this page intentionally left blank

So my sister turned 27 this year... I think. Yes, twenty-seven. Isn't it funny how the perception of time on an annual scale passes so quickly as we age? It seems like it was just yesterday when she was a tiny, little girl. EL and I drove down to my mother's house for my sister's birthday back in May. My grandmother lives in the same town, so I always try to spend a lot of time visiting her when I'm in town. I remember spending summer's at my grandparent's home... swimming in their pool (dug by hand) and exploring the pastures of my grandfather's land. They had a giant garden filled with all the traditional veggies, but also cantaloupe and watermelon that made the summer just that tiny bit sweeter. When my great grandfather was alive, he used to cut pieces of fresh sugarcane for me to chew on. Their yard was littered with pecan trees that would fill buckets every year and citrus trees of the grapefruit, orange, lemon, and lime varieties. Grandma had peach trees all around the property that always bore enough fruit for us and the squirrels to share without grandpa having to put the squirrels on our plate... which did happen anyway from time to time. This year, while visiting my grandmother over my sister's birthday, I was walking in her yard, admiring the various flora planted about. Cannas and lilies... petunias and queen's crown... this and that... my favorite flower has always been the iris, but in it's absence that day, my favorite in her garden was this hibiscus. It was so beautiful... the only one in the bunch blooming at that particular instant. So, I did what I tend to do a lot of these days, I photographed it. The full res version is here if you're interested. The image linked below is unedited except for cropping the left of the image out so the flower is more centered. Anyhoo, my grandmother's hibiscus won the PowerShot User photo of the day. Nifty.

Please go vote rate the photo HERE. Thanks!