Photos – Frantic Shanti

^{(Title image: Photo by White.Rainforest ™︎ ∙ 易雨白林. on Unsplash)}

This post doesn’t need a lot of words, the pictures will be enough.

The quick description is that I had the chance to stop by the San Diego Country Orchid Show this past weekend, and the display was as glorious as I expected it to be. Lots of stunningly gorgeous flowers in a brilliant array of colors. It’s the kind of thing that takes my breath away and ushers in a rush of endorphins.

I was happily clicking photos on my phone and I was not the only one. Here is a smattering of the beauty I observed:

(Gallery photos by FranticShanti)

The last image is, of course, not an orchid but rather a very friendly talking parrot who made sure to say “Hi!” to everyone who walked by.

Earth laughs in flowers.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

As we slog through extremely high temperatures in many parts of the world, I remind myself of how fortunate I am to be living in a relatively temperate area of the United States that somehow manages to evade the weather extremes faced by other parts of the country.

In this post, I’m celebrating the more pleasant parts of summer, namely the beautiful flowers that proliferate during this time of the year. My camera is an aging iPhone with limited features so my point is simply to showcase the abundance of colorful plantlife that is growing within a relatively small area around the complex where I life, rather than produce art-like photos.

Likewise, the flowers may be “lacking”, perhaps with browning edges or dirty petals or anything else that doesn’t look picture-perfect. But they are very real and a good reminder that there is so much that doesn’t look like it comes from the pages of a glossy magazine, and yet is still worthy of a mindful gaze.

There was a time when I could have rattled off the names of all of these, but while some are still familiar, others I cannot recall. So I’m posting them simply to appreciate for their form. I hope you enjoy!