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The day we visited Petrified Forest National Park was about as perfect as a day could be -- a clear blue sky with a few white clouds and bright sunshine lighting up every color and hue of the Painted Desert. This picture was taken at Tawa Point.

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I've spent almost every day for the past few weeks watering our roses. I don't particularly enjoy working in the hot sun, but roses like this make it all worth while. Midas Touch makes me feel 'there is gold in them thar hills!'.

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We drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina on an overcast day earlier this month. At one overlook we were able to take a short hike and look down on clouds in the valley below us.

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I went to my archives to get this picture of a Florida beach sunrise. This picture was taken at Ormand Beach, where we we celebrating Betsy's birthday.

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We've had Paradise rose is our yard for several years now. It's a hybrid tea rose with a delightful fragrance and an unusual color -- a lilac mauve. Needless to say, that makes it fairly unique in our rose garden.

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These are some of the petroglyphs we saw at Puerco Pueblo in the Petrified Forest National Park. The pueblo was built around 1250 and may have been home to 1000 people. There are several locations along the trail through the pueblo from which petroglyphs can be seen.

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Elegant Candy is one of the day lilies in the flower bed nearest the road. This is the second year that we've had this beauty, and since it is a re-bloomer we are still enjoying these pretty blossoms.

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The Tepees is a section of cone-shaped multicolored rock formations in the southern portion of the Petrified Forest National Park. The Tepees contain layers of blue and gray in addition to the reds, whites and pinks seen in other parts of the Painted Desert.



To see a drawing based on this picture, click HERE.

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This picture of the Niagara River was taken from the bridge leading to Goat Island in New York's Niagara Falls State Park. The view is looking down river toward the brink of the American Falls.

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Wildfire is one of the most vibrant roses we have in our yard. It doesn't have much of a fragrance, but when it is in bloom it can't be missed.

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Nizhoni Point was the last overlook we visited in the northern (Painted Desert) part of the Petrified Forest National Park. The colors were just as vibrant and breath-taking as they were at the first overlook.

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Our new flower bed near the road contains quite a few lilies. Unfortunately most of them bloomed while we were out west on our trip. But the neighbors say that they were all beautiful. We were fortunate that this group of lilies were still showing off when we got back home.



To see a drawing based on this photo, click HERE.

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We were driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina earlier this month on a cloudy, overcast day. We came to an overlook near Shining Rock that gave us a view of the clouds in a valley below us.

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On our second evening at the Grand Canyon we were able to enjoy a sunset from Mather Point. The light and shadows in the canyon itself were unbelievably beautiful, and the sky turned a beautiful gold-red as the sun sank lower toward the horizon.

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When we were in Albuquerque in June, we went to see the church of San Felipe de Neri, which was constructed in 1793. We got there too late in the day to see the interior of the church, but we were able to enjoy the rectory garden.



If you would like to see what the garden looks like as a drawing, click HERE.

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Fooled Me is one of the day lilies that bloomed for the first time this year. It's a re-blooming day lily, so we're hoping it will bloom again before winter sets in. We discovered that the deer around us also liked them -- for dinner! Fortunately they left this one blossom so I could get a picture.

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The Tepees is an area of the Petrified Forest National Park dominated by cone-shaped rock formations. The formations contain layered blues, purples and grays in addition to the colors found in other portions of the park. The Tepees are in the southern section of the park between Newspaper Rock and Blue Mesa.

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Another iris in our yard has decided to put on a repeat performance. Clarence bloomed back in April when the rest of our irises bloomed, but has put on another display this week. I snapped this picture after a brief afternoon shower.

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Betsy was smiling when I took this picture in June while we were visiting the Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. We were heading up the mountain getting closer to that snow you see in the background.

Betsy is smiling today because she has a birthday tomorrow. If you would like to help make that smile even brighter, click HERE and wish her a Happy Birthday.

I'm trying my best to have a proper birthday celebration, so we may not have much computer time through the weekend. But we'll both be back on Monday.

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This picture of the Painted Desert was taken at Kachina Point in the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona.

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This is another picture I snapped one evening as we were traveling across Oklahoma. The light streaming through the hole in the clouds seemed to be showing us the way.

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If I were told that I could only have one rose, it would be Double Delight. It's a beautiful rose that starts out as a mostly white bud and changes each day as the blossom matures. One thing that doesn't change is the delightful fragrance.

I tried to add the fragrance to this post, but Blogger wouldn't accept it.