Follow > this Link < to Visit and PLAY with 
the Weekly Photo Challenge
It runs for one full week from Friday mornings to late Thursday nights. 

The challenge beginning November 19, 2010 is:

“Flowers”
suggested by:  Zeal4Living

 

Both of my sisters plant the most wonderful gardens and they always have lots of flowers.  The two of them urged us to get on track and plant more of what you can really enjoy inside and out, things that make life so much more worth the living, FLOWERS. 

Some Photos of some of the flowers that blossom in our yard.

1-  I imagine most of us have plantings in our yards that we grew up with or around that made impressions on us.  We did not have Vinca in our yard but the house directly across from us was on a steep grade and the hillside was covered with this plant.  I loved it so when we planted years ago this was one of the first plants I chose to be a part of our surroundings.

 

 

2-  I love dogwood and it grows in the wild near us as well as on Dogwood trees in other yards.  This particular little tree planted itself beside our drive.  It’s more beautiful every year.  They also come in pink but white is the original color and my favorite.

 

 

3-  Wisteria is another plant that grew in abundance across the street and down one house.  It covered the rock face of the house and would travel across the electric lines.  I love it but ours is planted in a poor choice of spots so threatens our gutters and roof and other plants and in fact the neighbors yard.  It is more like a wild animal than a docile plant and recalling it crossing electric wires, I should have known better when I planted it. 

 

 

4-  I don’t recall seeing Peonies grow in any particular place or spot near us but I’ve always loved Peony.  My start came from a church yard.  I’ve read articles where lots of people say their Peonies don’t require any attention but mine need to be fed or they bloom less and less.

 

 

5-  This is an annual, Purslane, and I’m familiar with the wild variety that grew profusly, considered a weed, in our garden at home.  It’s an edible, info here, mild in flavor.  I had no idea it was available with wonderful flowers until this last spring.  I found it at the garden center and bought what they had left of it.  I think its lovely and I’ve brought what I had growing outside in, for the winter, to see if I can save it.  It isn’t blooming now as it likes sun which it isn’t getting (I am using grow lights) but the succulent leaves are green and firm so I guess it’s doing okay.

 

 

6-  Xanga’s Fauquet posted photos of the geraniums his wife cares for and they were so pretty.  When I discovered some at our garden center at a really good price I bought them in several colors for me and some for a neighbor.  They were beautiful all summer outside and I am keeping them inside for the winter.  Some are still blooming.

 

 

7-  These are Paper White Narcissus I set into the pot just after Halloween.  I have two pots started and will plant bulbs in a third pot in a couple of weeks.  They will mature to bloom at different times so will bring spring into the house for a longer period of time.  So far both planted pots look healthy and my fingers remain crossed.  This is my first time trying to plant them myself.  The pot you see in the photo came with paper whites in it.  I’m a green person and when I saw the paperwhites blooming in this pot I asked my hubby to buy it for us.  The paper whites looked so beautiful in it I couldn’t resist.

That’s it for this week.  I’m feeling like spring viewing these floral photos.

Have a great week.  The seasons holidays begin here this next week on Thanksgiving USA.  I hope everyone has wonderful and safe holidays wherever it is you are.

 

Follow > this Link < to Visit and PLAY with 
the Weekly Photo Challenge
It runs for one full week from Friday mornings to late Thursday nights. 

The challenge beginning November 12, 2010 is:

“Photo of a Photo”
suggested by:  Chatamanda

 

It’s Short and sweet this entry,  with lots of memories brought to the forefront going through some of my old photos.  Without having saved photos, I might not remember I was once a child, or a teenager.

 

Have a super week everyone.  Thanks for visits, comments and the fun.

 

 

Follow > this Link < to Visit and PLAY with 
the Weekly Photo Challenge
It runs for one full week from Friday mornings to late Thursday nights. 

The challenge beginning November 5, 2010 is:

“Rocks and Stone”
suggested by:  WhatABeautifulNewWorld

 

It’s amazing to think about the creation of this planet.  Born from who knows exactly where, to spin and twirl through space, for billions of years, cooling its outer surface from molten to conditions that finally allowed the growth of plants, which eventually sustained animal life of all kinds.  Underneath our earth’s surface the molten still exists, sometimes erupting with such force, mountain tops can all but disappear.  Never having witnessed volcanics in action but only seeing photos and video’s of her amazing but terrible power I can be glad to live in a portion of the world I feel is relatively safe.  I have witnessed expressions of nature’s powers in mountains and valleys that are now  eons old like the Grand Canyon south rim, Arizona, the huge bolder arrangements climbing the pass during the to drive to El Cajon, California, the Sandia crest in New Mexico and the minor cut out beside our home where the setting can be as dry as a bone or as violent as the water is deep when it rains and water washes to and through the branch from miles around.  It’s all amazing.

 

Photos

1-   You can cover a lot of ground over the course of a few visits to relatives.  Our travels take us to views of flat city inhabited land, green farmlands and some mountainous ranges.  Underneath the highways we drive lies the foundation of all the roads, and all the cities, bedrock.  It’s the underlying strength builders rely on for any building or road they want to survive.

 

 

2-   It’s been years since we were in some of the caves in our area but they are huge, damp and cold holes in rock.  The rock we see most of, without trying, are the dynamite cuts in roads, made to drop uneven shelves of rock so a road does not have to twist, turn and climb as it would if the blasting had not been done.

 

 

3-   The cuts are visible summer and winter and the views are interesting as it’s as close as most of us get to the construction of roads.

 

 

4-   We also get views of a lot of rock, hidden in the scenery in mountainous areas we drive.  We may not actually see the rock but it’s always there.

 

 

5-  Some of us do get first had views of what can happen in the cuts made as rock is loosed in blasts and the freeze and thaw of winter through spring causes water in the cracks of the rock to freeze then expand and the rock to crack off and fall.  On a previous entry it was mentioned in a comment that to the viewer, windmills mar the landscape.  Personally I find the fence they put up to stop falling rock to be much more offensive but then it may save some hospital bills and law suits due to its existence. 

 

 

6-   This is a view of the creek beside our home.  It is about 80 feet or so from our door and the drop into it may be 35 feet.  The rock is limestone.  The creekbed is in its “dry as a bone state” as we are way below our average rainfall.  The creek can, however, be treacherous.  It swept the concrete barrier into itself a few years ago.  We heard it fall, like a mini earthquake with it’s thud, on Christmas day.  This creek is part of the reason we bought our house.  It afforded my children an environment to play in similar to the one I and my husband had while growing up.  I valued the woods and trees and the rock and stone of the creek as a friend nearly everyday of my growing up which left me with some rocky but really great memories.