POTD CHALLENGE: NATURE

I am still here on the southern Oregon coast. This sunset photo was taken from the front porch of my sister's home. I have never seen a sunset like this before, where all the usual colors were gathered in the orb itself and not stretched out across the horizon. The sun looks like it is a cut-out, just pinned up on a backboard. It was amazing. This is one of several in a series; the last one I took during pitch darkness, but the sun looked the same. I will post it next time.
My sister's home is settled in an old-growth forest:
I am still (and ever will be!) learning my Nikon D300. I was amazed that what I saw in the viewfinder was darkness, yet because of certain settings, the photo turned out showing the real post-dusk glow:

POTD CHALLENGE: LANDSCAPES

I am far, far from my PC with its collection of my landscapes; I have brought a new laptop to the southern Oregon coast to my sister's summer home. So, mostly I will have "sea"/landscapes for the rest of this week for the challenge.
These were both taken at sunrise this morning from the bluff on my sister's property, in front of their house.

It was a minus low tide:

POTD CHALLENGE: PATRIOTIC

This was easy, because I have been watching these plants grow and knew that soon the flags would join them. This is an entrance to a small business in our little town:

POTD CHALLENGE: SUMMER

This is going to be interesting, because I haven't seen Pat's post yet; I bet we are putting up the very same things! Yesterday - great summer day! - I took her up to my old stomping grounds for a short hike. We lived in the mountains for many years, and our home is located behind the trees in this pic, where the red mark is.
You can see what a fabulous day we had for our summer hike!

What to our surprise, but the trail was lost under snow! So, my subject for this POTD is
"Is it really summer?" This is Pat; my token photo of proof! The trail is "somewhere out there":
With our trusty hiking sticks, we ventured toward Franklin Falls anyway. We could not get beyond this point because the horrendous water was sending too much spray for our camera lenses and the trail dips steeply - still snow-covered. The pool at the bottom was a roiling pot where, as I told Pat, I took grandchildren to swim in the summer (!) because it is usually a calm, deep pool with great jumping-off rocks all 'round:

But we were so excited to look down and all around at the very late-blooming things on the forest floor. The first things to show in the wake of a snow melt are the wood violets, above; and of course, then comes the trillium - what I always think of as a magical bloom. We rejoiced that we hadn't missed what would usually have shown up 6 weeks ago! Didn't pack my macro lens, so this is the best I could get:

POTD CHALLENGE: SUMMER

Summer in the Northwest, to some of us, means hitting those trail-heads!

POTD CHALLENGE: SUMMER

Summertime..."and the livin' is easy..."

All this toad needs is a barefoot boy with quick hands! Big hands; this guy was about 5 " across: