These Flowers Will Brighten Up a Cloudy Day
Don't let the weather loonies, keep you locked up indoors this month.
One weather channel will predict heavy rain and, another says clouds and sunshine.
Then, showers will come in late the afternoon. They're all nuts.
Up into the hills of Higashi, we decided to go and, check on the azaleas, again.
It turned out to be a bit cloudy and hazy, at times but, we spotted sunshine sometimes, too.
Just peeking through the Tsutsuji Matsuri (Azelea Festival) sign, things were looking good.
There were lots more bright colored flowers blooming than, last time we came here.
These pretty girls, take your money and give you tickets, to get in, for only 300 Yen.
They remembered me, from the last time I was there. Last Friday.
So, after joking around awhile, I asked if, I could take their picture.
And, got smiles with peace signs. Little darlings.
The stage, directly in front of this hillside of flowers, was a bit distracting.
But, I bet when there are dancers, up there, it looks much more attractive.
Not a big fan of cloudy, grey skies, I decided to keep the lens out of the sky.
Between a wide angle lens and a zoom, for close-ups, I shot lots of flower images.
With a camera, you could easily, spend two or three hours, walking those hills.
So, that's what Doc Graff and I, planned on doing, as long as, the rain held off.
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Azaleas come in all sorts of colors so, I tried to get a variety to show everyone.
There are still many flower buds, that haven't opened yet but, will in the near future.
Not too wild about the pure white flowers, I preferred shooting mixed colors.
These things look psychedelic. I wonder if anyone ever tried to smoke the things,
Just kidding but, they hurt my eyes. What color are they, anyway ?
Mother Nature, provided a black backdrop for this pink flower.
It's actually a big rock, that had been rained upon, before we showed up.
Another thing it proved to be handy for, was blocking the wind from shaking the subject.
I shot more of these psychedelic things, in order to show you the unopened flower-buds.
Probably, during the next week these hills will see full bloom for the Azalea Season.
One flower, in the center of this scene, appeared to be almost orange, in color.
By now, I was feeling like, I had enough hill-climbing and flowers, for the day.
So, I decided to take some parting shots, on the way out of there.
Here, you get Azalea Bridge, pine trees and, a bit of ocean, all in one snap of the shutter.
Down here, you can see families crossing the Azalea Bridge, from outside the park.
Do you suppose, we should head back up to those hills, next week ?
