We have highs in the mid-80's and lows in the mid-60's predicted for this week. Temp is 86 degrees but it's tolerable because the humidity is low. It's hazy - we have smoke in the air from the SE Georgia fire 200 miles north of us. It's a reminder that we're in the dry season, and probably will smell smoke again and again before the summer rains begin. I took a walk around our yard with my camera after church today, and chronicled the flowers blooming. The first one is a hoya in flower. It's about 3 inches in diameter and has a waxy look to it.
Did you ever see a caladium flower? We have 4 varieties of
caladium and they all have these flowers right now.
Our "Charlie Rose" - the one that got flattened by Hurricane Charley in 2004 - has two blooms. This is the fresher of the two!
The Rangoon Creeper has begun blooming. White in the morning, pink by afternoon, and red the second day...It's not a sweet scent, but it's unique!
The second of our three gardenias has begun to bloom. Tiny insects seem to like the blooms, so you have to be careful not to sniff too deeply!
We have two bougainvillea in bloom. The red one at the back of the property is perhaps a tad less spectacular than this purple boug at the back of the house.
I have a bromeliad - Aechmea 'Gympie Gold' - in a large pot on the deck. I've had at least 8 flower stalks this spring, and this is the latest edition.
I have one orchid in bloom - it's a white 'Skinnerii' cattleya with 25 blossoms!
We have a variegated ornamental ginger in the front yard. It is full of waxy white clumps of flowers on the ends of each frond.
Our bed of amaryllis continue to bloom. Hard to remember, but at least 4 weeks of blooms.
Two of our three hibiscus are blooming. This red single bloom in the back yard took a slightly better picture than the pink single bloom in the front. Our fire & ice hibiscus in the front got whacked back significantly last week, so no flowers for a while!
...and our passion vine is giving us blooms on the front corner of the house. They are spectacular, complicated flowers.
I realized after I posted yesterday that I had missed a couple of flowers in the yard. This is our coral honeysuckle - we have lots of blossoms on the lattice house.
We have highs in the mid-80's and lows in the mid-60's predicted for this week. Temp is 86 degrees but it's tolerable because the humidity is low. It's hazy - we have smoke in the air from the SE Georgia fire 200 miles north of us. It's a reminder that we're in the dry season, and probably will smell smoke again and again before the summer rains begin. I took a walk around our yard with my camera after church today, and chronicled the flowers blooming. The first one is a hoya in flower. It's about 3 inches in diameter and has a waxy look to it.
This past Thursday GB and I participated in a 5K walk / run. It was a fund raiser for a Florida wellness program. More importantly, it was for businesses, companies, and organizations to promote physical activity and wellness among their employees. GB and I went with about 20 people associated with The Christ School. We were small potatoes -- there were about 7,300 people participating! We mostly walked (jogged a little bit) and finished in a little over 43 minutes. Again, it was a beautiful evening with low humidity and no breeze. We first gathered in the Citrus Bowl, heard a lot of rah-rah, and then walked to the start-finish line just north of the Bowl. The walk / 
run took place on the streets around the Citrus Bowl. There's something that's fiendishly fun about walking with thousands of others across busy intersections and seeing stopped traffic stretched for blocks! And we got a tee shirt! We also got new walking shoes last night...
