This wild crabapple (probably Malus coronaria, though it was sold as M. fusca ) is blooming in our backyard with a profusion of lovely pink and white 5 petaled flowers with a center of golden stamens. The bright green leaves are elliptical and dentate.

A lovely crabapple cultivar with vibrant cerise flowers is a popular street tree around here. These 5 petaled flowers have rosy stamens with anthers turning yellow at ripening. The leaves are ovate and dentate, emerging bronze green and turning a nice dark green.

The cherry and plum trees are almost at the end of their bloom, and now it's the turn of the crabapples to display fresh new pinks and whites.
#Photography #New #BlueskyArtShow #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #Crabapples #OurNeighborhood #BloomScrolling

A florid garden under cherry trees is full of white and yellow daffodils at the foot of a mossy retaining wall. A mass of yellow and orange tulips is blooming in the garden above, next to some sword ferns. . Behind them is a patch of dark red hellebores. And up against the front porch is a rhododendron bush full of cerise flowers. If you look closely, you can see pots of plants ready to be dug in.

The lady on the corner who has the huge collection of hellebores now has spring flowers galore. I can hardly wait to see what she has in store for later. And her cherry trees are magnificent too.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #BloomScrolling #SeattleSpring #Daffodils #Tulips

Several clusters of small bright red azaleas flowers pop against their dark green leaves. The trumpet shaped flowers have exerted red stamens and pistils.

Brilliant red azalea, a Japanese cultivar, breaking up the shadows
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood #Azaleas #BloomScrolling #Red

Frilly ruffles of Trametes versicolor pour down a crack in a cherry tree trunk. It looks like the fall of riffled on a shirt front, in shades of brown, rust and cream. The undersides are buffy white with a rough, porous surface. The tree bark on each side of the ruffles is very coarse, with some blue green lichen, and tiny spots of green and yellow lichen.

Frilly fungus on an old cherry. The tree is in serious decline
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #FungiFriends #FungusFriday

A very nice, rectangular chicken coop with a shaded patio. A cedar plank henhouse has a nice wood ramp for ease of hen access. The whole is enclosed in chicken wire. A nice brick modified Tudor Revival house can be seen hiding behind the coop.

A stylish chicken coop in front of a neighborhood house. There are 3 chickens in residence but only one is outside at the moment.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood

A view of an egg yolk yellow house through the dark trees in a small park: the house is an old style American square seen from an angle. The siding is yellow, the trim on the three windows that can be seen is an ox blood red. The shingled roof is covered with moss glowing yellow in the late afternoon sun. It has, fancifully, an appearance of a bungalow peeking out from the thick PNW woods.

A house in the woods
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #SeattleSpring

A closeup of four four-petaled forsythia flowers is a study in yellow: the bright yellow of the flowers, the paler yellow of the pistil and stamens, and the orange-yellow splotches in the flower throats. The blossoms are set in a background cloud of softly focused branches covered with flowers, with snatches of gray Seattle sky above.

Forsythia yellow makes gray days shine
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling #OurNeighborhood #Yellows

A group of parents help their little ones figure out how to kick a, soccer ball. There is a training set up with markers on the open field at Maple Leaf Reservoir Park, with a couple of goal nets being set up. Everyone is bundled up because it is cold.

Mom and child rush to join the soccer training already in progress on the Maple Leaf Reservoir Park field. The sky is overcast, the grass sodden, and it is cold.

Soccer indoctrination camp on Saturdays. The kids in Seattle get more group activities than I've ever seen anywhere! This is for kids barely out of diapers, getting cheered on as they take turns bravely kicking a ball into a goal.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #SoccerKids

A mosaic of a madrone tree labeled "Ravenna Park" graces the bench area in the Park. It is circular, with a green and yellow edge. The tree is in shades of red-brown and tan. The leaves are done in various shades of green,. There is a blue sky and a green lawn in the background.

The evening sun hits a stem of bright red flowering currant blossoms. The light makes the tubular flowers glow a bright pink. The five petals at the top of each flare out, variously highlighted or backlit, looking like glowing jewels. Here and there the yellow anthers punctuate the pink. The bright green leaves are out of focus, making a softly hazy background in sharp contrast to the flowers.

