After two weeks of glorious sunshine it finally happened: the mostly cloudy skies of the northwest made a comeback. I had hoped to go hiking in the Columbia River Gorge this weekend, but when the idea is to take pictures of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, etc. there's no point in trying if not even the sun is visible. So, to keep myself from grumbling about the weather too much (and those few sprinkles of rain this morning didn't help),
I went exploring amongst a few of the very colorful neighborhoods on the edge of downtown Portland. When I say colorful I mean just that. Many of these homes were built in the late 1800's and the exteriors range from several shades of blue, to yellows, browns, reds, purples, and everything in between.
A plain ol' gray or white house would stand out like a sore thumb in this area. The goal was to find flowers within a reasonable range of a brightly painted house and get a picture of the flower with the house as the backdrop. I was prepared to employ whatever methods necessary whether they be contortion, standing on my head, or holding my eyebrows just right. I was lucky in that the recent heatwave (90 something is considered a heatwave, especially when it lasts all of, gasp, a week or 10 days) didn't melt the roses, which made up the majority of what was blooming. Although, there were some lovely gladiolas hanging around just begging for their picture to be taken. The biggest problem was avoiding things like gutters (and cars) or finding something to stand on to get just the right angle. There were some lovely blooms I just couldn't use because a picture of roses in front of a window or house numbers just doesn't do anything for me. One house in particular caught my attention. The house itself was almost cobalt blue and the trim was a cross between rust and red. I really had to work at finding an angle where the roses were in front of the house and avoid the other foliage growing around them.
It wasn't until I looked closer that I could see that the buds were wrapped in spider webs. I guess no one thinks about dusting real flowers, only the silk ones. There were also some hydrangeas that wanted to get into the act. I had to do a bit of cropping to get rid of the gutter. I mean a blue gutter is better than a regular one, but it's still a gutter. The rosebud in front of the lattice work is actually quite some distance from the house. I've wanted to take pictures of roses in front of this house before but they've always been all dried up or just consisted of one pitiful petal so I didn't bother. Nothing was blooming next to the house this time either so I experimented with what was growing near the curb.
It wasn't until I looked closer that I could see that the buds were wrapped in spider webs. I guess no one thinks about dusting real flowers, only the silk ones. There were also some hydrangeas that wanted to get into the act. I had to do a bit of cropping to get rid of the gutter. I mean a blue gutter is better than a regular one, but it's still a gutter. The rosebud in front of the lattice work is actually quite some distance from the house. I've wanted to take pictures of roses in front of this house before but they've always been all dried up or just consisted of one pitiful petal so I didn't bother. Nothing was blooming next to the house this time either so I experimented with what was growing near the curb. 
Finally, one of my favorite houses has this extremely colorful staircase leading up to the front porch. After visiting this neighborhood several times in the last few years, I've decided if I ever own a house it will need to be at least three colors and be surrounded by flowers. And yes, I know the pictures are in a wonkier than usual arrangement but to preserve my sanity I let the computer win. No matter what I tried they either wouldn't move or moved where I didn't want them. And now that the sun has finally come out to play, I really want to go outside!
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