Angel Face Rose

Here is an Angel Face Rose freshened up by a chilly San Francisco first week of Spring rain shower. The intoxicating fragrance from one cut flower of this variety easily perfumes any room. This would look great as a medium sized canvas print hanging in your kitchen or sun room. How about small magnets for the fridge ?

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Hungarian Breadseed Poppy

The spectacular magenta flower of the Hungarian Breadseed Poppy only lasts a day or two but they are a sight to behold. What we seek are the giant dried pods, each containing a teaspoon or so of tasty slate blue seeds. Kelly bakes with these, they have a slightly nuttier taste than the stale ones you get in the supermarket. Go easy on the consumption volume and frequency though, you may recall that Elaine from Seinfeld got fired for eating one too many Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Deserves to be a big watercolor print hanging in a bakery or coffee shop. Might make a cool ceramic tile as well.

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Naked Ladies

This was my very first composition with the Nikon D800. Naked Ladies waking up in our backyard. They call this flower "Naked Ladies" because the audacious blooms emerge dramatically on a tall stalk without any surrounding foliage, almost looks artificial from a distance. After blossoming you get the typical mounds of lily style blades of green.

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Cineraria

Clusters of these Cineraria flowers ranging from light blue to deep purple self-seed like weeds and have naturalized in our yard.

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English Lawn Daisy

For years we have admired the tiny daisies that dot the lawns of Golden Gate Park here in San Francisco. Took me forever to track down a source of seeds to grow a few in containers. I love this shot because the main subject flower is perfectly imperfect; one petal is out of place and the central dome of florets has a concave "Death Star" style deformation.

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Foxglove

We have quite a few Foxglove bloom spikes in the garden ranging in color from white to deep purple. Here is a shot I processed using filters from the Google Nik Collection for a blurred and bleach bypass effect.

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Blueberry Blooms

Our little Blueberry bush awash in blooms, like a pink tide of miniature jellyfish. These are some of the first flowers we see in late Winter / early Spring and bear the promise of many healthy fruit snacks to come.

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Calla Lily

This Calla Lily is one of dozens that have naturalized in our flower beds with such success that they are practically weeds.

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Sally's Rose

Sally was a much loved Tuxedo Cat with a mottled face so mixed up black and white her expressions were kinda camouflaged. Sally was a stern taskmaster; she'd sit bolt upright on the coffee table in front of the couch and stare me into submission with a cat ESP transmission of "Uncross your legs and make a proper lap for a cat to nap in, NOW!" When she passed away years ago at a ripe old age we buried her in the yard, in a sunny spot she had favored, and on that spot we planted a lollipop shaped tree rose Kelly found whose mottled candy cane colors reminded us of Sally's kitty Riddler mug. I used Camera Raw and Google's Nik Collection to mute the color and increase the clarity and drama which I think best represents Sally's unique personality.

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Cape Gooseberry

This Cape Gooseberry (Physallis peruviana) was obtained as a four leaved seedling in a yogurt cup just over two years ago and is now a multi-trunked six foot tall semi-trellised monster that would take over the entire yard if I were to let down my pruning shear guard only briefly. The bush provides us with fragrant tropical tasting marble sized yellow fruit nearly year 'round in our San Francisco fog. The flowers and fruit resemble the form of Tomatillos in that the berry is contained in a papery husk, but they are only the size of a strawberry guava. The fruit are very fragrant, you'll always know when there are ripe berries to pick off the vines or gather from the ground after having fallen. I'd describe the scent as reminiscent of freshly cut pears mixed with tropical guava, really unique and inviting. Kelly uses Cape Gooseberries in Jams, Sorbets, Pies and Fruit Salads.

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Arty Choke

Forget the butter, lemon and garlic; a feast for the eyes will have to suffice. This once potentially yummy artichoke eluded my harvest and blossomed into its true thistle-like form. The inedible "choke" section which we would normally spoon out will soon transform into a giant tuft of dandelion style parachutes to whisk away the large seeds now forming atop the "heart".

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Catnip Bud

The good stuff. I'm talking prime bud, sticky sweet . . . Catnip. Feline ganja, kitty cannabis; minty, musky, intoxicating elixir to your fur child. Dedicated to the memory of my dear departed Lily cat, this was grown by me as her private stash.

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Blazing Star

This Blazing Star wildflower and dozens of other clusters, were celebrating early in July 2015 as abundant late season rains teased the dry eastern High Sierras with moisture. These flowers were lining the perimeter of the mostly pumice cone rim of Panum Crater , a small, and very young (600 years) volcano near the shore of Mono Lake. At just over 7,000 feet elevation these yellow dazzlers served as stark contrast to the massive outcroppings of black obsidian from the central lava plug. Gazing south and west we could see several inches of fresh snow accumulation above the 9,000 foot level up in the mountain passes we crossed to reach Mono Lake in Lee Vining, CA.

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