Make a note on the calendar – the first lily to display its beauty at our house this season happened on Wednesday, June 29th.  As you can see, there will be many others to follow, but there’s something noteworthy about the first one. 

I’ve been keeping my photographer’s eye on the flower bed and could see the bloom was about to begin.  The slender, green pods were beginning to blush.

For comparison, I took a picture of the same lily at the beginning of its opening, in the early morning light of the rising sun. (The smaller image on the right.)  This would have been a good time to set up a time-lapse camera – if I had one.

The “grand opening” continued through the day until full bloom, as captured in the larger photo, taken in the early evening of the same day.

(You can see an even larger view of the top image by clicking on it.)