There's a wholesale place near my house that has 500 varieties of succulents, and maybe someday I'll have one of each . . . 

[Note to readers -- seven more readers and we'll have the giveaway!]

A Droid!!!

My Blackberry has been going downhill for a while -- I think that the effective life of mobile phones is just about the two years you have to sign a contract for.  Lately, the old BB has been going black (but comes back on if you turn it upside down), the phone will ring even if it's on vibrate, etc. etc.  And of course, having a Blackberry, I was about two or three years behind the times -- I think my friends got their iPhones a couple of years ago.

 My Joseph's Coat Rose

So, today I found out that I was okay for an upgrade, and since I have no impulse control whatsoever, I had the Samsung Galaxy a couple of hours later.  It's so cool!  And it allows me to link up with iPhoneography this week.  It came with a car charger and Bluetooth, which is great, and it has full GPS in it, and all kinds of cool stuff (including Kindle).

 My Hot Cocoa Rose

And, I got Angry Birds, which I think everyone in the world but me has played, I think.  I can see that it could become a giant sinkhole of time.

  Some Plants on my Patio

So now I'm one of the cool girls.  My son has had a Droid for a long time, so I'm sure he will be as scornful as a mid-twenties kid can be (he always makes fun of my forays into technology), but I don't care.  I like it.

The Aforementioned October -- Linkup to Camera Critters