If you go to the Puyallup Fair this year and see the Horticulture entries, you’re bound to see her entries in produce. She also has entries in the Floral building. I remember many a morn of waking up earlier than the sun to go enter all the flowers before school. From kindergarten on up through the big games, I was there. Every year. Entering flowers in the fair. Which, by the way, earns a fair amount of cash.

Fun fact: Every year for as long as I can remember, except for the last couple, I have entered flower arrangements in the fair. Yes, I am a champion flower arranger. At the Puyallup Fair.

With these flowers.

Fun Fact #2: I had a guinea pig named Zinnia. It was my favorite flower at that age. True story.

Love this pom pom flower.

That right there friends, is the biggest raspberry in the world. No kidding, you could eat it in more than one bite. Without trying.

Nasturtium leaves were always my favorite because of the way the water balled up in little droplets that would slide around on the circular leaves. They epitomized the meaning of a dewy morning.

A month or so ago I went back to visit this garden. Not just the garden, honestly I was going to my parent’s house to help my mom can applesauce and raspberry jam. What doesn’t grow on my parent’s property? They have blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, Italian plums, multiple varieties of apples, peaches, pears, cherries, every vegetable there is plus a few more. I was a spoiled child, clearly.

Yet growing up with a garden like this literally in my back yard still didn’t teach me to not be afraid of spiders and bees. Though now I have a husband that is allergic to bees, thus I feel that my fear is validated. Never minded ladybugs though. Who’s scared of a ladybug, I ask you?

Obviously white flies. Which is why I did this.

Dragonflies are also frequent visitors to the garden.

I literally have dozens of photos I could show you of this garden, but until Part II, I will end my introduction to the fantasy land with this: flowers that I wish could be made into a dress.

I write this on the first truly dreary day  in a long time. It is classic cold, wet, rainy Seattle. But I welcome it back like an old friend, August or not. The summertime is always a relief when it arrives, with it’s forthcoming fruit and abundance of produce. Seattlites are blinded by the sun and subsequently blind the rest of the world with our paleness. We eagerly haul out our kayaks and lay outside in the parks soaking up every last ray of precious sunshine.

But the sound of rain on the roof is one of the most treasured and simple pleasures that there is. So I curl up on the couch with my laptop and watch the rain drizzle down the window pane, and savor every moment of this cool weather while it lasts.

Then a coworker and I decided to go get coffee a few minutes later. We were walking out our door and the camera was pointed straight at our office door.

Awkward much?

So we fetched the necessary caffeines and were approaching our door again. The camera was still pointed at our door. Well we couldn’t very well wait for them to do whatever they were doing. It could take hours. And we have jobs to get to. This is why you shouldn’t film an office at 9am when everyone is arriving at work. Even one hour earlier would have resulted in much fewer interruptions, if any. Unless you wanted to film all the people. But they really didn’t seem like that’s what they were looking for.

Once we got inside, there were two people standing there. I think they were part of the filming squad. Not sure. But the whole thing was odd. We just walked past them and up the stairs to our office.

And life goes on.

Is it not the most adorable little animal?

Her name is Cinderella and she isn’t more than a couple months old. She has quite the little story!

You see, Cinderella’s mother is evil. Her name is Mama Llama. Mama Llama never had a baby, but nevertheless she was always called Mama Llama. She has quite the attitude. Well Mama Llama used to have a male llama friend named Rambo. They lived together for many years, but no baby llama was ever produced.

Several months ago Rambo moved to a new home, and Mama Llama lived alone. Not quite alone though, she had goat and chicken friends.

But numerous months later, surprise! Mama Llama suddenly had a baby llama!

It’s kind of like the time my mom gave me a guinea pig (named Pun’kin) and it had a baby in the middle of the night a month later. We got a 2-for-1 deal!

Anyway, that’s the story of the baby llama. Sadly she must grow up in a single parent barnyard. And her mother is overly protective. Cinderella always wants to be friends, but Mama won’t let her. Such an isolated life. But she still prances around the pasture.

See her go boing at the end like an antelope? So precious! (andIwon’ttellyouthatIjusttyped’previous’insteadof’precious)

All the above animals belong to my lovely parents-in-law. They have the 2 llamas, several chickens, several temperamental goats, and 1 very old barn cat named Sublime. A lovely collection I’d say.

Why do they have llamas? Well, I’m not completely sure. They’re not good for anything, and they don’t like being touched or ridden. Though they will eat carrots from your hands eagerly. I think my mother-in-law just likes them. Why not?

Here’s a few more pictures from Thanksgiving in wine country (did I mention that they live in Washington wine country?) Actually it’s more like cow and hops country, but during  the grape harvest it smells divine.

On with the show. The next picture is of a spider I saw on the fence (I think I see fangs! Or whatever they are…) So if your squeamish stop reading here. :)

A pretty farm at sunset. I wish I had a better picture and that I wasn’t in a moving vehicle. But I make do.

And one last photo (I went a little crazy today). This is the house of a friend of my husband’s. Now look carefully, this house has a grass roof! The upper roof that you can’t see is also grass. So they sort of live underground. Cool, no?

Another round of applause for the speedy Cinderella! Encore, encore!

You can see a larger version of the photo here.

Photo by Lida Rose.

Today’s picture is nothing short of breathtaking. It’s like the heavens are descending upon this little portion of the Italian coast.

According to the photographer, this is a photo from Sciacca, Sicily looking towards Africa. It sounds so exotic! At least for those of us who haven’t been to Italy or Africa…

My husband and I will travel in the future. Once we get past the goals of a master’s degree and career establishment. He and I would adore traveling to Italy, Northern/Eastern Europe, France, Israel, Egpyt, Central America, I could make quite the list. I have plans to list the top 10 countries we’d like to visit, why we want to visit, and the top sites we’d like to see. This will take awhile to produce, but it will happen.

In the meantime, this photo is just gorgeous to the nth power.

“Head monk, Abbot-Pra Acharn Phusit, taking the tiger out for a walk at the Tiger Temple outside Bangkok, Thailand.”

As soon as I saw this I had to go see what the Tiger Temple was all about. Well you can read about it here and here. It’s basically a Buddhist Temple that also serves as an animal sanctuary.

I also found a hilarious photo on a site about the Tiger Temple. My, what big teeth you have!

At Tiger Temple people can snuggle with tigers. I don’t know what I’m more excited about, giving Tigger cuddles or enjoying the adrenaline rush from snuggling with a tiger! My husband would just love this place.

Photo by think2create

This picture is in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico at the Dos Hermanos Bridge. Photo by abnelphoto.com.

Blue is assumed to be a relaxing color, the color of the sky and water, it’s no question. According to Color Psychology, it’s the “tranquil” color.

On another not, don’t you wish you could dive like that? Or maybe you can, you’re just more daring than the rest of us. Maybe I’ll learn how to do it when I visit Sky High Sports! What better way to learn than in a room full of trampolines, right?

One more time for the cheap seats in the back!

Photo by abnelphoto.com.

But, after every storm comes the light. Or another storm. But in the case of today’s picture it’s the light. The picture is taken of the view from Mission Peak of the San Francisco Bay area. Now I don’t know if it just rained or not, but it has a greatness about it, the light breaking through the darkness kind of intensity.

Now then, I’m off to the farmer’s market and a little thriftstore digging. Have a great Saturday!

Photo by Februum.

One more time, I just love it. The green hill reminds me of pastureland and the clouds look like they’re out of a world renowned painting. And to see it even larger go here.

P.S. If you’re a photographer and you want to have your picture in a Picture of the Day post, just shoot me a message.