Sakura (桜) and Red Flowers (花) in Okinawa (Photo Essay)

Day two of the Cherry Blossom (桜) search proved to be much better than yesterday's encounter with the pink and red flowers (花) the island of Okinawa is supposed to be showing-off this time of year.

 Here are a few photos of the Sakura spotted on Mt. Yadake this morning.  They are starting to bloom.

Every year, I like to take some close up shots, along with a few wide angle photos to show the scenery.  
But, there were only a few trees starting to blossom.  
Wait another week, or two would be my recommendation.  
Over 90% of the trees haven't even got the little red buds that produce the flowers, yet.

 Not one to let a good day of camera shooting go to waste, I left Mt. Yaedake and looked around the rest of the hills in Motobu and Nakajin.  That's where I came across these bright red flowers.

 Somebody will have to help me identify these characters because I have no clue what they might be named.  UPDATE: Red Powderpuff

Next, I found these Poinsettia Plants growing alongside the road.  There was nobody around to assist me so, I set the camera timer for 12 seconds and ran over to point up at one of the things.  That's just in case someone thought I was exaggerating about how humongous these plants get.  Huge !

It has been a long, busy day for me and I still have a few hundred photos left to process so, I'm going to hurry and post this for all those anxious to know how the Sakura are looking up north in Okinawa, Japan.  
The hills should burst out in bright pink and red colors, any day now.  Standby...


 

Flower (花) Photos: The Christmas Candle (Senna alata) Okinawa

These Christmas Candle Flowers (花) bloom near my house about this time every year.

When I see them, I'm usually walking dogs and in a hurry to get home out of the cold wind.

This morning I almost hitched the dogs up to a guardrail to shoot a photo with my phone camera.

The position they are in is on top of a hill that's just too windy, though.  Then, I thought about snipping of a nice looking stem with my Swiss Army Knife scissors.  But some nosey old bat looking out her window might be watching me trimming her plants.

So, I figured, nah.  No sense going to jail this close to Christmas.

Well, sonovagun if I didn't already have some photos I took of these bright yellow flowers way back in December of 2008 !

See, I'm doing my 1st end-of-the-year-photo-file-shrinking, today.

That's where I shrink all the humongous 10 megapixel files down to almost nothing.

Then, throw all the computer-space-hogging stuff away.

The Adobe Elements Program I use flashed these photos on my screen as it was crunching them.

Yeah, I already had some photos of the flowers, stashed away.

These flowers took some time researching.  After about two hours of squinting at yellow flower photos from all around the world,  I finally nailed and ID for you.

They have all sorts of common names for this plant.

Golden Candlesticks, Popcorn Senna, Seven Golden Candlesticks, call it whatever you like.

From now on they are Christmas Candles (Senna alata) to me.

MORE INFO ABOUT CHRISTMAS CANDLE PLANTS 

Do you have any Christmas Candle Flowers (花) where you live ?

If not, maybe, I can pinch a few seeds for you when nobody's lookin' !