Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Japans most northern major island is Hokkaido. It is a strange mix of contrasts that become apparent nearly as fast as you step off the jet that got you there. You see Russian Cyrillic writing everywhere, along with Chinese, Japanese and English. The island is very hot in the summer and very cold in the winter, allowing both beaches and snow sports of all kinds in one place. The island is also the breadbasket for Japan, supplying much of the agricultural products- potatoes in particular as well as seafood for a hungry country. It is also a magnificent place to grow flowers as well and there are many, many flower farms on Hokkaido that allow people to visit and walk around the working farms and enjoy the huge variety of flowers that are grown. All of this growing is due to the volcanic soil that covers the island. Deep, black and highly fertile ground is everywhere. You can also go to one of the national parks and literally walk into the mouth of an active volcano, which I and my family did and were just amazed at how "other world like" it was. Water that is only a few degrees short of boiling percolates from the ground, but a few miles away, it is a wonderful mineral-rich foot bath for you and you can literally spend hours relaxing and soaking your feet. The food is great- particularly the seafood. Very fresh and they know how to prepare it well. This image is from one of the flower farms. I was looking through the images I made here a few weeks ago and it seems I made a bazillion images of the flowers because they were just so damn pretty. I shot this image with a Nikon N1AW1 and the 24-70 (equivalent) lens. Hope you enjoy and have an excellent weekend!

NMGal Loc: NE NM

Beautiful colors.

kpmac Loc: Ragley, La

A beautiful image.

Flying Three Loc: Berthoud, CO

Yes!

roxiemarty Loc: Florida

Gorgeous.........and I enjoyed your post about that area of Japan.

spudkota Loc: Black Hills S.Dak

Oh so Nice

blacks2 Loc: SF. Bay area

Beautiful flowers.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

Beautiful shot, Mark.

Susan yamakawa

🤗🤗👍👍

JoAnneK01 Loc: Lahaina, Hawaii

Great photo with beautiful colors and detail. Mahalo for sharing.

2Dragons Loc: The Back of Beyond

Lovely flower shot, and I enjoyed the narrative that went with it.

Cwilson341 Loc: Central Florida

Very pretty!

rmm0605 Loc: Atlanta GA

Nice!

Pixeldawg Loc: Suzhou, China

Thank you all for your kind remarks. Much appreciated and have a good remainder of your weekend. I was up at 5 a.m. on a Sunday. Speaking at a conference. :-)