View from the other side...

Look into my eye...

I don't know why but this piece of artwork caught my eye. No pun intended. Well, maybe just a little.

Since it was on the wall in a casino in Las Vegas there was probably a camera behind the big gold dome with a guy in a room somewhere saying, "look at this goofball with the camera".

Flowers from Home

Red and pink geraniums

The spring and early summer rains made for good growing conditions for the flowers . Thought a walk around the backyard showing some of them might be enjoyed!

Red and white impatiens

Everyone gets their own flowers to tend!

Shasta Daisy and yellow Day Lilly

'PoW WoW' Coneflower

Orange Butterfly Bush and white Daisys

These are just a few of the many varieties that Charlotte has growing around the house. She has quite a green thumb! Every plant she locates according to the amount of sunlight it receives during the day. And speaking of the sun, it is producing a string of 100 degree temps with no rain in sight!

Back to the islands

The Queen Emma lily, or as I like to call it, the skinny purple flower.

It was named after King Kamehameha IV's wife, Emma. It was one of her favorite flowers that she grew in her gardens on their estate on Kaua'i during the late 1800's and has been associated with island royality ever since. (It's originally from the Seychelles)

Class dismissed! LOL

Young Humpback Whale

On June 12th this month a young Humpback whale beached it's self on a beach at White Rock B.C. just South of Vancouver. The whale had ropes and other fishing related gear caught in it's mouth and had starved to death.

Several days ago the whales carcass was relocated to a beach near Telegraph Cove. 

Over the next few days a group of young volunteers will strip a majority of the meat away from the skeleton.

The whales bones will then be put in a large net and submerged in the ocean for several months. Over this time small ocean creatures will strip the remaining meat from the bones.

Then the bones will be reassembled at the Telegraph Cove Whale Museum and put on display with the already impressive collection of marine mammal bones on display there.

Much more information can be found on the internet by "Googling" Whale Interpretive Center in Telegraph Cove or click on this link Family Day Trips – Telegraph Cove's Whale Museum

LuLu's Hibiscus

Laci aka "LuLu"

Our great grand daughter came over Monday for a visit with her MeMe and PaPa. Dressed in her pink bathing suit with a tutu look, she was ready to play in the water. Running thru the yard sprinkler is a favorite with her! Of course pics were in order. I slowed her down long enough to get a quick pose with a frown, standing beside this plate sized Hibiscus!

Large Red Hibiscus

Comparing the flower with LuLu gives one a sense of the large size of these tropical looking blooms. It's hard to believe the energy the plant uses to produce these flowers only to have them fall off every night with new ones appearing every morning! This bush only began blooming last week after the temperatures started getting hot. Charlotte has this plant growing in full sunlight in the warmest part of her flowerbeds. Great plant for Hot, Oklahoma Sun!

I thank Ron and his hibiscus (Rose of Sharon) post today for giving me this idea for my post. I had these pics in my family file but after seeing the word Hibiscus it came to my mind that our readers might enjoy seeing a pic of another variety of the hibiscus family. So here it is with LuLu directing the shots!

Not Blue, Not Red, Not Yellow

Not even Hawaiian! Just a white and a purple flower.

Nah, who am I kidding? You expect too much now. LOL

Although not a Hawaiian flower it could be just by it's scientific name, The Hibiscus Syriacus. Also known as the Rose of Sharon. Had I known it was part hibiscus I would have been taking photos of them long ago. These two bushes and several others are growing in my garden next to the waterfall here in hot and humid Kansas. Yes, I said waterfall. Just a small man made one to let you hear the sound of running water.

This was taken with the new Nikon 24mm f2.8 lens I bought for using underwater. I thought I would try it out on dry land first just to see how it does.

Ribbit

I'm still going through my Hawaii photos and finding things I forgot I took pictures of. Cheryl and I both photographed this frog, her with my point and shoot, since she didn't want to carry her camera around, and me with the Nikon D300.

I would never say my photo is better than Cheryl's (for a couple of reasons LOL) but I like the way this came out. I used the flash to add a little fill light when I took the photo.

SENTINELS of the WIND

WATER AND ELECTRIC

Driving North on state road 115, just a few miles past Meers,Oklahoma, one will come in view of the Slick Hills which lay north of the Wichita Mtns. Standing guard on these bare hills are the fairly new Wind Turbines, colored bright white and supported by same colored, extremely tall towers. They can be spotted from several miles away! Powered by wind and producers of electricity!

Standing guard in the lower flat land is the rusting and no longer in use Wind Mill. A pumper of water and powered by the wind! Very short, maybe 16 to 18 feet, compared to the giants in the background, it still proudly stands tall in my book and played a large role in early day Oklahoma!

Dempster #12

The tailfeathers clearly identify this mill as a model 12, self oiler, manufactured by the Dempster Co. located in Beatrice,Nebraska. I was surprised to find out they have been in business since 1878 in Beatrice, and are still there producing new windmills and parts to service the old models such as this #12 model which was introduced in 1922. And may I say at a decent price! Let's hear a big Shout for this made in the USA company! HEAR!HEAR!

