Seen in the neighborhood on a recovery walk.

I took my DSLR, a Nikon D5100, with me on a recent walk. Thank goodness! I got this photo of the front yard of a house on a nearby block. Look at all of this color from these large rose bushes!



Here's a wider view that shows the flowering trees in the parking strip. I believe that they are Kousa dogwoods.



Dogwood blossom--reminds me of an origami crane.



One more beautiful Kousa dogwood blossom.



The roses, splendid in their colors and shapes.



There are buds hiding in these blossoms. This bush is just beyond the sidewalk that goes up to the porch, easily seen in the top photo of this post. I took this photo from this perspective, intrigued by the spent blossom mixed with the still lush ones, as well as the buds peeking out here and there.



I can't get enough of these two colors side-by-side.

Where the flower study flowers bloom.

Blossom-loaded trees stand all in a row in the parking strip along NE 16th. You can tell how tall the trees they are when you compare them with the vehicle parked there. I am a short five foot four inches, so I imagine that last Saturday will be the last time that I'll be able to look at even a few of them head on, and even then, I had to stand on the mounded, grass-covered earth. How will I take photos then? I may have to start carrying around a light-weight step stool.

Two photos from a swell Christmas Day!

Leland, Lamont, Lee, and Brody smiled as I took their photo because I made them chuckle when I hollered, "Festivities!" They repeated it, smiling all the while! Brody is Leland and Lamont's housemate; Lee works with them. Both guys are their good friends.
 

Rachel, Leland's sweetheart, graciously posed with me around my spur-of-the-moment Christmas decoration. One Sunday afternoon I had picked up the wooden tray from someone's parking strip on a nearby street--folks set items in front of their houses in the strip of grass between the curb and the sidewalk and intend for you to take it, if you like it. I liked this wooden tray with a divider and a handle. It dawned on me that I could put Christmas lights along the center divider and make a holiday spot in my apartment. I set various shiny, sparkly, Christmas decorations in there, too. Everyone agreed with me that it made a great stand in for a fireplace.

We were all so hungry that none of us even gave a second's thought to taking photos of the food I had cooked--pot roast with potatoes and carrots, fresh green beans, steamed broccoli, and homemade yeast rolls. Dessert--I baked a box of Duncan Hines Fudge Brownies and had bought a small pecan pie at Fred Meyer Monday evening when I shopped for this meal. No one wanted pie, and I sent the last four brownies home with the guys.