Saturday, November 26, 2016

Late November in our garden!

 Nasturtium 

 Pear leaf

 Anigozanthos (Kangaroo Paw) 

"Oklahoma" Tea Rose 


Dahlia imperialis

Dahlia Imperialis

We purchased a Dahlia imperialis more than three years ago, as an experiment.  It blooms in mid to late November.  In past years, we have used it as a barometer to know when we should receive our first frost of the year, since the plant has set buds as early as Halloween and we know the frosts come soon after that.  They did not make it past the first frosts for the first couple of years. 

This year by comparison, now in late November, we have not had any freezing temperatures as of yet, and our Dahlia is, for the first time since we bought it, in bloom! 





Wednesday, November 16, 2016

New Zealand - March 2008

 Pohutukawa Tree (Metrosideros excelsa)

Kiwifruit vines

New Zealand "Cabbage Tree" (Cordyline australis)

Beach in Gisborne, NZ

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Cedar Waxwings enjoying Yew berries

This is an Autumn ritual for the Cedar Waxwings.  They come in a large flock and fly from our Maple, Oak and Douglas Fir trees.  Then one or two at a time, they fly to the Yew shrub and go straight to the berries.  It is entertainment each year in late September and early October. 




Wednesday, August 31, 2016

The Northernmost "city" in America.

71°17′44″N 156°45′59″W: Barrow (Utqiagvik), Alaska is the northernmost borough on continental 
North America, as well as the USA. 




This is one reason why it snows in August here! 

Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Just wait...(a little more than) five minutes.

This was the morning of August 20th.  I went out for a quick photo shoot on the beach, near the hotel we stayed at in Utqiagvik (fka Barrow), and within a half an hour or so, the weather went from fairly sunny to cloudy to blizzard.  






Friday, August 5, 2016

Cape Disappointment, WA

On a trail, which is on the way to abandonment by the state park system, we walked through thick, gorgeous coastal spruce forests.  Frogs were jumping out of our way as we followed the path over the peninsula, on the southwestern coast of Washington state. We ended the hike at the lighthouse, as we gazed out onto the Pacific Ocean. We were not disappointed, though.