A One-Block Walk

Today, Won Ton and I went on a little walk, just around our one block. I let him set the pace and stop as many times as he wanted, to sniff the bushes or just stand in the shade and look around:

While he sniffed and marked and looked at things, I had more time to look around, too. I noticed the most beautiful flowers on my block. Like an entire flower bed filled with this one variety of blush-creamy rose:

A fat, round little cactus, pushing its glorious blossoms between the bars of a fence:

Bachelor's Buttons (for some reason, I didn't think these could grow in Southern California):

Tiny little yellow flowers spangling the grass and clover, each blossom no more than 1/4 inch across:

 
A stunning purplish-blue-and-white Bearded Iris:

A succulent, with the most intriguing, ratchet-y edges to its outer leaves:

 Won Ton kept busy with the sniffing:

While I admired some daisies that, on one plant, ran the gamut from bright white to purple and every tint in between:

Nasturtiums, in traffic-cone orange and caution-sign yellow:

Before I knew it, we were back at our front gate. It was lovely, taking time to stop and admire all the flowers.

Thank you, Won Ton, for making me slow down and enjoy what was right under our noses.