This windmill appeared to be mostly intact and all there, even the pump sitting on the well itself. Part of the wooden sucker rod that connects the pump to the mill was missing but that is nothing major. Whoever owns this windmill had the good sense to tie the brake off so the blades wouldn't turn and the mill could not flop around which would tear up in a stiff thunderstorm with violent winds. If the water well is still good, it wouldn't be to hard to get this windmill pumping clear, cool water again!

All Hold Hands!

As I was watching the large blades rotate round and round, it was noticed after several revolutions, that the blades would come together like they were holding hands. These turbines are actually many yards apart! I suppose this pic could represent the many turbines in this field all pulling together to provide electricity for our ever expanding appetite of electric use!

San Juan National Forest.

This yellow cart is required to run behind each steam train to prevent any forest fire cause by the train.

To get here, I have to hike on the railroad track for about a mile. I could go further, but I decided to stay here to capture a picture a train coming back from Silverton.  Also, there's a 130 yr. old power plant around the bend, and I met one of the worker walking back on the same way I came in.  He told me this is only way to get to the power plant, he has to hikes 3 miles on this rail road track, and he have been doing this 5 days a week for the last 30 years.

After reading Ron comments, I jump in my DeLorean car, and dial back to1910 to capture this picture for him.

Lower Antelope Canyon #3.

These pictures are from looking up in the Lower Antelope Canyon.

Ko

Better known as sugar cane to the rest of us. The plants are grown for two years before being harvested by fire. The early Polynesians had names for 40 different varieties. I won't list them all here because I only have the one photo. LOL

Book learnin', who knew?

WAKE UP!

Sleepy Head

Probably not a good idea to yell at this bushy headed Buffalo. Something tells me he might wake up a little out of sorts!

This young herd of bulls were fully awake and munching on the native prairie grass!

Lower Antelope canyon #2.

In this lower canyon is not as crowded as the upper canyon, so I don't have to rush for my shot.  The lighting is this canyon is mostly well lit, but the tripod is required.

Lower Antelope Canyon.

On my previous trip to Page Arizona, I have visited four slot canyons in Page area.  The first three canyons that I went with a tour guide are the Upper Antelope, Rattlesnake canyon, and Owl's canyon for first half of the day.  Then I went on a self guide tour at the lower Antelope canyon for two hours.  Also, before heading back to Durango Colorado, I made a quick stop at the Horse shoes canyon.  These pictures are from lower Antelope canyon, and this is an entrance of this canyon.  I will post a few pictures from this canyon in the next post.  There is no Sunbeam from the lower canyon, but it's worth for the time being there.

Roadside wildflowers

You must be getting tired of me posting "flower" pictures, but that seems to be the only thing happening around here these days... Nothing quite like living in a quiet little Fishing Village up the Coast! (Not that I'm complaining.)
These flowering wildflowers are Lupines and are native to this part of the world. This year the Lupines are thriving in the cool, damp start to the growing season.

A ray of light

I caught this image a few days ago when the weather man said it was going to rain. Some clouds came in but as usual, the weather man was wrong and we didn't get a single drop.

Late Breaking News! Delayed

Observers smelled burnt Burgers and Hot Dogs!

On or about noon the 10th of May it was brought to my attention there had been a vehicle fire located East of the Visitor Center and the road was closed  while the resident firemen attacked the blaze with their state of the art Brush Pumper equipment!

No one hurt or injured!

Rushing to the scene the next day, this self appointed reporter arrived on location with camera and notepad in hand to get to the bottom of this story! Unfortunately the wrecker driver did not have any pertinent information. He told me he was just dispatched to this location to retrieve a disabled vehicle! I did learn that evening from the local Law Enforcement Officer that it was a non injury accident of unknown cause at this time. I commented, It's possible it caught fire!

A Total Loss

After interviewing the local resident populace who would speak only on the condition of anonimity, along with many eyewitness campers, who will talk about anything, they all came to the same conclusion. Fire caused the destruction of the Trash Truck and everyone was thankful the occupants were not hurt! Everyone was worried and concerned about next weeks pickup, after a busy weekend the Dumpsters have a tendency to develop an overripe scent in hot temperatures. All the concern and worry was for naught! The following week at it's normal scheduled time, a bright white, new, noisy lid slamming, motor gunning beast showed up at sunrise announcing its arrival! All is well and back to normal!

A year or so ago when Ron was the resident manager of the campground in the Wichita Mtns. where I stay when visiting. He would always keep us up to date with pics and words of happenings going on! I got to calling him The Roving Reporter for The Mountain Gazette! When I saw this burnt trash truck in the refuge, this goofy story started forming in my mind!  Close enough to the facts for me!!

Field of Dreams

I've been wanting to take this shot for about a week now and I finally got a chance to get out and do it. I actually used a tripod for the shot. It was new and I wanted to try it out. LOL

Upper Antelope Sunbeam.

Photograph the Sunbeam or just the rock formations in the slot canyon is very tricky.  Due to a tight spaces in the slot canyon, so there's only one spot that you can setup 1 to 3 tripods, and you only have about 5 min. to get the shot just to have enough light reflected from the floor.  Also, I want to capture the natural colors of the slot canyon, I have set my WB to 4550Kevin temperature, and manual focusing.  

The best way to capture the slot canyon is a SLR or DSLR camera, Ultra wide angle lens, tripod, and a shutter release cable.  In the slot canyon is very dusty, so changing lens is not recommended, and no flash.

Like Paul said, Beam me up!