A pretty mosaic by the playground in Ravenna Park, and some evening sun drama in our garden making the flowering currant glow.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #BloomScrolling #OurNeighborhood #RavennaPark #SeattleSpring

A purple anemone flower has a ring of petals surrounding a heart of golden stamens. It is in a bed of soft green leaves, with a couple of buds getting ready to bloom nearby. Everything is bedewed with drops of rain.

Epimedium, also known as bishops hats, has graceful little yellow flowers on long stems floating above the heart shaped leaves. The flowers hang upside down, with four yellow sepals sticking out over a small yellow corolla, looking a bit like a hat on top of a head. The leaves are a tender green with shades of bronze. Rain drops hang from stems here and there. These are growing next yo a gray rock, providing nice color and texture contrasts.

Purple anemones and yellow epimedium on a drizzly day
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #BloomScrolling

A black metal sculpture of a crow glares balefully in the corner of a front yard. It has white legs and feet and sits on a round white ball. It has nicely overlapping rounded feathers with little bits of moss starting to grow on it. The lawn in the background is full of bright olive green moss, and a low retaining wall to the left is covered with fire moss, already turning orange

The bright woody reds of a paperbark maple's look like an elaborate puzzle. This close up of the peeling bark shows pieces of bark fracturing in irregular shapes, and bits are curling away, like pieces of orange-red paper.

Trouvailles: Yard art and paperbark
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood

A gray rock in a wall is invaded by life. A patch of powdery green pixie cup lichen sports lovely cup-like apothecia. Tiny bright green sempervivum plants with their red edged serrated leaves packed in tight rosettes have a foothold in the leaf duff collected in the rock crevice. Other lichen can be seen growing in the background, as well as some olive green moss.

Lichen and sempervivum
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #Lichen

A red neon sign saying "Massage" in a downstairs window of an old wooden clapboard apartment buikding glows in the shade. There is a walkway up to the door lined by what looks like an amateurish rock wall topped by wrought iron bannisters. A large white balcony overhangs the entrance. This massage parlor (?) sits in an old building surrounded by vacant lots in the process of being built up along 65th Street. It too will probably be destroyed soon.

A flyer trying to drum up business is, stapled to a telephone pole. It has the following appeal: SLOW DRAIN? www. PLUNGE IT SOUND. COM 425-954-3088 BALLARD-MAGNOLIA - QUEEN ANNE FREMONT-GREENLAKE - U DISTRICT . SINKS, SHOWERS, TUBS, & TOILETS ONLY PAY WHEN DRAIN IS CLEARED • $150 FOR MOST DRAINS ON CALL OR TEXT CASEY (425) 954-3088 Casey@PlungeitSound.com

I think this smurf house pumpkin yard decor may be nearing the end of its ability to be painted for a special holiday: now it is painted a bright green, with darker green shamrocks decorating it. A brave blue smurf sits near its round doorway

Around the neighborhood: soon to be a victim of gentrification, Puget Sound humor, and ready for St. Paddy's day
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood

Black and white: Rain drops captured in a smoke tree's filaments look like an explosion of transparent beads tangled in black threads

Sepia monochrome: A pair of Lime electric bikes with baskets wait on a street corner sidewalk for pickup. The street is glazed with rain, and the ground is littered with the remains of last fall's leaves.

It's really cold, rainy and windy! From the archives, other rainy days in Seattle
#Photography #SeattleWashington #RainyDays #OurNeighborhood #BlackAndWhite

A few yellow stringy witch hazel petals still cling to the calyces on a bare branch. The witch hazel calyx is a deep maroon square cup shape, and peeking in you can see the remains of the pistil. The branch is growing by a mossy brick wall, and green shrubbery form a backdrop. Witch hazel fruit take a year to mature. The calyx falls off, and a green fuzzy capsule is left behind. When ready to seed, the capsule explodes and throws its seeds as far as 30 feet away.

A winter-bare wisteria vine trunk, with two main stems twisting around each other, leans against a gray board fence. The trunk is dark gray mottled with light gray lichen spots and coated with patches of moss.

Witch hazel fruits and a casually twisted wisteria trunk
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #BloomScrolling

A multi-petaled creamy white star magnolia flower unfolds, revealing creamy yellow anthers. The petals are long, a bit like streamers, with a silky appearance. The flower is in dappled shade, with the sun strking at an angle, throwing petal shadows on lower petals. The still bare shrub branches form a patterned background.

A couple of star magnolia flower buds, on still bare branches, are starting to spread their creamy petals. The petals are long, a bit like streamers, with a silky appearance. The flowers are in dappled shade, with the sun strking at an angle, throwing petal shadows on lower petals.

Star magnolias are blooming!
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #BloomScrolling #Magnolias

Bright magenta rhododendron blossoms fan out from the end of a branch like a fireworks burst. The five petaled flowers have long pink anthers and a light pink pistil tipped with magenta. The leathery oval leaves are dark green, a perfect foil for the bright flowers.

Rhododendrons!
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #BloomScrolling #Magenta #Rhodies #OurNeighborhood

An orange cafe set in the converted driveway of an upgraded garage. The garages and driveways around here are often partially below ground level because Seattle is hilly. But the older houses have driveways that are too narrow for parking. So many garages get converted for other uses, including children's playrooms or mother-in-law apartments. This conversion is very nice, creating a small patio with trellising for winding vines and mortared walls. There are a couple of wooden French doors on the erstwhile garage.

Some yard art: A patio party of frogs is rollicking along by the sidewalk. A couple of frogs enjoy reading books on a bench. One sprawls in the sun on a chaise longue. A fiddling frog provides music. A fancy umbrella provides shade for a couple of younsters playing leapfrog.

For some reason the orange cafe set struck me. The frog group (frogs are popular around here!) has grown from three lounging in the sun to a whole patio party with umbrella and fiddler in the past two years
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #YardArt

Kinnickkinnick, a low growing ground cover, has small tough blue-green leaves growing on orange stems. It is covered in pink urn shaped flowers, typical of the heather (Ericaceae) family.

The chartreuse and golden yellow flowers of the Mediterranean spurge are interesting . They grow in a clump at the end of a stem full of strappy blue green leaves. This close up is of a flower clump in a rocky garden full of raindrops. Each blossom looks like a wide-mouthed funnel, harboring two smaller funnels at the end of tiny stems. The first funnel has a golden yellow star shaped pistil. The other funnels are male and have a little anther structure that looks a bit like a fountain spray. Weird flowers.

Our native kinnickkinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) makes a pretty groundcover. And I really don't like the Mediterranean spurge that is so popular here, but it has interesting flowers.
#Photography #SeattleWashington #NativePlants #NativePlantsOfThePNW #OurNeighborhood #Bearberry #BloomScrolling

A flat rust colored decoupe yard art: a smiling cat with a heart has its tail curled over its back. A haapy bird is sitting on the tail. The artwork is sitting in front of a bush, which can be seen as at the corner of a blue gray house with red trim.

A large strange rust colored sculpture sits in someone's front yard. It consists of several long square tubes joined at the top, and spreading out, looking a bit like a bunch of bananas hanging on a hook. There is an angled disk at the bottom that some of the tubes pass through. The sculpture sits on a narrow grassy strip next to a fence. You can see neighborhood houses beyond the fence.

Yard art: is that a catbird seat? And I don't know what the other one is, a hanging bunch of bananas in rust colors?
#Photography #SeattleWashington #YardArt #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood

Monty, a small gray shih tzu, checks out one of two public water bowls set on bricks at the corner of a kind person's front yard. The bright blue handpainted sign by the bowls, planted in a tin bucket, says "Dog Bar" in bright pink letters. Right next to it is another tall narrow bucket with a bright blue sign, with two black crows painted on it, and bright pink letters claiming it is a "Crow Bar." No crows were spotted.

