Saguaro Cactus are native to the Sonoran desert of Southern Arizona and Southern California. They grow about an inch a year making this cactus, at about 10-15 ft. in height, a real oldster (let's see, 12inch/ft x 10ft X 1year/inch is over 120 years of growth!) This one was in bloom and, as opposed to many of it's friends, not particularly spiny. It made for quite the show.
This meerkat momma is busy keeping watch while her youngsters below were playing and digging holes in the loose dirt. Meerkats are just so photogenic that it's hard to resist snapping just a few pictures of them, with their bright eyes, attentive stares and their upright human-like stance.
If nothing else, Lions are good at napping. These two were all cozy and snuggly on top of the abandoned range rover. What more could you ask for? A little shade from the desert heat, a snuggle buddy and a nice cool range rover to lie on. That is the stuff of life!
This is a picture of a Peninsular Metalmark, also called a Behr's or a Mormon Butterfly. I fail to see any resemblance to the Morman's I know but it is certainly beautiful enough that most anyone would be happy to have it named after them. Even if it is just a BUG (grin). I saw this guy on Sunday in a succulent garden up at the Wild Animal Park. We were pretty bummed to drive all the way up there and find out that the butterfly exhibit had closed some two weeks ago (pays to do your homework). However, there were a few natives (all the better) flying around the miscellaneous trails.
News Alert! Fern has been spotted in the vicinity of Kihei, Maui, last seen waving happily from a yellow rubber raft. After a long and fruitful stay in New York, Fern was seen leaving the house seeking something "tropical", with a yellow rubber raft in tow. If you see Fern, tell him that his friends in New York miss him greatly and to please bring back Kona Coffee.
What's a guy to do on a deserted beach in Kihei, Maui but take pictures? This one's on tilt with my head tilting to compensate just a tad. Do you suppose it's global warming or maybe one too many cups of coconut juice? White fluffy sand and nobody around. Gosh...
Cock of the Rock, indeed. This is a Guinean Cock of the Rock or Rupicola rupicola, one of the most sought after South American Birds. This one flew up to say hello and very willingly posed for quite a few pictures. If you like color, this bird has color!
The doves have been taking over my orchid baskets. They inevitably kill the orchids if there was something there still alive but how can you feel bad about these cute little guys? Besides, they're so photogenic.
How's that for Rocky Mountain High? This picture was taken up at altitude from the plane as we passed over the Rocky Mountains on the way to Denver. It was bouncy as ever and the camera was shaking pretty bad but the mountains were far away so it came out decent. It was stunningly beautiful as the sun lit up the white mountain tops.
Here's a picture of San Diego from the airplane window. The large green block in the center is Balboa Park and the San Diego Zoo. As opposed to LA, you can tell that San Diego is anything BUT flat. In fact, you can see the green tendrils of the finger canyons all over the city which, by the way, was build on a large natural plateau which has eroded into valleys and canyons. I also suspect that the sandy, rocky soil resulted from ocean sediment that has been forced upwards as the Pacific Plate slowly moves up the continental plate.
As promised, here is one of the pictures from the US435 that loops around Kansas City. Everything was incredibly lush and green and the low lying fields were flooded with pools of water. Of course, they had just had over 7 inches of rainfall the prior day so a little water is to be expected. The drive from KCI to Overland park was both relaxing and beautiful. I'm hoping the suburbs, which are already encroaching on the 435, don't overtake it too soon as the drive is truly beautiful.
One last trip to Kansas City and then it is off to the new job. The tornados missed Kansas City, having been a few miles out, so I arrived with no flight delays and with relatively little drama (other than a little bit of turbulance outside of Denver). The weather was cool and very pleasant and the setting sun lit up the skies with bright streaks of clouds in myriad greys and blues. It was glorious and it was all I could do to not pull over on the highway and snap all sorts of pictures. I did snap a few, however, and as soon as I get near a USB cable for my camera, I'll post a few.
There were a few fat Canadian geese waiting for me at the hotel. They were waddling around the thick, lush green grass munching. I couldn't tell if they were eating the grass itself or hunting for bugs or, perhaps, a little of both. There were no goslings, however, and I'm guessing I'm a little early.
We went out to dinner with some of our old time customers/business associates. It was great to see them. We have been through thick and thin with them and it brought back many memories. Hopefully, everything will go fine once I'm gone. I'm figuring everyone is replaceable but it'll take a little while for things to settle down.
It's an orchid judging night. Here's an orchid from tonights judging called Paphiopedilum Screaming Eagle. Quite showy once you get a light on it.
