(My apologies in advance to those who are experiencing bitter cold weather. This is not meant to be a bragging post. It is an appreciation and gratitude post, and perhaps a “Spring is coming” hopeful post for anyone who can use the boost right now.)

There are many reasons I love living in the Bay Area of California. Here are some of them. It’s March 2nd and I walk around outside in shorts, a T-shirt, and flip flops, the weather is comfortably warm even though we’re having a rare gray day today.

I see various flowers blooming, and the first I see right outside our front door is a beautiful camelia.

I picked one that embodied elegant beauty and put it into a little vase for My Beloved, but before giving it to her I decided to try to take a few photos of it with my iPad so I could share the flower’s beauty with you, too. I added some photos of hibiscus flowers that I took earlier. They bloom for a long time, but aren’t in bloom here at the moment.

My favorite color for flowers is orange. I’ve noticed that my eye is drawn to that color first when looking in gardens. For that reason, California Golden Poppies are extra special to me. I plan to share photos of them when they bloom in spring. In the meantime, the pink camelia is what I saw today, so that is what you get today, with the hibiscus thrown in as a “bonus”. ;-D!

May these photo’s brighten your day, and perhaps put a smile on your face.

Thank you to those excellent photographers who share such wonderful photos on your blogs and for enduring these early attempts at trying my hand at photography. You have inspired me! (So, it’s YOUR fault if you don’t like my photos!) ;-D!

Love,
Russ