And a few more flowers

Even the alley was decorated with flowers this year.

The farm lot behind us was utterly covered with wild sunflowers like these in our alley.

A closer look....

And a very pretty close-up.

I found out the so-called fireworks plant is more commonly referred to in this

area as the Mexican Bird-of-Paradise. Some people take the nationality out of it

and just call it a Red Bird-of-Paradise. Whatever you call it, it is certainly showy!

It does brighten up the neighborhood, even on an overcast day.

The irises that come out earlier

in the year are not as showy, but they do bear a regal stance and bring a lot of

class to the garden. However they seem to be slightly less eager to pose for

photographs, at least when there's any breeze...

Then they become golden blurs. Or a whole 'nother take on 'shooting practice.' All the same, lovely things.

Well, that's about enough practice aiming at the immediate botanical collection.

Now I'll try to take pictures of a few other things....one has to play around with

a variety of camera settings to learn one's way around a camera, after all.