Hibiscus and Penquins

Hello my friends.. thanks for stopping by.  Last summer we repotted several of my favorite houseplants, one of which was my Hibiscus tree.  It was pretty puny looking but still produced these amazing saucer sized bright red blooms.  WELL.. it's been SO happy in it's new pot and soil and has put out all kinds of new branches and leaves and was looking quite wonderful.  Then, a few weeks ago I noticed some buds.. and yesterday we were treated to this visual POP.  This morning there are 2 more open blooms.  Did you know Hibiscus flowers only stay open for one day and then they curl up and die?

See all the buds?  They're amazing as they grow bigger and open.

For some reason it's hard to get a good photo of these beauties.. the red kind of overpowers the camera.

When I visited Winco for groceries after swimming on Wednesday I saw these little pots of deep purple Hyacinths and had to bring one home.  Gorgeous, eh?

You should smell it!

My Orchid, Hyacinth and the bushy Hibiscus.

One last glimpse.. 

NOW.. on to the penguins.  My nephew, Shane Hawke, is quite simply an amazing traveler and photographer.  He is an engineer, and lives in the east and his job affords him a lot of time for travel and he is flying about the globe at a remarkable rate.  He has visited 7 continents in the 10 months!  Just last week he and his father, my sister Denise's husband, visited Antarctica!  I invite you to see a slide show of his fantastic photos of this trip by clicking HERE.  This photo is of my BIL Steve.

And how about this iceberg?

I got a kick out of their "cruise ship".. not the normal scene of pools and circular slides, is it?  :-)  

Please visit his home page and look at the side bar on the left - yes, he's visited all those places and has taken amazing photos.  Click HERE to visit.  I have been to Canada and Mexico, Hawaii and several states in the USA.  But my nephew amazes me.  How many of those places have you visited?  I hope you're having a wonderful weekend.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)