Outdoor and (Almost) Wordless Wednesday: The Worm Turns

Caterpillar hiking the Limberlost Trail, Shenandoah National Park, VA
(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.

Blue Monday: Green Spring Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

These are a few shots I took on a recent visit to Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria VA. It's a lovely small park in Fairfax County, with many different garden areas on display. Most of the plants are labeled, so that horticultural ignoramuses (such as moi) can easily tell a freesia from a dahlia. However, these blue ones weren't marked, so (except for the pansies) I'm not sure what they are. But I always like blue flowers, whatever they're called. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Blue and red blossoms along a dry creek bed running through the park.

These were growing in the rock garden area (I love rock gardens). If you look closely, you can see the little bumble bee in one of the flowers.

And the pansies were very pretty, even though they looked like they could use a large drink of water (spring has been a little dry this year).

Outdoor and (Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Young Buck

Photos taken July 2008
Shenandoah National Park, Virginia
(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.

Ruby Tuesday: Bench Marked

Now I know this photo doesn't have a lot of red. But I found this secluded spot in one of the parks here in Alexandria recently, and just had to snap it. It's such a perfect representation of the suburbs here in the Washington DC area – around here, even the park benches come with red tape included!

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Ruby Tuesday is hosted by Work of the Poet.

Outdoor and Wordless Wednesday: The Parrot House

A Little Real, A Little Trompe l'oeil
Rehoboth Beach, Delaware

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.

Blue Monday: Horticultural Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Although I come from a long line of farmers and gardeners, I've never been much of a soil-tiller myself. I have a few house plants that I haven't killed yet, and once in a while I'll stick some potted mums out on the balcony in the fall. But that's about the extent of my horticultural efforts. However, I do love flowers and the gardens that other, more clever individuals create. And fortunately, our condo community has some very talented and dedicated "grounds-keepers" who keep the place looking really nice all year 'round. But they've really outdone themselves this year. Took a walk around the place the other day and got some great shots of all the new plantings, and I was pleased to see that they've put in some really beautiful hydrangeas (one of my favorite plants) around the entrance gate. (Click on photos to enlarge.)


They've included several different colors, but I think the blue ones are especially pretty.


Also took a little excursion to a local garden park recently, and found this interesting shrub. It's called Leatherleaf Mahonia, and although it's not really familiar to me, it's apparently a common plant in the southern U.S.


It looks a little like a holly bush, but the little clusters of berries look like grapes and are a beautiful icy blue shade. Lovely plant - colorful but cool looking. Perfect for a summer garden in a hot and humid area like Virginia.

Blue Monday: Bienvenidos!

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Not a lot of blue around here right now. But while M and I were having lunch at one of our favorite Mexican food places over the weekend, I managed to snap this shot of one of their wall paintings. Well, it has some bits of blue anyway, and a very pretty senorita, too.

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Sorry the photo quality isn't the best. I was using the camera in my cell phone, and trying not to upset the dishes on other tables!

The restaurant is the El Paso in Springfield VA, and it has some extremely authentic (and really tasty) Tex-Mex offerings. Authentic, in that (as my hubby always says) the food is mostly red, brown and yellow, with hardly a green to be seen!

Shadow Shot Sunday #107: Ancestral Shadows

San Antonio National Cemetery
San Antonio, TX

Just a bit late for Memorial Day. My husband's great-great-grandfather, William Jackson Locke, who fought in the Civil War, is buried here (that's his grave in the foreground, on the right). In the background, you can see the Tower of the Americas, one of the more modern landmarks in downtown San Antonio.

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Shadow Shot Sunday is a weekly photo meme hosted by Hey Harriet. To see many, many more shadow shots or to contribute some yourself, head on over to her blog.

Sky Watch Friday: Bridge and Sky

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Bridge over the Mississippi River
Memphis TN, 27 October 2008

(Click on image to enlarge.)

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Friday Fill-Ins #179

Can you believe it's already the 4th of June? I sure can't. May seems to have slipped away while I wasn't paying attention. I was in an allergy-induced haze all month, so it just breezed right past me. Bummer. Anyway, time for the first Friday Fill-Ins of the month. So here goes:

1. A book store anywhere is my favorite place to travel to.
   
   
2. When I think about my childhood, I often remember how brief it was.
   
   
3. Someone with a lot of patience and a great sense of humor makes for a good friend. (Also nice if they have a place at the beach.)
   
   
4. The wind in the trees, the rain on my skin. . . . (Sorry, but I hate wind and rain, so all I can think of is "YUCK!")
   
   
5. Summer time is so exciting!
   
   
6. My best friend knows how to make me smile.
   
   
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching another "Midsomer Murders" DVD, tomorrow my plans include shopping and Mexican food (I hope!) and Sunday, I want to watch the next Celtics/Lakers game (and try to keep the hubby from getting too despondent if Boston loses it), and get some reading done!

Window Views...and Doors Too!

Hotel Washington (built 1917)
Washington DC

(Click on image to enlarge.)

For more window and doorway views, visit the website here.

Outdoor and Wordless Wednesday: Jumbo Bird Bath?

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.