Gig Harbor, Washington state

I travelled from Portland to Gig Harbor last Sunday. I am staying with a friend who has a house overlooking an inlet off Puget Sound. The weather has been fabulous - clear skies and sunshine, with some morning fog over the water the last couple of mornings. The views from the deck are beautiful, and the birds are much more colourful here than most of the ones I see at home. I am missing my camera, and don't want to be asking my friend to take pictures for me every few seconds, so here are just one or two pictures of things which have really caught me eye. These Zinnias are growing just outside my bedroom window, and are the first thing I see every morning when I open the blind. Wow!



We don't really grow Zinnias in Wales, but I did have a green one grow from a mixture of 'white' themed annuals once, so I think I will look for some seeds and try growing some in my own garden next summer. Look at the gorgeous saturated colour in the orange ones above, and the colour contrast in the ones below...


We also don't really see many pumpkins in British supermarkets (although they do seem to be getting much more popular in the run up to Halloween each year). However, the ones we see tend to be the 'ordinary' pumpkins, so these beautifully coloured striped pumpkins really caught my eye.


The colour, shape, and surface texture on these Cinderella pumpkins is rather wonderful, too!


I fly to Arizona on Sunday, and another friend has a spare camera for me to use for that part of my trip, so hopefully, there will be lots of Arizona desert pictures coming soon.