Dog walk special
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood #DogStops #DogPub #CrowBar #YardArt #DogsOfBluesky

A few 5 petaled, trumpet shaped, pale yellow azalea flowers bloom on a small shrub. The orange pistil in each is surrounded by pale brown anthers. The shrub has twisted gray branches with small, leathery leaves in shades of green, gray and yellow. It is growing next to a red brick retaining wall with patches of dark green moss.

Pale yellow azaleas bravely blooming under a tree in the cold rain
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #Azaleas #BloomScrolling #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood

A manzanita bush with small, oval, dusty green and leathery leaves is covered in clusters of small pink and white, urn shaped flowers. This photo shows a small detail of the amazingly floriferous plant

A couple of clusters of a pink and white "red flowering" currant flowers are blooming. These are tube shaped, with five pink petald bending out star-shaped at the top, and a small white corolla gusrding the yellow anthers. The rounded bright green leaves are barely unfurling at the base of the clusters.

A few pink 5 petaled purple-leaved plum tree flowers are blooming an a rugged gray branch. The petals look fragile, and they do tend to fall all over the sidewalk. You can see a few very purple leaf buds getting ready to open.

A small bunch of four petaled daphne flowers bloom in shades of light to dark pink amid variegated green and cream leaves. These are always so marvelously scented, and a true sign of spring.

Shades of pink and white
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood #BloomScrolling

A pair of wide open coral red camellias sport layered ruffled petals and bright gold hearts. The anthers hang down, heavy with pollen. There are several buds ready to bloom amid tge dark green glossy leaves.

#Two coral red camellias
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleSpring #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood #BloomScrolling #Camellias #BlueskyArtShow

A small cluster of bright yellow, 6 petaled, Oregon grape flowers blooms amid prickly dark green and purple leaves. There are more flower buds packed on the stem, from small and dark green to almost yellow and ready to unfold. This being a rainy day, the leaves are very wet, and a few raindrops sit on the flowers.

Bright Oregon grape flowers on a rainy day
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #SeattleSpring #Yellows #BloomScrolling #NativePlantsOfThePNW #NativePlants

The entire frame is filled with leaves of a bright decorative grass, strioed in orange and green. It is amazingly colored.

Bright grass highlights
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #DecorativeGrasses #NeighborhoodGardens

A patch of green moss growing on the side of a stone fence has little sporophytes sporting green sporangia with translucent opercula at their tips. The thin sporophyte stem is reddish and fades to a translucent green, the sporangium is like a small, long green barrel, and the operculum is like a green water drop at the tip of of the sporangia. The leafy stems, called gametophytes, are very green and wet.

Nodding thread moss
#Photography #SeattleWashington #Mosses #Bryophytes #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood

A bright orange rose hip sits between new leaves. The leaves are green, rosy red, yellow green and bright green with a bit of reddish shading at the rims. There are water drops on the leaves due to fog. The water drops on the newest, reddest leaf in the foreground reflect the gray sky, and the red and green of the leaves.

Foggy day in Seattle
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleWinter #OurNeighborhood #OurGarden #BloomScrolling #SeattleSpring #MapleLeafNeighborhood

A large cluster of dark cherry red hellebore flowers show off yellow anthers, red pistils and green nectarines. The contrasts are very vivid. The leaves are palmate and dark green. There are some dark green low shrubs in the back ground.

"Cherry red , sweeter than the honeycomb..." Hellebores providing more color joy in winter-almost-spring
(That line is from the BeeGees song)
#Photography #SeattleWashington #SeattleWinter #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood #BloomScrolling #Hellebores #SeattleSpring

A very large big leaf maple grows near a neighborhood sidewalk. The trunk would require at least three or four people to ring it. Its bare branches reach up to the blue sky streaked with some clouds. You can see a few houses down the street, with some parked cars. I think this is the largest single trunk big leaf maple I have ever seen.

A mighty big leaf maple in the neighborhood (Acer macrophyllum)
#Photography #SeattleWashington #OurNeighborhood #MapleLeafNeighborhood
#PNWFlora #NativePlantsOfThePNW
#ThickTrunkTrees #ThickTrunkTuesday