Nature and garden

Considered the world over as a weed, the thistle is one of the national flowers of Scotland.
It may be hated by gardeners and farmers but is an incredibly beautiful plant and flower, and being quite large does not move around in the wind too much (making it a lot easier to photograph than more delicate summer wild flowers)!

Explore 10th July 2007 # 394

Link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxypar4/1068695437/

The Japanese garden at Huntington Gardens in San Marino, California.

from http://www.flickr.com/photos/randysonofrobert/464791157/

All rights reserved ©

You have heard of flower child from the 60′s but here is truly a flower bulldog! Squiggy loves flowers and loves to sit in a bed of flowers and loves to color flowers. Yellow is my favorite and seems to be Squiggy’s favorite color for flowers too! Sun is out and very hot and humid with bad storms moving in later afternoon and evening. Going back up to visit daughter but will have to head back in time before storms move in. It’s too hot today for Squiggy toes to sit in the flowers. Air conditoning will have it’s workout! Thanks again to everyone for thoughts, prayers and concerns for daughter! She should be more alert today.

“… white flower blooming in my mother’s yard into eden, into eden, don’t sleep you won’t get that far …” by Wobbleshop (the face of this flower was a flat, perfect circle over 7″ across – i’ve never seen anything like it before today!!)

source: jude

#26 Explore best
The Gardens boast one of the finest tree collections in the world, set on banks around a great lake. The famous Pantheon, Temple of Flora and Temple of Apollo (where Darcy first proposed to Elizabeth in the new Pride and Prejudice Film) form the centre-point for countless vistas from around the garden, inspired by classic Renaissance landscape paintings.

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saxonfenken/192706164/

Garden of the Gods and Colorado’s blue sky.

via http://www.flickr.com/photos/scampychamp/

31 of 365

I live in a condo several stories up. This flower grows atop a concrete plant box outside our kitchen window. The plant box is mostly cement with tiny, one-centimeter holes bored through them, enough soil to keep plants like this alive.

The halo around the bud comes from the glimmer of a car parked across the street. The circular frame are the steel grills of our windows.

Its a holiday here in the Philippines. So a long weekend has begun for most people including me. Am starting to feel a bit better, but am still having a tough time breathing. Hopefully all this improves in time for the weekend. I wish you guys all the best. Here’s to having a wonderful time doing the things you love with the people you love!

Oh and if anyone would be so kind to help me identify the flower. I would be more that appreciative so that I could put that in the notes here.

UPDATE: IDENTITY REVEALED! My sister Joanna just posted a message in the comments with the identity of this flower. Its’ scientific name is Jatropha Podagrica more commonly known as a Buddha Belly Plant or Gout Plant. You can check the Wikipedia entry here.

You MUST View This Large On Black

EXPLORE FRONT PAGE & Calendar
EXPLORE #5 (August 21, 2009)

Swallow-tailed Bee-eater.
Kgalagadi NP, South Africa.

No really it`s a macro shot of a butterfly wing. EXPLORE: Oct. 23rd #285

source: scruff35

I’ve seen pictures of blue dragonflies before but this was the first one I’ve actually seen in our garden. Best when viewed large.

Explore/Interestingness