You Capture Thursday is here again and this week we got to head outdoors. Summer seems to be quickly winding down so I thought I would take this opportunity to share a few photos taken around our courtyard.

If you’d like to get to know your camera better and join in on the fun, head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry and get the skinny. It’s easy, it’s fun and it’s a great excuse to use your camera even when you have a million other things going on. Cause once it’s in your hands…you probably won’t want to put it down anymore!

Thees roses have been growing in our courtyard for who knows how long. They have the most beautiful buds…and this year, they actually smell fantastic too. Which is more than I can say for most roses that you get at the flower shop these days.

I planted this sunflower seed and wasn’t actually sure I would get any results. I planted quite a few flower seeds this year but shortly after they were in the ground, it started getting cool here again…and then came another heat wave plus us in the hospital. So it was a tough year to get anything going…and then to also keep it alive. But next year I will hopefully be planting a lot more sunflowers and other flowers from seed. I just love the way the place looks when there are flowers everywhere.

I was pretty impressed at how long this bee stayed on the flower for me…especially since the wind was blowing pretty strongly and he’d get thrashed around form time to time. But with the lovely macro lenses Stefan gave me from his own collection, I was able to get really close to the bee and take some nice shots…or so I thought!

Is your summer already winding down? It completely feels like fall here already. Not that I necessarily mind because fall is often very beautiful here…until the rains start. I suppose I just need to find something more constructive to do during the rainy days so I don’t have to dislike them so much. We have a lot of them during the winter!