Stopped by Coco's for dinner first and had some grilled salmon and salad. Having behaved so well, it seemed like some boysenberry pie was in order (a la mode). Yummm. I ran into more of our judges at dinner. We've just had a rash of people passing away. It's quite sad really but most of them are well along in years and I guess it is to be expected. As one of the MDs in the program said, the alternative to getting old is none too pleasant either.
I caved in and bought an orchid at the Farmer's Market. It's mainly to decorate the kitchen more than anything else. It has a sweet smell that reminds me of carnations. The best thing about orchids is that they last for weeks.
There was a new guy manning the orchid booth at the market. It turns out it's my good friend Ramona's son. Odd that neither of them ever mentioned that they had a son. Anyhow, I asked him what happened to his dad (who normally mans the booth). He tells me his dad passed away in January. I realize, at this point, that I haven't been to the Farmer's market in a really long time. Wow. I hate having people pass away on me. We both agreed that Tom (his dad) was a real character! ;-) He'll be sorely missed. Guess this blog's for Tom. RIP Tom, hope you have as much fun up there as you did down here.
This little otter was rolling around in his own floatable ice pack and really enjoying himself. It does highlight how well insulated those otter fur coats really are and how they can float around all day in the icy cold kelp beds.
Meanwhile, San Diego had a sunny but cool and breezy day that was perfect for roller blading or a quick jog. The beach was not nearly as packed as I expected, given the pretty decent weather and the cool breeze did not get in the way of a wedding or two and a multitude of parties.
Here's a picture of a passing sea lion that was waiting for handouts. They are amazingly friendly when it comes to fish.
Meanwhile, I'm glad it is finally Friday. It's been a stressful and annoying week. Hope you all have fun plans for the evening. ;-)
Almost Friday! Friday, Friday, Friday! Another hectic day today. It started with a presentation to an auditorium full of people at 7:30am and then technical discussions with customers after that. I am pooped. The beach is sounding better all the time.
For you frustrated would be ball players out there, here is a little example of what not to do when catching a ball. He's clearly running fast enough to catch it. However, you can see that the hands have already clasped and, yes, his eyes are closed and the head is looking AWAY from the ball. Sorry bud, but it's hard to catch a ball with your eyes shut. Near impossible for most of us. For you budding engineers, it's the difference between open loop and closed loop control. Keep your eyes on the ball. Works for tennis balls, works for frisbees... A little scary at first, but it is generally much better to catch the ball then get accidentally nailed on the head by it. Busted in the act! The silly thing about it is, for me at least, I had no idea that I wasn't looking at the ball at the moment of impact (for tennis) until somebody pointed it out. It made a huge difference! Guess that's my flying object tip of the month... Hope you all had a happy hump day.
It was pretty overcast and dreary at the beach on Sunday but it was still warm enough to hang out and relax. I spent some time snapping pictures of the surfing semi-finals. There were some guys out playing whiffle baseball in front of the judging stand, generally oblivious to the whole surf commotion; this one had just hit himself what would have been a home run, at least by whiffle standards (grin).
They had a surfing contest semi-finals (sponsored by Monster) at Mission Beach on Sunday. The waves were actually decent sized, considering it was just Mission Beach. There were some pretty cool maneuvers like this one of a guy going down the wave face backwards. I was certainly impressed.
Sea World (aka Anheiser Busch) has a Sea Lion and Otter Show. In it they have the cutest little otter who, ironically enough, they have trained to carry Pepsi. Where will the product placement people stop? Shamu juggling cans of Bud? I admit, it was cute and probably harmless enough although it did seem a little cheesy of them. Hmmm, I wonder if they'd pay me to put beer ads on my T-shirts? A career limiting move you say? Perhaps.
A little dolphin socializing was going on at Sea World. It was feeding time and the dolphins all came up to the wall for fish. As this young child found out, they seem to also enjoy the occasional rub.
Call me silly but I hate when they glue those fake straw flowers onto cactus. They always glue them right on top of the growing shoot/center, making it very difficult for the cactus to survive. I found this little cactus at Walmart and it had remarkably broken through the glue and had two bright, cheery red-orange flowers. So, I figured I'd rescue it from it's Walmart existance and give a nice, new, glue-free home. I have another refugee cactus that lost all it's spines breaking through the glue and, hence, has an endearing bald spot (spine free) in the middle of the cactus. Anyhow, have a nice weekend and remember, glue-free cacti!
Figured I'd post one of my photo-art experiments with a Japanese theme. I call this "Longing for Home." It shows a Japanese woman looking out the glass, longingly wishing for something better (perhaps a nice Hawaiian beach, lol).
There is nothing like nature to put things in perspective. These two people appeared to be having a bit of a heated conversation. However, in the overall scope of that very large sandstone cliff they are perched on, it all seems rather trite.
