24 Up Close & Personal Summer Flowers

Even the midst of pain and chaos, great beauty may be found.

Every day over the past year, as I cared for my Mom (Pinkie Patti), I captured a little bit of it – with my eyes, my heart and sometimes my iPhone 4.

These will be the joyful memories of our last times together as mother and daughter, reflections of a relationship under life's microscope.

Likewise, over the course of this not-long-enough Canadian summer, I snapped hundreds of up-close-and-personal pics of all kinds of stuff from rusty old railroad bridges to broken dolls.

I’m always surprised, delighted and fascinated by the way close-up images reveal a unique and often overlooked beauty in seemingly “ordinary” things. Just as I have found unique beauty, as well as tears and tragedy, in my role of caregiver to my Mom.

Here’s a bouquet of 24 summer flowers to celebrate life in all its phases and add a riot of colour to this autumn day.