Garden Tradition

One thing that has become a tradition for me is to take pictures of my step-mom's garden when I'm over for the 4th of July celebration.  She has a super green thumb, and her roses are always beautiful.  So, I'm using those pictures for today's post.

It's still way too hot for me, and about to get hotter.  I think I saw we're supposed to be in the triple digits for several days - pretty unusual for SW Ohio.  I'm glad I got the shots of the flowers 'cause with this heat, they definitely won't be looking this nice for long!

That's it!  The highlights of a beautiful garden.  I love the variety of colors and types of flowers, too.  There were a lot more, but I tried to restrain myself.

I had to laugh when I went outside to water the plants.  In some ways, it feels like I'm cheating by using pictures I took yesterday.  I can make all kind of excuses, but I am really enjoying the challenge of looking for (and finding) new subjects to photograph as well as varying perspective.  When I started watering the plants, I saw the way the setting sun was hitting the clouds, so I put the hose down (it was set to "Soaker" anyway) by the base of the plant, and went in for the camera.

Yup, got some more shots today, so even though I'm using pics from yesterday, I did take more today!  And, not just the sunset clouds.  I saw a grasshopper in the back yard, and got some shots of it.  I also noticed my re-blooming lilac was blooming, but wasn't able to get a really good shot of it (maybe tomorrow).  The mandevilla blooms are looking pretty nice, as are the butterfly bushes.  I also liked the "remains" of the clematis after the blooms fall off.  I think I may also have tomorrow's post pretty much taken care of already!  Hmmm . . . I thought I was procrastinating.  I'm gonna have to work on that some more.