prickles

Tall and skinny, dressed in thorns and bright green leaves...

This interesting plant was found in the conservatory at Longwood Gardens, living in the room that houses cactus and other desert plants. It is commonly known as ocotillo with a proper name of Fouquieria splendens.

hummingbird in glass

There were some branches in a quiet spot at Longwood Gardens that were wearing color in the form of small glass hummingbirds. This exquisite creature in green and orange was my favorite.

a walk at Longwood Gardens

Last Thursday was a good day for a winter visit to Longwood Gardens. We arrived in late morning, a good time to walk in the conservatory, to absorb the colors.

More photos from Thursday's visit can be seen in the gallery Longwood Gardens starting with this photo and ending here.

red

Here's a pop of red for this early winter day...

The current weather conditions are fog and mist with the temperature hovering around 40 and predicted to rise. When I look at this photo I can imagine snow; there was none on the ground but the bright red berries against gray tell me that winter is here.

top 13 images, 2014

It's an interesting exercise looking through all of the photos that I published during the year with the goal of selecting what I considered to be my top 10 images of the year. I didn't manage to select only 10; like last year, 13 photos jumped at me.

I'm happy with a "top 13". In date sequence, here are my favorites from 2014.

subtle reflections

orchids in bright pink and yellow

a sunlit rose

looking north, from the bridge to Plum Island

rocks, green, trees, ocean... at the tip of the Eastport Peninsula

water, clouds, landforms... at the tip of the Eastport Peninsula

sunlit sunflower

dahlia delight

inland waters, at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

a pop of pink

edging into color

red rock perched, Valley of Fire State Park

looking across Crystal Reservoir, Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge

These photos are collected into the gallery Top 13 images, 2014. If you'd like to see larger versions of the photos or you would like to view them as a full screen slideshow, click here to jump to the gallery.

solstice

Snow flurries decorated the air in celebration of the winter solstice. The temperature hovered near the freezing mark with little wind, allowing me to have a very comfortable walk on this first day of winter.

photos! parks wearing color

Photos from last weekend's trip to Nevada and California are ready for viewing in this gallery.

Four days on the ground gave me time to wander in five parks. Most of the images are from Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Valley of Fire State Park, and Death Valley National Park, with a few more from Spring Mountain Ranch State Park and Ash Meadows National Conservation Area.

parks wearing color:

Interested in words too? You can find my ramblings in the blog entries tagged Nevada 2014-12.

upgrade complete

Phew! My phone is upgraded and working...

When I saw the announcement for Windows Phone 8.1 many months ago I went to my phone and looked for updates. Nothing... At some point I figured that Verizon wasn't going to push the update for older phones and Windows Phone 8 continued to work. I was just curious about the new features announced for 8.1.

Imagine my surprise when I checked for updates on my phone yesterday and found that there were updates available. It seems a bit odd that the first update was an upgrade to Windows Phone 8 with the statement that the update would make it easier to apply the Windows Phone 8.1 update. It feels like the full update process took hours. First there was the initial update to Windows 8, then the download of the 8.1 update. That took forever! It stuck at 96% for a very long time, then finally jumped to the page where I had to agree to the terms to continue the upgrade. Interestingly enough there were pages of text - and the install button wasn't enabled until I scrolled to the bottom of the page. I clicked install, the phone restarted (slowly), the install started. I walked away from the phone during this process so I'm not sure how long the install and subsequent phone configuration took. I have to admit I had visions of the upgrade failing, leaving me with a non-working phone, yikes!

Finally, the install and configuration completed. It's time to explore the new features.

entry

The road heads deeper into the red rocks of the Valley of Fire, a perfect entry point.

clouds in a puddle

Finding water in unexpected places is wonderful. I was delighted with the clouds reflecting in a puddle in Valley of Fire State Park.