My Balcony in June 2017

These are the last of my pansies which I picked mid-June

so that I could plant the dahlias!

Every season has its flowers

and after pansies come all sorts of beauties

like these orange and yellow dahlias with a fine red line around each petal.

Refreshing pink

and luminous red

and a mixture of warm colours.

Two window boxes of dahlias are planted in front of the garden table

where I eat every day.

A hydrangea heart.

This plant hadn't flowered for three whole years

and I was about to give up on it

and told it so!

It must have heard me because it suddenly started growing

beautiful light pink flower clusters!

This is my oldest hydrangea.

Last year, I bought a new hydrangea to compensate for the 

older plant which had remained dormant for so long.

I'm thrilled with the deep raspberry pink of these new flowers

which can be seen even better here.

but the hydrangea star of the show this year has been this beauty

in tones of  pink lilac, developing into deeper tones of blue.

This one was a beautiful birthday and Mother's Day gift

from my son this year!

The final colour.

Though as I speak, the flowers are changing yet again

to more muted pastel shades with touches of pale green.

Beautiful at every stage!

The Physalis, or Chinese Lantern

is doing so well.

I love to watch the tiny white flower transform into tiny bud

which then develops in to a little green lantern.

They will look so pretty when they all turn orange.

The different stages can be seen here in the collage.

Pink anthemis flower the whole summer through

these are a welcome splash of colour next to my kitchen door.

My small olive tree is laden with tiny flowers which will become olives!

New this year is an oleander plant with beautiful coral blooms.

Two kinds of bell-flowers or Campanula.

The ones above which have grown back from last year

and these smaller ones in a big tub which come back every year.

All these wonderful colours make life living in the town more bearable.

My flowers are my joy and I love to sit outside

for all my meals and read surrounded by all these manifestations of nature.

Sometimes,

I like to pick just a few flowers to enjoy inside.

If you have a balcony or a terrace, or if you're fortunate enough to have a garden,

I hope you are enjoying all the wonders of nature.

Just like me!