Meanwhile, I've been experimenting again. Last night it was banana/carrot/zucchini/raisin bread. A total hit with the secretaries in the office I might add. It was even a bit healthy with raw almonds, raisins, cannola oil and whole wheat flour. Tonight, it was the spicy sweet and sour fish (oh yummm). Hah, you readers are missing out! Nobody goes hungry in this household, not even the dog. ;-)
Found this Fence Lizard on the trail at Torrey Pines sunning himself. I really enjoy the mosaic of colors on these guys including the baby blue spots. They're pretty fearless too, meaning that you can get close enough to take a picture without them running off.
I think this is a Willet but, honestly, between Willets and Godwits and a few other of those shore birds, they've got me guessing. Perhaps if he opened his wings to show a few markings, we could tell. Either way, this Willet was contentedly eating in the sand below Torrey Pines. I've surmised that they eat worms in the sand based on a little digging into the sand where a flock had been recently eating. However, it is hard to be sure. If you know the answer to both of these questions, please share as curious minds want to know. ;-)
The SO's been cooking again. This one was (note, I said "was"...urp) a strawberry tart with almond filling. Yummm. I could get spoiled (and fat). What to do, what to do. I may have to go hiking again to work it off, grin. So, if you were a pastry, what kind would you be? I think I'd want to be warm/fresh hot cross buns or maybe a bear claw (raawrrrr). Chuckle.
Four of us went hiking today at Torrey Pines State Park. While the weather report said it was going to be rainy and the sky, just a few miles inland, was dark and overcast, the weather on the coast was bright and sunny with a light breeze. Going with the Spring theme, I included a picture of the sand verbena that was blooming in patches in the soft sandy soil along the tops of the seaside cliffs.
The weekend walk is always a little more pleasant in the Springtime. The flowers are blooming in full force and, after last night's rain, are covered with dew. I found this Clematis growing along a white picket fence, showing off it's huge lavender flowers.
These cleaner shrimp are so named because they set up cleaning stations on the reef where they remove parasites from passing fish. The fish wait stationary in the water and open their gill flaps and mouths as the shrimp crawl over them, eating tiny parasites and crustaceans. Having watched the BBC "Blue Planet" DVD tonight, I was feeling motivated to pop in some sea life. This picture was snapped at the Maui Ocean Center aquarium in Maalea, Maui.
The picture is of the dark slope of a hill at Mission Gorge with the sun backlighting some red monkey flower so that they glow like fireflies in waning light. I fought with this image in JPEG, losing the flowers at most smaller resolutions but, when I converted to GIF, found that they stayed. Ah what a difference a few KB makes. Again, it's the little things in life...
The wild roses are blooming. It always amazes me how they get around. They had them in Colorado. They had them back East and they have them here in sunny San Diego. Always a harbinger of Spring in simple pinks on long graceful branches.
Besides daisies, there were also many varieties of plants from the pea family in shades of yellow, white and purple. This one was obviously popular with the pollinators, having a stem full of seed pods. The really cool things was that, once dry, the pods made a gentle clacking percussion sound when the wind blew. I suppose it is the little things that make life special.
The other half is getting quite good at making pots and bowls. Here is one of the really beautiful ones. I like the antique, crackled, blue-glaze look to it. Maybe we can even collect enough of them to have a little show sometime!
Monkey Flower is a small shrub that grows in Southern California in the dry canyons. The flowers come in various shades of bright orange and red. I found this particular monkey flower in a shaded area with the sun backlighting the flowers so they just glowed. Sometimes it is the little things that make us happy.
The sun was shining brightly this morning with barely a hint of clouds. There was just enough cool ocean breeze to keep it from getting hot without getting chilly. Not being ones to waste good weather, we decided to hike the Mission Gorge trail and check on the Spring wildflowers. There were a host of flowers, mostly daisies in various shades and sizes, various plants in the pea family as well as big swathes of mustard that turned the hillsides bright yellow. I also found this odd vine with these strange furry seedpods or perhaps flowers, I'm not sure which. In any case, the sun was shining on them, highlighting the white translucent hairs in a delicate way so here they are in all their glory.
Are our feet tougher when we're younger or when we're older? Or perhaps, our ability to ignore hot, sun soaked lava rock is better when we're younger? Or our willingness to hop off of lava rocks into the ocean? Either way, you wouldn't catch me hopping around on lava rock bare footed. Nope, those feet are way too used to those soft, cozy shoes of mine to get away with running across lava rock. I don't remember wearing shoes very often in grade school, however. Maybe there is something to it after all?
