What used to be a blog about experiencing the places and cultures of the world has morphed into one of living in my adopted home of Wyoming.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Calling All Landscapers.....
I've got a landscaping dilemma. When facing my house, the left side is horribly unbalanced with the right as far as visual landscaping action, flow, and color. I've solicited my mom for ideas, but if any gentle viewers (to borrow a phrase from a friend) have any suggestions on something not too maintenance-heavy to add some zing to the left side of the house, please suggest ideas via the comments button! Now, the tree in front of that window is a crabapple tree, and it becomes loaded with flowers in April. I understand the little berry things it's growing now turn red at some point, so that'll be a nice addition of color. Also, and I don't think you can see it well from here, there is a vine that should one day reach that willow trellis adjacent to the front porch. That vine is a firethorn and will, come autumn, have bright orange little berries visible. But, the next entry is the right side of my yard - it's a great little mishmash of plant life, colors, and undulating patterns (you may not be able to see the little 'hill' in the front right corner of the yard). But this side, it's got an english ivy that's just really slow to act, and some lilly of the valley that have already bloomed, all along the hitching post front fence. I don't know what that corner shrub will do - it's taking forever just to leaf out. So, any suggestions for adding a little visual punch here would be appreciated.
Here's the right side of the house (when facing it directly). Now, see how much is going on here? There's the purple maple that I'm just standing under to take the shot, whose leaves you can see at the top left of the page. Hidden behind the fence are the new surprise lillies, to the right of them but washed out by background light is the yucca, lots of those tall stalky things with yellow flowers, and along the house are the red and orange lillies. There is also, to the right of the yucca but hard to see here, a shrubby bush with reddish tipped leaves. It's a cornucopia of color on this side of the house. It's pukingly Strawberry Shortcake looking, but I love it.
On a Sunday drive today, I spied this hawk flying parallel to the road. I slowed down (dare not stop!), dug out the camera, rolled down the window, kept pace with the bird, and captured this shot. And this was the only one, though I tried several more times. This bird was massively large; probably the largest I've yet seen in Ohio. Note the beautiful corn! Can't wait until that's ripe.
This is going to be reeeealy hard to see. Maybe you can click on the image and expand it. I don't have the patience to fool around with the photos after I shoot them. The big white dot is that hawk - and he's being chased (yes, chased!) by two smaller black birds - think they're just crows; they weren't big enough to be ravens. The one closest to the hawk (that's not a speck of dust on your screen) was actually doing little aerial dive-bombs on the hawk. I've never seen behavior like it. The hawk could have taken them both out, probably, with one clean swipe. Maybe he's old and lame.
This is, technically and compositionally, a horrible photo. But - wow, look at my cat's markings! The black lines from his head to between his shoulder blades look like the tip of a fountain pen. Katman has, as yet, not failed to amaze me with some motion, antic, or just simple expression of his 'catness'.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
I'll take Places, Alex, for $2000
(Friday update: Oh, my gosh. Turns out I am smart enough to figure out how to scale the html code to appropriately size the images! Watchout, blogworld...)
I've often wondered, or suspected, if something like this was out there. Today, I serendipitously found it while responding to a comment on one of my flickr photos. How lucky! My mind sees the world (outside of memory context) in this way, and while passports and lists are great for identifying visited places, this works best for my primitive thought process. Now I can start planning, from a clear mental image, where my next adventures should be.
create your own visited states map
create your own visited countries map
I've often wondered, or suspected, if something like this was out there. Today, I serendipitously found it while responding to a comment on one of my flickr photos. How lucky! My mind sees the world (outside of memory context) in this way, and while passports and lists are great for identifying visited places, this works best for my primitive thought process. Now I can start planning, from a clear mental image, where my next adventures should be.
create your own visited states map
create your own visited countries map
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