Here at the end of 2017 I captured some eye candy in my Florida yard yesterday and decided to blog about it in order to share the beauty with the largest audience possible. My dear, cold, snow-bound yankee friends, living in places I call The Frozen Tundra, might react with joy at seeing actual FLOWERS and GREEN things surrounding me. They also may (reasonably) wish to “bop me upside the head” for rubbing it in and remind me that “blog” and “brag” are very similar words. To those pals I simply repeat my yearly invitation to come visit me in the Sunshine State to give said head-bopping. Of course, once here I hope they would refrain from doing me bodily harm and instead enjoy the gorgeous flora in person, in flip flops, in shorts!

Camellia bushes show off beautifully here in winter. In fact, when temperatures fluctuate too much between our version of cold (yes, you’d laugh) and our version of perfection (which hovers near 80 degrees Fahrenheit), the blossoms fall like crumbs from a toddler’s highchair because those camellia flowers can’t bear the heat. 

Since it was a rare overcast day I was able to experiment with some backlighting and came up with this look:

There are other things of beauty besides camellias, of course. This photo shows the buds of a native azalea bush. I had a wee chat with the azalea and suggested slowing down a bit so that it wouldn’t bloom prematurely and have those frilly, dainty-looking blossoms freeze. Time will tell if my message got through…

Other spots of color sang out to me as well, even those little white-flowered weeds (pretending to be miniature daisies) that drive me crazy in the summertime by taking over the place!

Some of the flowers do look a bit bedraggled, but they’ll hear no complaints from me! The final shot is fun. See that hole in the leaf? Hey, it’s natural air conditioning, right? Happy end of 2017 to you from Favorite Subjects Photography!