There's nothing quite as cool-looking(temperaturewise) as BLUE flowers. I grew Phacelia a few years ago, best blue i ever saw, next to cornflowers. The bell-shaped blue flowers with icy-white anthers were beautiful, and stirred up images of cooler weather. They do have a short bloom time, hot weather just about stops the show, cutting back helps somewhat. Give 'em a try, i believe there are 2 or 3 varieties. Good luck, and enjoy.

A sunset at Conifer Kingdom, featuring (from left to right): Tsuga mertensiana, Pinus strobus 'Bennett Clumpleaf', and Picea orientalis. -Sam

So sorry CharlesB and Terpguy! I will definitely exit, CEASE AND DESIST! I keep forgetting that you all do not know me well, unlike the Rose Gallery people who do! I am very, very SORRY! I promise never to do this, and will just be a very polite viewer form NOW ON!I feel so bad about this whole mess, and don't know if I can ever salvage this. I sincerely, deeply apologize. It may take a long time for me to be able to undo the damage. So I pray that everyone at the Orchid Gallery and Orchid Forum will be very patient and kind/forgiving with me. Here are some excerpts and links and look through for SerenaSYH, and it may help to even out the mood, so that I don't seem as freaky (just someone who is way too enthusiastic without realizing the aftermath). At the Rose Gallery we are always sharing photos with each other. And cross-posting up references. And this may help let CharlesB know that I am truly a normal Rose Gallery person with lots of rose friends at the GW rose gallery. correspondence with JeffAurora correspondence with Boxofrox-Boxofrox also nicknames me KG for Kansas Girl Boxofrox sharing his Abraham Darby with me my typical borrowing exchange of roses between JeffAurora and I (Jeff is in reply #7, I'm borrowing his gorgeous Lincoln on the reply #9. JeffAurora exchange I just think that CharlesB's gallery is just totally beautiful and amazing, too precious to be so modestly hidden with just mere links. I didn't realize that was just sheer rudeness on my part, so I am deeply sorry. From now on I will only stick with simple compliments on just specific links that he posts up and won't ever cross reference his links again!

Thanks guys. And, to answer Linda's question, no, its not on my property. It is about a mile from my house. It is what we call out here on the plains a playa, It has been modified a little bit by whoever the owner is to make a larger portion of his tract useable. As you might have noticed from some of my other pics, he keeps horses in the property. Its a nice spot to get morning shots. But, as you camera people can attest, camera angles are funny. There is no way to get really good sunset shots at this pond, at least not without putting on waders. I'm still looking for one of those close enough to use around here. I probably need to move to the land of 10000 lakes, right Joan?