(Click on any photo to enlarge all.)
For Cee’s Flower Challenge.
Why is this flower called a “copa de oro” even when it is purple instead of gold? Perhaps because of that deep heart that glows like a burning cauldron of gold at its center. These vines have grown to cover my jade plant and my studio. They seem in the one photo to be growing higher than the massive palms. Perhaps they are seeking to grow up to the sun that they imitate at their heart of hearts.
(Click on any flower to enlarge all and see their hearts of gold.)
These copa de oro blooms on the right have formed a tight little fist that will spring open to reveal the petals that are shown on the left..
For Cee’s Flower of the Day prompt.
This wild garden tangle has a certain beauty for me. Not so for my gardener, who later trimmed it all away.
For Cee’s Flower of the Day prompt.
Far past its prime, this Bird of Paradise still displays a grotesque beauty.
For Cee’s Flower of the Day prompt.
The prompt was to publish a photo in both color and black and white. Luckily, I had just, on a whim, tried converting this hibiscus shot to black and white and was shocked to discover that I liked it better devoid of its gorgeous colors. Here is the site if you’d like to play along: https://bopaula.wordpress.com/2017/05/28/black-white-sunday-after-and-before-y1-05/
I’m also using this for Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge.
“Violets contain ionone, which short-circuits our sense of smell. The flower continues to exude its fragrance, but we lose the ability to smell it. Wait a minute or two, and its smell will blare again. Then it will fade again, and so on.”
— Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses
“Violets” jdb photo 2017
Saying It with Flowers
A lovely gesture, the violets—
but their scent vanished
before you walked out the door.
“It will come back,” you promised.
And so it did, that sweet aroma,
radiating from the deep heart of the flowers
for brief moments before
vanishing again—
coming and going with a greater regularity
than your coming and your going.
“There is a scientific cause for this,”
you noted, ” The fragrance is still there,
but we just lose our ability to smell it.
It will come back again.”
And you were right.
I could count upon it’s reappearance—
the mystery of its coming
and its going solved,
unlike your final exit
or why, when I requested
forget me nots,
violets are what
you gave.
“Forget Me Nots” image from internet
The prompt today was “radiate.”
A few times a year the leaf-cutter ants make a salad table out of my garden, stripping the bougainvillea, especially. Today they were busy outside my walls but so far they’ve left the new little bougainvillea bush alone.
https://ceenphotography.com/2017/05/27/flower-of-the-day-may-28-2017-rhododendron/
Subtropical Garden
Since I live below the tropic of Cancer, the varieties of plants that not only survive but thrive in my garden are manifold. Here are a few of the things that you would find in my garden if you came to visit, as well as the reasons why I love living here:
(Please click on any photo to enlarge all photos.)
For Cee’s garden prompt.
My plumeria tree just keeps on blooming this year. The leaves are lusher than usual as well. I’ll try to enjoy them before the rains come and pick them all!
https://ceenphotography.com/2017/05/22/flower-of-the-day-may-23-2017-bearded-iris/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 