Sunday Selections

Sunday Selections is a meme that I was introduced to by Elephant's Child. The rule is simple, post pictures that are chilling in the camera folder, and link back to her. Her pictures are always amazing, so you should go see them. 

My theme for this weeks seems to be what I do most, pictures from draft posts that never see the light of day...

This picture is from a blog very recently. I took it to talk about the wonderful summer weather we were having. Then I learned about the terrible heatwave that the rest of the country was having. Only to be shortly followed by news that Britain and Europe were in the same dire straits. It really didn't seem appropriate to publish that one. 

I take almost as many pictures of this shaded walk as I do the mountain. And I keep trying to work one of them into a blog. But nothing so far seems to fit well with the way it feels to me. The walk seems almost spiritual, like a protected place to me. It's very peaceful and meditative. 

I was just walking through the walkway once, when this little creature ran quickly by, from behind me. He scared me as much as I think I scared him. Then ridiculously, I wondered if the walk was his cathedral and I had just disturbed his prayers. He certainly brought a surprised halt to my meditations. 

I don't see many wild rabbits here. I suppose they have to may predators. One of our neighbors used to free range some domestic hares, but they have stopped keeping them. Presumably for the same reason.

I love the wild flowers here. My walks are beautiful all summer long. It is a good thing that I can now snap a picture and leave the flowers undisturbed. When I was a child, I was constantly in trouble for picking flowers I thought grew freely along the sidewalks. I don't suppose the PNW homeowners would take it any better than the southern women did back in the day. I've only ever had one person complain about me taking a picture, and she's kind of strange.

This picture was taken with the thought of talking about my grandmother. She grew them in her flower garden every year. She had roses, tulips, iris' and hyacinths too, but when I think of her garden, I think of the glads. 

She would fill a large crystal vase full of them and place them on the table in front of the pulpit at church on Sunday morning. She wanted everyone admiring her gardening abilities while she played the organ for them.  

In the south, they are a spring flower. I don't recall seeing them much after the 4th of July. Here, the sun lovers like glads don't bloom until after then. 

As much as glads remind me of my grandmother, hydrangeas remind me of Woodstock, which I've taken to calling "Home" in my thoughts. While it was my home for many years, it isn't now. Home is here. I do miss Woodstock. Hydrangea bloomed well all summer there. But the one's there were all one color, whether it was blue, white, purple or pink. Here, they can be multicolored. 

I take as many pictures of sunflowers as possible while they are bloomed for the summer. This is the flower that I associate with summer, but it really is an autumn flower. 

Do you want to know who really appreciates the sunflowers we grow?

Happy New Week...