I adore this photo. It’s maybe one of my favorite photos ever. What’s not to like when you’ve got the two guys who hold your heart in one great shot?

This photo was taken at Balboa Park, I don’t remember exactly where. I love the serenity in this shot.

Purty flowers. My love of macro shots has not disappeared.

This is one of my favorite ornaments on our Christmas tree. I’m not sure why I like it so much, but it sure is sparkly.

And finally, I didn’t take this shot, but couldn’t resist posting it.

Anyway, I decided to just post a few of the photos that are in my camera. These haven’t been edited at all, they’re all straight out of camera…which is of course to say, I was too lazy to do any photo editing. What a shock.

Ooh, purty!

This is on our balcony…and these plants are ALL over San Diego. I love them!

Same plant, just different lighting…

Hey, where’d he come from?

Oh, that’s not cute.

How about a teaser on the nursery?? More on that in the next few days!

Photos??

Yes, unbelievable though it may seem, I actually took photos this past weekend. Trust me, no one is more shocked than I am that after months of little, if any, photography happening, I managed to cart the camera around and take photos! (The trip to Chicago doesn’t count, cuz it was a vacation and that’s what you’re supposed to do on vacation).

Anyway, this weekend we spent Sunday afternoon at Balboa Park here in San Diego, this time attending an outdoor organ performance. Kind of random, I know, until you see this monster.

This hulking, yet gorgeous, structure is the Spreckels Organ, one of the world’s largest outdoor pipe organs. And I quote: “This unique organ contains 4,530 pipes ranging in length from the size of a pencil to 32 feet and is housed in an ornate vaulted structure with highly embellished gables.” Um yeah, that’s kind of insanely big. It sounds big too.

You can see everyone with umbrellas for shade–they rent them to you for a couple of bucks, which on a sunny San Diego day proved to be an excellent way to spend $2. Plus made for a fun little shot.

One of the things I love about San Diego is the beautiful weather–and the colors we get thanks to that weather. On a day like Sunday, blue and green can dominate the color palette.

Seriously, there wasn’t even a hint of white cloud in the sky–just that blue as far as the eye can see, punctuated by green. I may complain about the June Gloom out here in southern California, but you can’t see a trace of it on days like this one. And we’re lucky that we have more days like this than otherwise!

Anyway, after the concert was over, we went about our merry way in this little corner of Balboa Park. I got a couple of shots of one of my favorite structures in the park:

I love that second shot, it makes it look like we were in some wild jungle, not downtown San Diego. (I think this is the tower from the Museum of Man, but can’t be sure–I’m always taking photos from a distance to try and get the staircases that show in the the arches of the tower.)

But of course, it wouldn’t be me taking the photos if I didn’t throw in a macro shot somewhere. This time I fell in love with these two little stone lions outside one of the International Cottages (a quirky little area made up of cottages that promote different countries around the world, from Iran to Sweden to Italy to the US. Very cute and friendly!).

Anyway, these lions were guarding the steps to one of the cottages, Italy I believe, and I just fell in love with the crackle in their paint. I thought this was a fun little shot, and a departure from my normal floral macro!

I had a good time taking photos on Sunday, though my growing size makes it hard to get some of the shots I want–it’s hard to get down close to the ground or to maneuver into some of the contortions I’ve utilized in the past. But all in all, it was a nice reminder of the fun I have when I’m taking photos. I may have forgotten a lot of the technical things I figured out about my camera after a few months of not using it, but Sunday I was able to remember that I enjoy the experience of taking photos even if I don’t get many “good” shots out of it.

Here’s hoping I don’t forget that again.

When I say honest to goodness tea party, I mean it. We were required to wear our party frocks and fancy hats. There were finger sandwiches. There were teapots, and an endless variety of teas to put into dainty china teacups. There was croquet!! All in all, I had a wonderful time, with some much needed girly interaction–we determined I spend entirely too much time with boys since I don’t have a ton of girlfriends in San Diego.

One other fantastic outcome of the day? I actually took some photos! I know, I know, I was shocked too. I was even more shocked when I came home and edited them right away, so that I could write a blog post with them. (I had the house to myself last night, that might have had something to do with it). Anyway, here are some teaparty photos for you to enjoy!

The hostess had a backyard full of gorgeous roses like this one that were in full bloom.

Croquet and tattoos, a modern day tea party!

This dessert was incredibly decadent (in case you couldn’t tell from the gooeyness), but incredibly good.

In addition to tea, there were sparkling drinks to put in fancy glassware.

And I leave you with one of my favorite images of the day. Something about this shot looks very much like a watercolor instead of a photo, and I love how ethereal it looks. I obviously have an infatuation with both the macro setting on my camera and framing my images a certain way, but I do think this photo turned out quite nicely. A perfect representation of the tea party in my mind!