hollyhock scouting trip

 I got up early this morning to drive around my neighborhood to look for beautiful hollyhocks to get me inspired for the work I need to do for Balloon Fiesta. 

 These hollyhocks are out in front of a shop in Old Town.

I love the ladder out of focus on the right.

 Pink beauties

 I love these - they look almost white but are really a light shade of pink. 

They contrast really nicely with the blue of the window.

 This is a nice photo and a beautiful shade of deep pink against an adobe wall.. 

I will probably crop it in half and paint both of these clusters of flowers

 These wall murals were in a small section of town near Old Town. 

They are all along one wall and have religious significance. 

I don't know if this is Mary and Joseph with God and maybe the parting of the Red Sea?

 This is most likely a Saint with Jesus and lots of cherubs.

 This is Christ on the Cross, not sure where the rooster comes

 in on the left and what is he standing on?

 This is another Saint, maybe Saint Francis, because he has a dove on his shoulder? 

Lots of puffy clouds in this one too.

Okay, the next one is the best of all....

Wait for it....

Wait for it...

 THE BEATLES!!

Not sure which religious deity they belong too, but someone must have thought they were pretty special.

Look at those smiles!

 This is an pretty old truck in someone's yard that has been decorated

 with Christmas lights and potted plants.

 This is a nice little meadow of yellow coreopsis next to a carved out mailbox.

 I don't know about anyone else but we always called this bush 

Bird of Paradise when I was growing up. 

It has the worst smell in the world.

Takes me right back to my Grandma's house on Hardy Street.

 I drove past this old house and had to turn back around because it was so interesting.

It's abandoned and I love the old sage green weathered trim, 

but the coolest thing is how the screen door is still attached to the porch by a thread.

I would love to see this refurbished.

 More pink hollyhocks against adobe with a cool tin light fixture.

 The traditional red hollyhocks against an adobe house with territorial trimmed windows.

 Pink hollyhocks against red hot poker.

 These are a couple of my favorite photos.

I wish everyone would plant flowers like this. This yard had hardly any grass and was just full of flowers. These are bachelor buttons with hollyhocks. 

I can see this as a really textured palette knife painting.

 Another hollyhock in the same yard.

 I think the sagey-green/blue on the right might be lavender or California poppies.

 My last photo - this is across the road from Los Poblanos and is a small vineyard with a really hazy view of the Sandia mountains.

You can't tell but it was being irrigated and the ground is full of water.