We've had an early Spring in Ottawa and the flowers are blooming early, by about a week. This is the first tulip of the year.

Nice warm rocks help tulips bloom.

On a dull day one goes for colour, shape and symmetry. I just love the way the leaves' wavy curl frame the flowers.

While the main Tulip Festival flower beds are fine there is usually too much traffic cluttering up the background to take good photographs. The touris (...)

The first kiss of sunlight is always special.

Pale colours have their appeal too.

What can I say? Never place your subject in the middle of the frame, says the golden rule. Too bad. That's where it belongs in this shot and I'm stick (...)

Arrrhhh ... there be the fearsome jaws of the carnivorous tulip ... grows to be ten feet tall I tells ya ... swallow yer whole if yea be not careful . (...)

And so it was later a lighter shade of pale.

I just love it when beauty strikes a dreary part of town.

Petal flames ... need I say more?

Lucky me ... none of the close-ups in this series are to be found in the "official" flower beds.

I liked the metaphor of the tulips having escaped the prison of formal gardening and now sharing their beauty freely to any passerby.

Yes, it is a mundane bed but oh so more relaxed.

A tight bud just trembling with excitement and ready to burst forth.

Interlude: The woods are also alive with flowers, as evidenced by this bit of forest litter.

Just another roadside bit of forest litter on the edge of the Lanark Highlands.

For me, Summer does not start until the trilliums are in bloom. I call them Thrilliums because of the thrill I get when I first see them. They light u (...)

I'm not sure what this is but the trees were blooming away and the wind was blowing them away.

Just playing around with the super-macro setting produced this shot.