spotted color: red

Hanna is hosting her second month of "spotted photos" and encourages us to wander back through our bazillion photos and find something in common.  This month it's color.....do you seem drawn to one particular color or another?  Or can you at least find a few with a color in common?  For me, red.

Gear sculpture at a Seattle park

Bell tower by my local botanical garden

Church door Shelbourne, VT

And how could I share the joys of red without a few flower pics?

poinsettia

dahlia from our garden

Balboa garden, San Diego

from our garden - yum!

Prayer cards at the Great Wall of China

red vase, a gift from my sister

classic car show in Kingman, AZ

some valve thing on the side of a building

wall & bench, Cozumel, Mexico

Are you tired of red yet?  Okay, just one more......

red & dressed for a party!

What repeating color is lurking in your photo stash?  Join in & link to Hanna.

in the garden

Artists PlayRoom is focusing on the garden this week.  Our garden isn't blooming much yet - the peonies and dahlias don't even have buds!  But, I have some from last year - the exact same plants, so it's only a little cheat.  I'm resorting to photos this week instead of painting since I'm short on time and long on challenges.....

A little photoshop playing - dahlia on a mirror tile.

Can you tell I love my macro setting?  Our plot of dahlias was so pretty but we didn't dig them up in the fall so we're hoping they're as big and lovely this year.

Had to include Dan tending his dahlias :)

Nearby there's a little pocket botanical garden that I love to visit - it's filled with hellebores, hyacinth, and crocosmia in the spring, peonies, roses galore, all sorts of iris and lilies, rhodys and lots of plants I don't know....

I'm really not much of a gardener myself but I LOVE visiting and soaking up the beauty of a garden. Dan has become accustomed to visiting botanical gardens everywhere we travel....think we've found one in most every country we've visited and now he enjoys them as much as me.  You know what I love best?  I don't have to take care of the plants but get to fully enjoy them! :)