Tropical Flowers ....In My Garden

Nothing much is happening in my garden except that all my flowers continue to bloom under the heat of the sun and the heavy downpour of the rain.

Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature.

Gerar de Nerval

Missing My Garden.....

I've been away from home for almost 2 months now, and this pink flower was the last bloom I saw in my garden before I left. I miss the mornings where I can be alone in my garden, digging deep into the dirt of my heart, taking out stones that hinder beautiful virtues to bloom. It's a painful process yet to be surrounded with flowers makes it bearable. You just know that something beautiful is sure to come.

"Shall we compare our hearts to a garden - with beautiful blooms, straggling weeds, swooping birds and sunshine, rain - and most importantly, seeds. 

~Grey Livingston

My Birthday Flower

It's 50 days now that I've been away from my own garden. The gardener in me finds a little bit of satisfaction in scattering seeds from my garden when I jog in the mornings around the campus where I'm doing my MA studies. In the campus there's a prayer garden where my soul is always satisfied. Two days ago, I was there early in the morning. I saw this fragrant bloom that melted my heart. I don't know its name but I call it my birthday flower because it bloomed on my day.

Bee's Favorite Flower

I have this purplish pink flower in my garden. I don't know its name (yet) but it's one of my favorite, and bees', too! Oh, how I enjoy watching the bees buzz from flower to flower. They feast on sweet treat of nectar.

Bees work for man, and yet they never bruise
             Their Master's flower, but leave it having done,
    As fair as ever and as fit to use;
                              So both the flower doth stay and honey run.
                                - George Herbert, The Church--Providence

Flower Photo Collection (Hong Kong 2011)

One of the best things I enjoy when traveling is taking photos of flowers. Here's my collection during my recent trip to Hong Kong.

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words.  

They are the hieroglyphics of angels, 

loved by all men for the beauty of their character, 

though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning. 

~Lydia M. Child

Zinnias: My Garden-Fillers

They're ordinary. They don't have fragrance. They don't need much care and attention. They can thrive on their own. Oftentimes, I am more proud of my other rare, hard-to-care plants. But really, these Zinnias do the job of keeping my garden beautiful. They fill my garden with flowers even when all other plants fail to bloom.

Do you sometimes feel like you're just a filler in world and that you don't really play an important role? I do! Sometimes, worse. I feel like I can slip away without others noticing my absence; like an extra in a movie where anyone could just fill my part. Irrelevant. Unimportant.

As I did my gardening today, these thorny weeds of lies were pulled out. My zinnias reminded me that I have an important role. I'm part of a big picture. Little my contribution be, I can make this world more beautiful.

For we are God's workmanship, 
created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do. 
Ephesians 2:10

Yellow and White Daisies

They are not asters, nor black-eyed Susan ,nor sunflowers.

Until someone can help me id these flowers properly,

I shall call them daisies. 

Aren't they friendly?

~ Daisies are like sunshine to the ground. ~ 

Drew Barrymore

~ The daisy's for simplicity and unaffected air. ~ 

Robert Burns 

  Macro Flowers Saturday              Flowers on Saturday    

 Mosaic Monday            Mellow Yellow             Today's Flower

Cattleya In Bloom

It's been a while since I last had my cattleya bloom. And I was so delighted to see one blooming again. I have it beautifully hanging outside my window for 2 weeks now. There are 2 buds coming so I knew I'll be enjoying them for few more weeks. Lovely lady in ruffled dress, isn't she?

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words.  

They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of their character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning. 

~Lydia M. Child

  Macro Flowers Saturday              Flowers on Saturday    

 Mosaic Monday                    Today's Flower

Christmas Flower in 2 Colors

I was happy to have red poinsettias in my garden, and was happier to have another color.

Merry Christmas my friends. I hope you have a more blooming and fruitful year ahead.

                   Today's Flower

The Balloon Flowers

Platycodon Grandiflorus is the scientific name but it is also called the balloon flowers because before they bloom, its close buds look like paper balloons.

It comes in 2 colors, bluish purple and white. And I'm happy to have both in my garden. Thanks to my niece who gave me the newest blooms in my garden.

 

Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?
James Montgomery

  Macro Flowers Saturday              Flowers on Saturday   

  Today's Flower

Mosaic Monday                                        Blue Monday

Blue Flower In My Garden

I have a blue water lily in my garden.

It has only a single flower but it's a beauty to behold each day! Notice its transformation. I took the pictures in 3 consecutive days.

"No two gardens are the same.  No two days are the same in one garden."

~Hugh Johnson

     Macro Flowers Saturday        Camera Critters       Today's Flower

Mosaic Monday         Mellow Yellow         Blue Monday

Birds of Paradise

My host took me to the far corner of her garden to show me her birds of paradise. She led me through deep leaves and muddy ground to see these beauties. She pointed and told me to frame these 3. I got 3 kinds in one snap!

Then she drove me to her friend's garden to see more...

God Almighty first planted a garden. 
And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

-Francis Bacon 

Today's Flower        Mosaic Monday        Ruby Tuesday 

Winged Flower

This flower (Belamcanda Chinesis, also known as the Leopard Flowers) is a beauty in itself.

What more when another winged flower comes to it?

Both become one spectacular sight.

The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower a tethered butterfly.
~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun

Beautiful and graceful, 

varied and enchanting,

small but approachable, 

butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life.  

And everyone deserves a little sunshine.  

~Jeffrey Glassberg

It lingered a while..long enough for me to take delight on this moment.

 I paused, closed my eyes, took a deep breath... and thanked God for a time of rest.

The butterfly counts not months but moments, 

and has time enough. 

~Rabindranath Tagore

 There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly. 

~Richard Buckminster Fuller

 

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, 

but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.

  ~Maya Angelou

"You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, ...... 

and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 

and to clothe yourselves with the new self, 

created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" 

(Ephesians 4:22-24, NRSV).


This post is an entry to:

Macro Flowers Saturday   Today's Flower   Mosaic Monday    Camera Critters