I figured it would be fun to have a theme for this week's blog post: A Celebration of Small Things.

So I wandered about the garden with my camera, studying the oft-overlooked littlest flowers and tiny details.

I'd noticed before that the blooms of my Megawatt begonias had two different kinds of yellow centers. I wondered if they were male and female, and decided to take a closer look. (I love that the digital camera on my iPhone allows me to take a shot, and then zoom in on the finished picture to see the subject in larger-than-life scale, not unlike using a magnifying glass.) Then I did some research. It turns out that the curly yellow centers are a female flower's ovaries, and the spiky centers are the male flower's stamens. This site was most helpful, and includes additional sharp photography of the details of similar plants: Closeups of a Begonia.

Other blooms I examined included those on a blackberry bush. I appreciated their delicate, tissue-paper petals, and the faint hint of lavender-pink color.

Another little white flower is the bacopa. I am quite happy with having brought this one (and the lavender variety as well) into my garden; the bloom cycles are long-lasting and there's usually dozens of flowers at a time adorning this short, low-maintenance perennial.

Also white-flowering is the silverleaf cotoneaster shrub. The pretty flowers of late spring and summer turn into red berries in fall, a treat for the birds.

One of my dianthus (sweet william) plants lives in a small pot next to the cotoneaster. I have bright purple and white/magenta varieties, grown from seed. I like the contrast of white stamens in the center of simple purple petals with zigzag edges.

Not only flowers captured my interest. The cayenne pepper plants have produced new fruit, still only about an inch long. The glossy red of these reminds me of their spicy heat. I broke open pea pods and examined their juicy texture. I stuck my face into the rosemary, sage and oregano, inhaling rich scents, studying leaf-shapes and qualities. Rosemary can be sticky with resin. Sage leaves have tiny soft hairs.

Spiders and their webs also got a closer look. We have mostly orbweavers and lynx spiders around these parts.

And yet another small thing of note in the garden: our surprise gnome. He showed up under the bougainvillea last month, and seems quite happy there.