August 24th - Jasmine

Jasmine flowers from my neighbor's yard. I love the smell!

September 21st - Twinsies!

September 8th - Porcelain Doll "Painting"

A porcelain doll that was my grandmother's, made to look like a watercolor painting. Making things look like paintings saves me sometimes, because my 2mp cell phone camera doesn't always take good shots, and I am having trouble re-installing the neat image plug-in on my computer and am currently using PS 7!

September 3rd - Orange Flower

Here is the original shot:Here is what I did to it - made it look like a painting:
Not that exciting, but I like it. :)

January 28th - 2mp Cell phone shots, today

A pink flower I found on a walk today. This was taken with my cell phone's 2mp camera, which doesn't do well with closeups, hence the blurry flower. And, this one too:

This is miner's lettuce. I remember picking this when I was a kid, on a field trip in school, and eating it raw. I read about it a couple of years ago, and one of the things I read was that miner's used to eat it raw or cook it like spinach. So, my kid and I picked some and cooked it and tried it. Blech! Much better raw, in salads. :P Cute little flower in the middle, eh? :)

January 27th - Bottle brush

This is a bottle brush plant. I used to live in a house when I was 7 that had a front yard lined with these. Bees love these bushes, and that's when I learned how to hold perfectly still when a bee lands on you. I've still never been stung (knock on wood). :) I love these flowers, they're so pretty. If you pull out a bit of the red "petals" sometimes you can get some nectar. Yum. ;)

January 19th - Moss on a log and Snow White

This is moss on a log in my yard. My hubby brought home some firewood, and this was on one of the logs. I thought it was neat. It's not as green as it is in real life, although I did try to boost the green a tad.

And there's a bonus shot for today:


Here's a "Snow White" Chrysanthemum from my yard. They're itty-bitty, like small daisies. Maybe 1 1/2 inches across. It's hard to see, but there are rain drops there. We had thunder and lightning three times, so far, today! That's rare for us!! :) Sorry it's a bit blurry. I still think it's pretty.

January 10th - Purple Muppet Flowers

I love how the flowers look like little Muppet birds, or creatures of some kind. These aren't from my own garden, but a neighbors a couple of streets over. Aren't they pretty? :)

January 28th - Sweet Pea

I wasn't feeling well again, today, so here's another sweet pea for you from my garden. Sorry. I took it at twilight, so that's why the background is so blue. It's actually gray brick. I like this shot, because the sweet pea flower looks like a dragon, to me. :)

January 24th - Luv Flower

I love the rain, and apparently, I'm not the only one! :) Look at the center of the flower...see the heart?

January 11th - Monarch

I went to the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, Ca., today. "Butterfly Town, USA." The monarchs come here, one of 300 micro climates in the state, to overwinter. They've endeared themselves to the townspeople in a remarkable way. Just about everywhere you go in P.G. you can see a monarch butterfly in some form or another. They're so pretty. It's been difficult for me to get a good shot of one, because they mostly like to stay up high, in the trees. They form these amazing clusters that look like they are just dripping from the branches. From a distance, they make it look as though the branch of the tree is dead because they're brown on the outside; but when it warms up, they start to flutter around and then you can really tell what they are. It's pretty cool.

September 24 - Funky Flower

I did not take this photo, my daughter did. She painted the flower, loved it and wanted me to take a picture. I handed her my toy Holga camera and said she should. She forgot to wind the film, and got a double exposure. I cleaned it up a tad in Photoshop (she's only 6), and this is the result. Is this not the BEST?!?!























Here is another
great image she
took, at the Bixby
bridge in Big Sur, Ca.

September 9 - Magnolia

I am quite proud of this photo. I came in second in a contest with this one!
Enjoy!

August 25th - Amaryllis in bloom

They bloomed! I've got five! Isn't it pretty?!?!

They actually bloomed days ago, but I'm just getting them posted, now.

August 5th - Amaryllis

I now have 4 amaryllis sprouts. You can only see 3 here, though. This is the difference between the end of last month and today, only 5 days! It's amazing watching these grow!

July 31st - A New Beginning

I know that, technically, this was a thirty day challenge, but my OCD-like traits wouldn't let me finish yesterday. So, I'm finishing today with a New Beginning.

This is an amaryllis bulb, sprouting out of the ground. I thought they had finished for the year, since they hadn't sprouted in a few months, so I transplanted sunflowers over the bulbs (the green peeking out from behind the red shoot), so hopefully they won't interfere with each other too much. In a few days, I'm gonna have pretty flowers! :)

Good news! I followed some troubleshooting directions in my camera's manual, and it seems to have worked! Keep your fingers crossed for me that my camera keeps working! :) LOL

Thanks all, for the wonderful comments, it was a real gift you gave me! I wish I could have returned the favor, but I'm not very good at that, I'm afraid. I really appreciated the kind remarks. Thank you all very much!

I'm looking forward to another photo challenge, and plan on continuing this photo blog, so stay tuned! :) I probably won't post every single day, but a couple of times a week is my goal!

July 18th - Bean blossom

This is the blossom that is currently on my mystery bean. I call it a mystery bean, because it is from a bag of soup mix that I sprouted for another photo purpose (jelly bean sprout), but we planted this one and still don't know what kind of bean we'll get from it. I actually have four of these bean sprouts growing, and six pea plants, all from the soup mix. I think this one is a pinto bean.

Anyway, I just thought the delicate little flower was so pretty and wanted to share it, plus I'm playing with the borders again, and I really like this one. I know it's a bit similar to yesterday's, but apparently I really like green! :)

I also like how it resembles a snapdragon.

Please leave comments, I am loving that part of this challenge! ;)

July 13th - The Love Bug

This is the little love bug I found inside a Daylily today. :) Isn't he just so cute?!?!
I thought he was a spider, but when I got home and was able to see the picture more clearly, I saw the little heart on his back. It's too cool!

July 8th - Lucky Shot

The bee wasn't there when I snapped the pic, he flew in at just the right time! :) This flower was at the drive thru when I got my lunch today (I know, I know), and I only got to take this one shot. Usually I will snap 5-6 at least, to make sure I have one that is decent. But the car in front of me went, so I had to move, too. :) I call this a lucky shot.

July 7th - Veggie Flower Triptych

I thought I'd try my hand at a triptych, since I lurve them, and since three of my veggies have flowers on them! :) I'm growing food! Can you tell I'm happy about that?!?! It's been a long time since I've grown anything I can eat. It didn't really work too well, last time, either. This time is different, I'm having a ton of success so far, "knock on wooden planter box" and have over 16 kinds of veggies started. I feel like a real gardener this year! :)