The theme for this week’s photo challenge is “Inspiration.”  I was encouraged to create a post about what inspires me…what moves me, what makes me happy.  In a word:  flowers.  I love me some flowers.  Dahlias, in particular.  When we moved to our current home I was inspired to cultivate a dahlia bed.  Partly because of my love of the flower, partly because of family memories.  My great grandfather had stunning dahlias.  In fact, I have bulbs in my bed taken from his (passed down by my Mom).  Both of my grandmas have or have had dahlia beds.  I love them because they’re stunners, they’re easy to grow, they’re long-lasting (they begin to bloom in July and will last until the first frost) and because I’m carrying on a family tradition.

I’m also using this opportunity to practice aperture (I’m taking a photography class, which I shared about here.