Stone Lantern at Japanese Gardens

While visiting Japanese Gardens in Portland, Oregon you will not only walk through lovely landscaped areas, you will see stone pieces, waterfalls, a tea house, and you can learn about the Japanese history in the Pacific Northwest.

 The peaceful beauty of the Portland Japanese Gardens is wonderful to enjoy in the spring and summer. Flowers will be in bloom as you walk through the garden along the paved or stone paths. There are benches throughout the gardens where you can sit and rest every so often during your exploration of the gardens.

Make sure to take a look at all the pathways. This stone lantern was tucked away on a little short path that I saw some visitors pass by. Take your time and enjoy the fresh air, sound of flowing water, the greenery surrounding you. It's almost as if you have been transported to a different environment, tucked away in the big city.

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Colorful Wildflowers in the Garden

 Add some bright color to your garden or yard with a pretty mixture of wildflowers. You can buy the see packets in the spring and sprinkle them in the empty spaces in your garden. 

When you plant wildflower seeds, it's always a fun surprise waiting to see which flowers will bloom in your garden. There are even bee and butterfly mixes that you can buy to help encourage pollination in your area.

 Most of the seed packets say that they are annual (meaning that you will have to plant seeds each year), but I have found that each spring we have 3 or 4 plants that come back from the previous year.

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Wishing Well at Point Defiance Gardens

 If you visit the beautiful gardens at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, make sure to stop by the flower filled wishing well. It's a lovely spot to rest or take a photo.

The public gardens at Point Defiance Park in Tacoma, Washington are so beautiful. You will see many different local flowers, bushes, and trees; as well as a lovely rose garden, a herb garden, and the ever beautiful Japanese garden.

If you have an hour of free time, take the opportunity to visit the free gardens in the North End of Tacoma. You won't regret stopping to smell the roses. 

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Prickly Thistle Opening

When thinking of pretty summer flowers, I'll have to admit that the thistle doesn't come to mind first. There are roses, dahlias, marigolds, lilies, and peonies that bloom with lovely colors and heavenly scents.

Beauty can be found in different ways though, as long as we are willing to look at them in a different way. I was out for a drive last week and pulled down a side road that had quite a few thistles blooming.

This one that was just begining to open caught my eye though. The thick green layers of leaves with the bright purple inside starting to open up was stunning. The first layers of the flower opening mimic the pointy green outer leaves. While not traditionally beautiful, my nature loving eye couldn't look away.

In a day or so, the prickly but beautiful thistle will open up fully and become a puffy purple flower you can see as it holds it's head up tall over the grass fields.

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Wildflower Bouquet

This week, we picked the last of the wildflowers from our garden. While it is a bit strange to have flowers still blooming in November, they have been a beautiful addition to the fall landscape. The lovely colors have brightened our days as they intermix with the orange and brown of the fallen leaves.

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Summer Tomato Basil Salad

When you pick a sun ripened tomato from the vine in your garden, the tomato is still warm and it smells so fresh. It's hard to resist eating the flavorful colored fruit before you get to the kitchen.

Having multi-color tomatoes growing in the garden is such a treat. They have different sweetness and flavor, but go so well together. Aren't they striking in a bright blue bowl with fresh chopped green basil from the garden?

Food is not only pleasing to the taste buds, it is pleasing to the eye as well. The mix of the vibrant colors can make your dining a more enjoyable experience.

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Ripples in the Sand

When you visit the beach, you never know the beauty that you will find. Which animals will be prowling around on the sand? Will you find a tide pool with little creatures in their natural habitat? What colorful rocks and shells you see. Sometimes it is in the simplicity of the ripples in the sand that the retreating water has left behind.

I have fond memories of weeks during the summer spent at the beach. Wiggling my toes in the sand, looking for shells, avoiding jellyfish, and splashing in the waves. It was always neat to see the waves rolling out and find what little creatures were left behind in it's wake. I never remember seeing such a defined ripple pattern in the sand though, and it was intriguing to me on this day when we went to the beach.

We are pretty landlocked here in Utah. Many of the lakes and reservoirs have stony "beaches" that hurt to lay down on and there is no way to build a real sandcastle.  But if you visit Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, you will find a real sand beach (as well as buffalo roaming around the island) that you can enjoy.

My family spent a great day at the beach and had a fun time running on the sand, watching the birds flit and fly, collecting interesting rocks, and wading out into the salty water.

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Tiny Frog Among the Geraniums

When watering the flowers in your planter, you never know what will surprise you among the leaves. One day, my neighbor was watering her geraniums when all of a sudden this little green frog jumped out from among the leaves. While the water was probably a surprise to him, I'm sure he enjoyed the refreshing liquid on a warm evening.

Rodrigo the Frog had a long journey - he had been playing in the bushes at his house when his human family lost track of him. Rodrigo was a brave soul and hopped through yards and across streets, until he found a nice patch of green leaves to nestle into. I'm not sure how long he was hiding out in the geraniums before my neighbor was surprised by her unexpected guest.

He spent a nice evening having a photo shoot and being oohed and aahed over by my children. His family was eventually found and he said "goodbye" then returned to his home. What a lovely adventure for a little frog!

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Misty Spray at Narada Falls Mt Rainier National Park

When visiting Mt Rainier National Park, take the time to venture down the path at Narada Falls. You will enjoy a shady walk through the trees, then come out near the bottom of the falls and be cooled by the fine mist spray from the water hitting the rocks at the bottom.

I grew up visiting Mount Rainier National Park every summer, but this was the first time I remember taking the short trail to the bottom of the falls. We walked through the shady woods, past a few small streams, listened to birds in the trees, then emerged into the sunlight at one of the scenic spots. There was a shimmery rainbow where the mist hit the rocks, which unfortunately didn't translate well in the photo.

Have you ever been to Mt Rainier? What is your favorite spot to take photographs there?

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Tiny Purple Flowers

While on an evening walk by myself, I passed by a field full of these tiny purple flowers. They were so delicate and I thought how neat it was they were leaning toward the setting sun, trying to soak up as much of the golden warmth that they could.

The path I took for my walk that evening was a street I usually walk along and I am very familiar with the trees and bushes on my side of the street. That evening I looked across the street to the vacant field and it was dotted with specks of purple. I crossed the street to get a better look and found these 2 inch high flowers.

Keeping my eyes open to the loveliness of the everyday world enriches and beautifies my day. I hope it does the same for you!

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Bee Sitting on Lavender

This year, the lavender bush by my front porch has exploded with blossoms. The purple flowers are beautiful to look at and smell so wonderful and inviting too. I'm not the only one to think so. Little fuzzy bumblebees and white delicate butterflies have been flitting around the flowers all week. Who can blame them though - the days are warm, the flowers are fragrant, and the sprigs of lavender are the perfect place for them to rest and collect pollen.

Our winter lasted quite long this year - we had snow into May, which was a big surprise. My lavender plants looked quite sad and I worried that they wouldn't bloom. I'm not the best gardener and didn't prune back the dead flowers when my lavender plant bloomed last fall. While that made an interesting subject for winter photography, it worried me for the health of the plant this spring. The week after our last snow of the year, I removed the dried stems from the plant. I'm happy to say that my lavender plant has more than doubled it's size from last year.

While I water my plants on my porch, I always make time to watch the bees as they go from stem to stem looking for the perfect pollen to take back to their hive. I imagine that honey would taste wonderful!

I've picked a few sprigs to add to the hanging welcome basket by my front door and I love how it looks! I think this year I will have enough flowers to collect to make delightful and fragrant sachets.

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