strawflowers

Funny, I never knew that living strawflowers already look like they have been dried!

frog, painted

There's a small pool in the rose garden at the Stevens-Coolidge Place. There are lily pads, and on some days there are frogs sitting and sunning. Today there were three frogs enjoying the pond, one perched on a lily pad, the other two popping their heads up then disappearing when they realized they were not alone.

I was lucky to meet this frog, a beauty with golden circles surrounding his eyes and gold stripes down his very green body.

wild!

Wow - the storm that just blew through here was wild!

I headed out for a late afternoon walk under skies that still wore white fluffy clouds against a bright blue background. I wasn't quite at my planned "turn for home" spot when a man standing by his house called out to me. He told me there was a tornado warning, suggesting that I head home. I thanked him and decided that turning towards home would be smart.

There was still some visible blue in the sky but the clouds grew dark. I heard the rumble of thunder and saw the flash of lightening. I walked faster.

The rain started when I was a short two blocks from home. In the last block a driver pulled over, stopped, and told me she would be happy to drive me home; the rain was coming down hard enough at that point that it was difficult to see. I thanked her, telling her that I lived in the condos on the other side of the fence. It's nice to have people show they care, isn't it?

Home again, I switched from dripping to dry clothes, dried the floor (from my traipsing through wearing very wet clothes!), and settled in. I closed one set of windows to stop the driving rain from entering, leaving the others open.

I watched the driving rain, listened to the downpour and the thunder, saw the flashes of lightening. I love watching wild storms, especially when I know I am in a safe spot.

What an awesome storm!

before the rain

It was a hot and muggy day, with the forecast calling for late day (severe) thunderstorms.

I managed to get a bike ride in before the temperature rose to an uncomfortable level, then decided to head for the New Hampshire coast to do some walking. I chose the boat launching area at Odiorne Point State Park as my wandering spot, walking through the woods and onto the somewhat rocky shore line of the Piscataqua River. I continued walking until I heard the sound of distant repeating thunder. The sky was still showing blue but continued thunder led me to jump onto a trail that headed in the direction of my car. I chatted with someone on the trail who had just heard there were severe thunderstorms in Exeter, a bit inland from our current location. I walked faster, arriving at my car before the rain started.

I thought about waiting out the rain but knowing there was a forecast for late day thunderstorms I turned back toward home.

opening

A sunflower starts to open, reaching for the sun.

blue

A blue sky, puffs of clouds, calm waters...

from the inland side of the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge

watching

This sculpted lady watches over the butterflies at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory.

sunlit

A sunflower is painted by late afternoon light.

a giant

As I was wandering slowly, enjoying the butterflies at Magic Wings yesterday one of the staff members approached and asked if I wanted to take a photo of the bug on her arm.

Wow... he was huge!

Would you like one (or more) of these wandering in your garden?

This creature hails from somewhere in the South Pacific. I believe he is a type of green walkingstick insect.

speedy!

Funny, when I clicked to look at the channel guide on the television last night a message popped up instead telling me that Verizon was upgrading all FiOS customers to have (Internet) upload speed match download speed. I read it, smiled, and ran to my computer.

People are sharing content on the Internet more than ever, a trend that is expected to continue. Starting today (July 21), existing and new Verizon FiOS residential customers will receive upload speeds that match their download speeds, making it easier and faster to share. This speed upgrade is free to current customers, and comes at a time when people are uploading more and more information to the cloud, sharing videos and photos, and video chatting. Full news release is here.

The link indicated that the upgrades would happen automatically over the next years but that signing up for Verizon's reward program would trigger an immediate upgrade. It's possible that my connection had already been upgraded but I didn't check. I simply logged into the Verizon at http://campaign.verizon.com/myrewardsplus/ and turned the rewards program on. Soon after that I received the message that my service had been upgraded.

When I switched to FiOS I chose the fastest residential service available knowing that I wanted good upload speeds for my photos. That was 75Mbps down and 35Mbps up. Now? Verizon's speedtest shows my service at 75Mbps up and 75Mbps down, cool!

Thanks Verizon!