Boston is full of seafood joints; my only regret is that it was that I arrived too late at night to try any of them. Alas, I had to settle for a few pictures. Here's a picture of the Barking Crab, a huge tent-sized seafood restaurant. Admittedly, I have no idea if their seafood is top notch or not but the colors of the tent and the reflections off of the dark night waters made for a nice picture.
I just flew back in from Chicago. It was snowing something fierce over there. Driving back to the airport was a minor adventure although, were I not driving, I'd be tempted to say that it was really beautiful, with the snow coating the windward side of the trees in big, wet, white, sticky flakes. Unfortunately, the flights were all backed up at O'Hare and there were hoards of really cranky people all over the airport. Just as I was wondering if I would ever get onto my flight for San Diego, the snow turned to rain and the flights started to get out again. I'm home and happy to be in warmer weather again. Hope you all had a wonderful Wednesday.
It was cold and frosty out. Nippy for April. However, after a long flight and a quick dinner, a quick, brisk walk along the Charles River was in order. So, I gathered up my trusty faux suede jacket (yes, no cow died for this jacket) and headed out into the cold. Overall, the shopping/walking area that the concierge promised turned out to be a broad walkway and a few restaurants along the Charles including a Chinese retaurant (quite dark and very closed), a bar, a crab shack and a lobster wholesale place. The lights of the tall skyscrapers glowed in the night haze and reflected off the river in a myriad of colors and, admittedly, it was refreshing to get out of the hotel and get a little exercise. Not surprisingly, given the frosty weather, the hotel looked all that much more welcoming and warm on the way back.
The hippos was doing lazy circles in the pond. It literally lept through the water, each step gliding gracefully through the water as if flying. Round and round, with each loop the heads of the spectators followed, synchronous with the hippo's turns, as if mesmerized by its movements, cameras, camera phones and other gadgets at the ready. It went on like this, a few people coming and going and the hippos doing his lazy loops.
Meanwhile, I'm in Boston. The hotel has pictures of ships and naval battles decorating the walls. The oceanfront is very modern, covered with skyscrapers and broad walkways with long rows of lamps that penetrate the cold Boston Spring evenings. The lights penetrate the night, lighting even the nooks and crannies under the piers. Under one pier, there were huge torrents of water falling down from pipes below what appeared to be a lobster warehouse. I'm guessing that there were huge tanks inside full of succulent lobsters waiting to be shipped to stores nationwide.
It's dreary and drizzly today. It's a good day to nap but also a good day to hang out at the zoo and check out the animals. The birds, in particular, were very active, flying every which way.
The ducks have notably had a very productive spring. The mom of these ducklings apparently hit the mother load. These ducklings were drinking runnoff out of a crack in the pavement and seemed pretty oblivious to the curious children trying to touch them.
The bunny rabbit commeth,
He bringeth rabbit joy;
With chocolate eggs and candied chicks,
He's quiet and shyly coy,
Walk softly, says he,
And carry a stout basket.
Happy Easter to all,
And to all a good year.
We stayed at the Renaissance Center in Detroit. It was gusty and icy cold outside with a light dusting of snow. Inside, however, it was pretty comfy and, as it turns out, there was a scattering of really cool old cars from the General Motors Heritage Collection. I managed to snap a picture of this one just as it was being wheeled off the floor. I'm pretty fuzzy on my old cars, mostly remembering fishing poles held up by twine and some triangular tail fins that reminded me of a shark's dorsal. However, I think this one is a Pontiac GTO. Real cool. I only wish I could have heard her rumble.
Sometimes you get those photo moments when you wish you had your camera. I was flying from Chicago to Detroit and the plane had just taken off from Chicago. As we rose above the clouds, the snow disappeared and you could see fluffy white clouds that extended as far as the eye could see. The sun was a deep red-gold ball illuminating the clouds as if threatening to dive in head first. Unfortunately, the seat belt light was still on and the camera was in the overhead. It was sooooo close, oh soooo close. Just as I got the flight attendant's attention and pulled out my camera, the plane banked to the right. What you see is the last glimpse of a glorious sunset at extreme angle over the tail of the plane, with the sun reflecting between the double panes of the window.
As long as we're looking at photos with still, reflective water, here's one of the White House. I really enjoyed having all those big, still pools of water to add that extra flair to the photos! Of course, you're only seeing the ones that came out.
The Washington Monument has a really long pool of still water in front of it facing the Capitol. It makes for great parallel lines and reflections in either direction. The red leaves in the water add a little character for the time of year. It was moderately empty as it was late in the day and a little nippy.
This is a fun picture that I call "Reflections of Evolution." In the reflection, you can see rays of light, each representing possibilities for the future and the past. All this, while the fossil reptile looks on, perhaps in wonder at where life has gone and will go. Overactive imagination? Perhaps. But it's all in fun.
