The vegetation in the Eastern Mediterranean fascinated me during our trip. I was expecting the iconic Cypress, tall and straight with the branches growing upwards toward the light in a tight cone. Or the bushy pines with their long, widely separated needles. And, of course, olive trees, which were grown in orchards all over the region.

But I wasn’t expecting lemon trees, so when I found this tree on the island of Rhodes, I couldn’t resist taking a picture of it. We found lemon (and lime) trees from Athens throughout the islands. This tree was on its own, shading a staircase at a pottery studio. The header image shows pottery created at the studio.