Posts Tagged ‘vacations’
A Word About the Upcoming Schedule
There are few things I like to do better than go out with my camera and shoot the world around me. As a result, I have close to 50,000 photos from the last four and a half years of my life: some terrible, some great, some that bring nostalgia for places and people I have not seen in a while. A great bulk of those are nature photos — whether from chasing alligator lizards in the desert or stalking egrets from the reeds on Dune Road.
I have a great many from this summer past that I have yet to share, and a greater many still yet to process and upload. I could process them swiftly over the next two days, and do a tremendous amount of postings over the next few weeks — if I did four or five posts a day, it would still likely take me a month or two to get through just the ones I have drafted already.
But winter is coming. In the winter, I slow down. I may take a picture or two of an icicle, or of the first snow fall, but mostly I am indoors with family and friends, or else taking photos of the dogs romping around in the backyard (they are cute when they romp, but those photos would get tiring).
So to get through this winter with an even amount of interesting posts, I have decided not to be as seasonally conscious as I have tried to be in the past. I’m not going to post like a maniac for a few months and then post hardly anything at all. I’m going to try to mix up different sets of photographs as much as possible, as usual, but I have so many sets at this point that this will result in a very large spread of time between photographs of the same set.
I’m also coming up on my next vacation, and will be attempting to do this time what I failed to do last time — a good mix of photos from vacations past, vacations present, and regularly scheduled posts. I already have the vacations past & regularly scheduled posts scheduled. It just remains to be seen whether or not I will have time to do the present ones as well when I am away.
Vacations Past: The Heron Hunting (Part III)
The little green heron with his prize!
The Heron Hunting (Part III)
24 March 2008
Huntington Gardens, San Marino, CA
Vacations Past: The Heron Hunting
I spent probably half an hour watching this guy and taking his picture. I’m sure D thought I was nuts!
The Heron Hunting
24 March 2008
Huntington Gardens, San Marino, CA
Vacations Past: The Lizard in the Mud
Another garden, another lizard! I found this guy working hard on his pushups, which is a way that lizards communicate with each other. I wonder what he was trying to say to me.
The Lizard in the Mud
24 March 2008
Huntington Gardens, San Marino, CA
Vacations Past: The Koala in the Tree
Wish I could say that I took this when I was in Australia, but at those times in my life I was not so good with a camera. No, this sleepy little marsupial was to be found at the Los Angeles Zoo, a great place to spend a whole day.
Little known fact: koala populations are threatened by all the usual suspects — habitat loss, hunters, and car collisions — as well as diseases like chlamydia. How to tell if a koala has chlamydia? Common signs are pink eye and a dirty tail/wet bottom (yeah, it’s as gross as it sounds).
The Koala in the Tree
24 March 2008
Los Angeles Zoo, Los Angeles, CA
Vacations Past: The Lotus in the Water
Deep in the heart of Van Nuys, there lies an unexpected secret — the Japanese Gardens, hidden next to the Tillman Reclamation Plant. For only $3/person admission ($3!!!), you can stroll the grounds at your leisure, delighting in the architecture and rare plants. I think, though on this I can’t remember for certain, that they even offer a tea experience in their tea house, which is a welcome respite from the sun and the heat. One sort of strange thing — though parking is free, because you are next to a water reclamation plant there is a security guard before you enter the grounds, and he takes down the information of your driver’s license. Eep.
The Lotus in the Water
08 June 2008
Japanese Gardens, Van Nuys, CA
Vacations Past: The Hummingbird in the Flowers
Never have I gotten so close to hummingbirds before as I have in Southern California. They are gorgeous, and quite happy to ignore you if you stay as still as possible. There had been times in the past when I had sat, reading on my balcony, and they flew right up to me, but I think in the Arboretum, surrounded by nature, they are even more perfect.
The Hummingbird in the Flowers
06 June 2008
Los Angeles Arboretum, Los Angeles, CA
Vacations Past: A View from the Window
As you read this, I should be flying high over the continental United States, well on my way to a much desired vacation. This is not the first time I’ll have been in Southern California (I went to school there for four years, then lived out there for another year after, and subsequent vacations have been spent with D, the dear boyfriend), but this is probably the first time in a long time when I can appreciate the weather and the natural beauty that goes with it.
As a note, while I’m on vacation, I have scheduled some posts from past vacations dealing with nature and wildlife in those areas. These Vacations Past photos are scheduled at least one a day, sometimes two or three. While I intend on posting new photos from this vacation (as you all indicated in the poll you’d like) as I go, I don’t know with any certainty the regularity with which I’ll be able to post. At least this way, there’s something appearing every day. I will probably also schedule a few links to older posts relevant to the WHB area.
A View from the Window
03 June 2006
Unknown
Wild Westhampton 
