Bleeding Heart

We're not quite this far into spring yet - we'll have bleeding hearts in another month, I suppose. But I couldn't resist posting something green and flowering.

Fuzzy Logic

If you hadn't already figured it out, this is a cactus. Nature's design? Or an experiment in genetic engineering? Either way, what were they thinking!? Compare this cactus with "Thorny Problem."The botanical name for this plant is the Mammillaria vaupelli "Cristata." Sometimes it's called "brain cactus."

Electric

This is another photo from our recent trip to California. After I got done taking a few broad shots from the top of Mulholland Drive, I turned my camera towards some long grass that was illuminated by the strong morning sun.

03-28-10 Stranger In A Strange Land

This title is not at all descriptive of the subject of this photo. The title suggests how I felt when we visited California. The fact that I had never seen a plant like this (in the Norton Simon art park in Pasdena, California) suggests that I was a bit of an alien. Sorry, but I don't know what it is called.

As I was looking at my California photos to find something to post today, I decided that I think that everybody ought to visit the Los Angeles area. It seems so American to me: the sprawling megapolis, the wealth, the exotic cars, the Walk of Fame, the beautiful endless coast and the mixing of cultures, to name a few.

For a South Dakotan like me, California is like Japan: exotic and inviting. For what it's worth, incidentally, I also think that everybody ought to visit South Dakota - especially Californians.

03-24-10 Hollywood Hills

Amidst the concrete jungle of LA there exists an occasional green oasis, including this beautiful hilltop, illuminated by the morning sun. Below this hill lies the Hollywood Freeway. And if you looked up from the spot, you would see the smog-shrouded city. (click) (If you've looked at the linked photo, that's Hollywood in the foreground. The round building is Capitol Records.)

03-21-10 California Green

That there should be no snow or ice in Pasadena, California, might be enough for South Dakotans enjoying a brief spring break. But that there should be greenery and flowers and warm breezes is enough to erase a whole, harsh winter.

These “flowers” caught my attention because they are green and were in a deeply shaded part of a garden adjacent to the Norton Simon Museum of Art in the town that is the home of the Rose Bowl Parade.

Canon 5DII 1/80s f/4.0 ISO200 105mm

03-19-10 The Promise

Today I will serve up some iris from a garden we visited in Japan. I call this the promise because now that the snow is melting, I can see bare earth in my wife's flower garden. It won't be long before we see our own iris.

03-12-10 Verdant

After a week of "warm," but rainy and depressingly cloudy weather, I can see grass along the edges of our driveway. But the grass is brown, not verdant ("green with growth"). On the way to the mailbox, however, I saw the top of a Rainbird sprinkler head, which made me smile. In a matter of weeks (6?) I will be hearing the "chk, chk, chk" sound of the impulse sprinkler head watering my lush, green lawn. . . .

Enough of this fantasy - there are still piles of dirty snow covering almost everything. But for sustenance I offer red crab apples drenched in a warm September rain. If you really crave ice and cold, check out an alternate view of the same tree by clicking here.

03-11-10 Wildlife

The only wildlife I seem to photograph is captive, such as the butterflies I've posted. And now a lumbering brown bear, on display at a zoo a few miles south of Sitka, Alaska, named "The Fortress of the Bear." This young bear is one of two at the compound. They were orphaned after their mother had to be be destroyed. The crime the mom had committed was that she had made her way into the kitchen of a resort. Once a bear has tasted peanut butter and jelly, she is less inclined to eat berries and salmon. And before you know it, they'll be back in your kitchen. Here's another view. (click)

03-07-10 The Berries

I saw these berries at a sidewalk market in Florence (Italy), though they could have been for sale at our HyVee. The blackberries take me back to my childhood because when we would go to Washington to visit my aunt, we would go blackberry hunting. I loved the blackberries but didn't like the thorns on the canes. Why is there a phone named after the berry? I don't know.

03-04-10 Tentacles

This isn't the only shot of this tree that I've posted in this blog. But when I was looking through my collection, this one jumped out at me. The brilliance of the back-lit red leaves of this Japanese maple gets your attention. But what I like about this tree is the snake-like curves of the tree branches.

02-25-10 Dark Beauty

I have been "dusting off" some old photos and this is one I took a few years ago at the Butterfly House in Sioux Falls, SD. I'm not sure you can see it here, but there is blue speckling this butterfly's wings which is anything but random. Part of the disguise? Part of the reproductive game? I don't know much about butterflies but the more I look, the more I marvel. Here's another one from the same day.

Incidentally, did you know that if you click on the picture displayed when you first go to a page in my blog, you get a bigger view of the same photo? In fact, most of these photos are uploaded at a resolution of 1680x1050, which is pretty big. I hope you have a good connection?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.