Flowers in My Neighborhood

This post is all about flora. So what is this fauna critter doing here?

Those beady eyes staring at you saw everything my own eyes saw: the beautiful flowers in my neighborhood:

I decided to break my own rule one day at dawn and not walk as briskly as I have been doing the past seven years. Yes, it’s been that long since I took up walking—the best advise any doctor ever gave me. I wanted to finally—now that I have a lightweight digicam—capture in perpetuity the flowers which make brisk walking such a breathtaking experience.

The houses in my neighborhood, beginning with mine, are modest and have low fences. From the road, one can see people puttering around their gardens at the break of a new day. They always manage to say a nice thing or two, aside from “Good morning.”

There is always a profusion of varied flowers in all colors and hues because I suspect the love for flora is catching.

“The seedling you gave me now has four buds.”

“Good, tomorrow, they will bloom!”

I began my walk later than my usual 5 AM. I wanted a hint of the morning sun which always makes the flowers spring into life before one’s still-sleepy eyes.

As I aimed my camera at my first subject, the dog in the photo above suddenly appeared out of nowhere and posed in front of me, as though it wanted to be my first subject. I ignored this mysterious mutt, of course. I needed to focus. And this wasn’t a day for fauna.

But it literally dogged me, from garden to garden. It stopped when I stopped. It looked where I looked. And it walked where I walked. By the time I got to my last shot, it was still there. “I’m done, you may go now.” But it just stood there, looking up at me, unblinking. I blinked, and took its photo. It left me alone after that and quickly—too quickly—went on its way.

By this time, the whole neighborhood of garden people was awake, singing its morning greetings, while the flowers’ vivid colors glinted with the sun and danced with the wind.

So early in the morning and already, grace was all a-bloom!