Our host this week, Patti, challenges us to show some of our own favorite things! They may be old or new – but all of us have favorites…

Many favorites have their own story, and some of my favorites are living things. In the header, a precious tulip I got from a collector, a friend of mine who sold his garden last year – he and his wife are now in their 80’s, and found it too hard to maintain it all.

Voltaire had Candide concluding, after all his travels around the world: Il faut cultiver notre jardin – ”We must cultivate our garden”.

And in my garden, I find the peace and magic I need when life gets too busy. I guess he was right, the old Voltaire…

Until one has loved an animal a part of one’s soul remains unawakened. ― Anatole France

My best friends ( maybe not ”things”… but…) – Totti and Milo – belong to my family, and therefore they are also my favorites, together with my other children. I grew up with animals – so living without them would be impossible.

The orchid is Mother Nature’s masterpiece. – Robyn.

I have kept my grandmother’s geraniums for more than 30 years, and they are my favorites as well. I can see her loving smile whenever I tend to them. The same feeling is there for other flowers I once got from old friends and relatives, now gone. But the orchids are something extra when it comes to beauty – first and foremost this delicate Cattleya, which has lived here for quite some years now. A glorious treat when in flower, filling the rooms with a delicious scent.

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.
― Groucho Marx

Not to forget – books and pencils, of course… Favorites for reading, writing and sketching. Preferably outside of a dog…

Welcome to join in the fun! Remember to link your post here and tag it ”Lens-Artists” to help us find your post in the WP Reader.
Next week, it’s my, Ann Christine’s, turn to host the challenge, so be sure to visit!