Keep flourishing USofA

Nature's showy beauty.  All across the nation, it's inspiring looking at all the regional flowering plants and trees, comparing their beauty to that of what's found even two states over.  During the year 2000, in mid June, I moved from an already "brown" Texas to a rather plush tropical Hawaii.  The Texas bluebonnets had already had their spring showing, and moved aside for the more earth-tones of typical summer landscaping.  The transformation of browns to greens over the period of an 8 hour flight was amazing!  And now in 2005, I make a similar move, but in reverse.  Not wishing to do harm to mother natures reputation of flourishing our great nation, I present you some of the more showy plants from across the nation 2005.

       

First on display is the Hibiscus, this one found in at the Hilo International Airport, BEGGING me to photograph it!    

 
 

Next, (below) finding our way to the desert region, Alamogordo, New Mexico specifically, we caught glimpse of this prickly pear cactus flaunting its goods at us.   

      

 

 

Furthering our mission to reach the eastcoast in record time, we zoom on toward Arkansas and find these lilies covering a good many ponds and rivershores.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By the time we finally reached our ultimate destination, the flowers were beginning to lose their lust for color, yet I still managed to stumble across this well manicured (cabbage) patch along the Canadian border in New York!

Fluffy Florals or Puffy Plants.

Fluffy Florals or Puffy Plants  Call them what you like, but never forget to Awwwwwe at them!.

'Ohi'a Lehua.  I have a fascination for tropical flowers.  They're so exotic, especially when we compare them to our everyday roses, carnations, and baby's breath!  For no other reason, I was scoping out the Kilauea Crater through my newly acquired Sony Telephoto Zoom lens ... just "testing" it out as we say. 

It was not an especially bright day, rather hazy, and the crater took on hues of dull olive greens and browns.  I stood in one spot, and did a complete 360 turn, returning my gaze back at the ONE splash of color in the dull landscaping.  I live for days like this, with chance sightings of God's beauty.

God would have it sitting pretty, not a breeze to ruin the perfect calmness of this floral gem.   Here, I present you an awesome photograph  of Hawai'i's 'Ohi'a Lehua. 

Round RobinChallenge - New Life

New Life.  Fantastic subject challenge!  When I first saw this category, I KNEW I was IN.  But time crept away and still I have only ONE new photo.  So, today I will grace you with what I have in my files that to me represents NEW LIFE, and then add todays special before the rains came down!    Thanks to Sassy's EYE for such a wonderful challenge. The whole prior week had been filled with my mind going crazy with all the photo ideas I had from my Hawaii days. BUT, my ultimate idea to best tackle this challenge was the idea of displaying the KITTENS as they arrived. ONE MAJOR problem, I forgot to tell them  EXACTLY WHEN to arrive, and obviously, it's not to be during this challenge! So, you are now graced with my few selections of NEW LIFE in Hawaii, and my ONE New Life in NY.I have been blessed to be able to live a number of years in beautiful Hawaii. Each opportunity has been met head on with camera in hand, literally! Having visited the Big Island on numerous occasions, I was blessed to witness several lava flows ... Pele sending her hot lava rushing down to the shoreline. Ok, so at times it was hokey pokeying .. but nonetheless, it represented new life as it made its way to the shoreline, creating added yards to the youngest island in the Hawaiian Island chain.

The picture above shows a very slow moving lava, making it's way toward the Pacific ocean .. sometimes it takes just a day or two, sometimes it takes weeks .. it all depends on Pele's fury.  The picture below shows that Pele works 24/7 .. again, her ultimate goal, the Pacific.

Having made it's way to the shores, Pele's rage is cooled quickly and new land is formed.   Pele is only momentarily quietened.

Of course, as Pele destroys all living life in her path, so new life must again push it's way through and flourish in the tropical islands.  Below, is the dawning of a new fern leaf ... btw, new life is NOT impossible on lava ... though sometimes the new ground is not rich enough to produce plant life till close to 100 years later .. not so with all plants.

But thank GOODNESS new life is not just limited to the islands ... right here in cool north country is our own new life ...

Please check out ALL the Round Robin entries for this NEW LIFE Challenge at http://roundrobinphoto.blogspot.com/2006/03/round-robin-challenge-new-life.html#links
You WONT be disappointed!  Thanks again, Sassydee, for such a fun challenge.

Fabulous Fungi

     I would not go so far as to say I am really into fungi ... but I am fascintated all the same.  I see how PERFECT their make up is ... colors ranging from white or sometimes dull to vibrant oranges.  Going into the back woods will be like going into a botanical garden this spring, and I can't wait!  There are so many varieties going mad back there ... here are TWO picks out of my large collection from my summer travels.  Circa 2005  I call this my Fungus Rose.

Then, we have fabulous clusters that would make a terrific website background, but again, just my opinion.

Next round of my fascination with fungi and mushrooms, I'll show you my sugar cookie and my atomic cloud.