Sunshine, flowers, & smiles.....

I wandered the neighborhood this morning with my camera and a cup of coffee, nursing a bit of a headache from yesterday's Iron Bowl celebration and looking for something to catch my eye so that I'd have a good excuse for not heading to work first thing. I felt obligated to take pictures of something, and after taking a couple of dozen half-assed shots I decided to call it quits.

Of course as soon as I did I came across this....

There's a morning glory vine that wraps itself around the fence at the front of the house, competing with a purple bougainvillea to overtake the fence and phone pole. There aren't many blooms now, and this one was hiding under a canopy of foliage and just catching the faintest glow from the sun. The framing's off a bit, of course, and the focus isn't quite right, but overall it's not too bad.

Not perfect, but pretty good. Lots of good and important things in life turn out like that, don't they?

The sun hid behind a blanket of clouds today until around noon, a chilly north wind pushing whitecaps across the sound. When the sun came out it was like god had turned on a switch, and the sky turned that south Florida gas-flame blue. Someone must have given him flowers, and he was suddenly happy and smiling.

I had forgotten what an effect the arrival of unexpected flowers could have on someone, and how the return of a beautiful woman's smile could shift my world on it's axis.

Look closely, and you'll see everything.