Hearts and Flowers —

WordPress runs a photography challenge on provocative themes that change weekly. This week’s is INSIDE. It’s always interesting to see how many ingenious and fascinating different ways there are of interpreting a single word. Usually I post my own responses on sister blog A View from the Woods  (just one of several photos I’m using this week).

While I was playing with Inside thoughts (ouch!) my mind kept turning to flowers, to the phrase Hearts and Flowers, thence to hearts of flowers. To peer inside the gorgeousness of a flower, into its very heart — here are a few to share on a rainy morning.*

The Heart of a Tulip

The tulip was in our garden this spring, the marigold is in a container on the patio. The last, the heart of an amaryllis, is my personal favorite, snapped at this spring’s Flower Show at Mount Holyoke College:

Mount Holyoke’s spring flower show is always early. There might still be patches of snow lingering in shady corners. The beauty of these flowers comes as a special joy after a dark and cold season —

*(But I can testify to you that after weeks and weeks of drought, this morning’s rains were also a beautiful sight!)