Posts Tagged ‘flowers’
Begonia Festival Part 2
Tuesday, September 7th, 2010There were also big begonia floating parade boats that people created. They showed them off as they slowly tooled down the river to be judged. There were some very nice ones that I really enjoyed like the octopus float.
I also enjoyed the none to pleased looking mermaids on the float, especially the little mermaid inside of the clam. The others were really cool as well and the people manning them were very interesting as well.
One of the strangest things we saw was… Ronald McDonald. McDonald’s sponsored the Begonia festival so he got to take a ride on a little boat to wave at everyone. It was an interesting sight to say the least.
Begonia Festival Part 1
Monday, September 6th, 2010This was the first year I got to attend the Capitola Begonia Festival.
This first part consisted of the Sand Castle Contest. Some of them were quite interesting.
My favorites where the giant great white sand castle, and the giant sand sculpture of Poseidon and the BP oil spill.
This one was definitely the best, it had a message about the BP Oil Spill and of course the quality of the sculpture was amazing. The eyes and teeth made out of shells where so amazing and life-like. The seaweed oil spill was an interesting and unique touch as well. It was the last one on the beach and looking out over the whole crowd was quite a spectacle.
It was interesting looking at all of the people. It was a mob of beach goers all looking and appreciating the work of these sand artists.
I am glad I went, Part two will be coming up next.
Tags: art, beautiful, begonia festival, bp oil spill, capitla, crowds, flowers, Poseidon, sand castle, sand sculpture
Posted in Photos, Stories |
Posted in Photos, Stories |
Avalanche Lily
Wednesday, August 18th, 2010
My mom and I went on a beautiful hike at Mt. Rainier, Washington. We went through a field of wild flowers like these ones, along with many lupines, and others that I cannot begin to name. Flowers light up my life 😀
Travel Update: Olympic National Park and Rainforest
Sunday, August 8th, 2010We began our day yesterday in Seattle on a typical rainy over cast but wonderful day in Pike’s Place Market. The night before it had been closed so we were planning on squeezing out every drop of Seattle goodness from this brief visit. We bought all kinds of fruit including my favorite, the giant sweet Fuji apples. I have to say, Pike’s Place Market has the most amazing flowers I have ever seen. It is a feast for the eyes and the nose. It is amazing to walk through there smelling the flowers and looking at the vast variety of flowers. I would buy all of them if I could.
We took our large bounty of fresh market goods over to the Washington State Ferries on pier 52 to catch our ferry to Bainbridge across the way. So we sat in our car waiting to load eating all of our food. I was really excited because I had never been on a ferry before let alone one where you take your car on with you. It was strange driving onto a ship but very cool. Can you spot our car?
We got out and went up on top to look around and it was so beautiful. I wonder if that is what it felt like to be on the titanic. Before it crashed of course. Just getting to see the Seattle skyline and the market place from out in the water was incredible. It was an experience I was very glad to have.
Once we were in Bainbridge we had to make a long trek around the Olympic Peninsula to get to the Hoh National Rain forest. The entire peninsula felt like a rain forest to me and let me tell you, it wasn’t lacking on the forest or the rain part. The one road going around the park took us along the way through Port Angeles and Forks which are better known through the Twilight books and movies.
No I am not going to totally bash Twilight but I do have something to say. The books were not bad. I read them when they first came out as a gift in like sixth grade and I enjoyed them because they are a simply written romance book and it is a nice reprieve to read an easy book like that after reading so much classical literature that is my natural choice. The movies however I despise, a reasonable nice book has just become so gimmicky and obsessed over that it is enough to make you puke. So it made me a little sad to see such a beautiful place as the Olympic Peninsula only sought after because of these movies. There is so much beauty and extraordinary wonders there but all people think of when they here about it is this movie franchise. So my request; don’t think of the Olympic Peninsula as home to Twilight, it is home to forests and mountains that will blow your mind. Respect it for its beauty not the gimmicks surrounding it.
Well, now that that is said let me move on to the best part; Hoh National rainforest. My pictures can’t really do it justice to how haunting and dazzling this place was. It felt as if the trees where reaching out and were frozen in time letting the moss accumulate and grow dripping and stretching out towards you. In there it feels like time has reverse and you went back to the time of the dinosaurs.
We hiked along the Hall of the Mosses which took us to some mind-blowing maple trees that were just so incredible it is hard to explain. Seeing this for the first time is really extraordinary. It feels otherworldly.
After leaving the rain forest we headed down to Kalaloch beach and lodge for some dinner and a trip down to the driftwood covered beach. It was so foggy and rainy but it was still really cool to see these massive tree trunks and branches coating the beach. It too felt otherworldly like giants had dropped their Lincoln logs on the shore and left them behind to grow, shift, and drift away.
Side Note: Everything in Washington grows. EVERYTHING. Houses, streets, chimneys, logs, rocks, sand, even telephone booths. It is kind of ridiculous but really funny. I wish I could list all of the strange things that I saw that had moss or something growing on it.
We spent the night in Aberdeen and where very happy to finally be out of the car. We are so close to home 😀
Tags: bainbridge, beach, driftwood, flowers, forks, fruit, green, growing, hoh rain forest, kalaloch, moss, olympic national park, pikes place market, port angeles, Seattle, twilight, washington state ferries
Posted in Photos, Travel Updates |
Posted in Photos, Travel Updates |
The Horrors of Butterflies
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Butterflies are crafty creatures. They look so beautiful and graceful but when you look at them closely they are horrifying. Butterflies must be one of the scariest looking animals up close. Like this one here that I found in the Navajo National Monument in Arizona feeding on a Paintbrush flower. I was trying really hard to get a photo of him and was so jazzed when I got these but when I looked at them up close I realized they look like monsters. No wonder Mothra in Godzilla was so scary, it is the same sort of thing. Nature is a very deceiving thing some of the cutest or prettiest things are really scary. I don’t think I can ever look at butterflies the same again.
Blooming
Friday, April 30th, 2010
Perspective
Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Something like a pot of flowers can seem so ordinary, not because it actually is but because we have become so accustomed to it that it has lost it’s uniqueness in our eyes. In my eyes this is a crime. My job is to provide perspective to all of you, it may not be right, different, or even worth your time, but it is something to remind people that nothing is one dimensional. Here is a series of photos, all of this seemingly normal flower bouquet. (P.S. I love flowers that is why I chose them, I think they are beautiful beyond compare)
This is a magnified perspective of one flower in the bouquet. Already, just a photo closer to the flower reveals so much more about the flower. This perspective allows us to study detail, to notice what people would normally brush over. Look beyond what you normally see, instead of seeing a flower, look at each petal, how are they different, how are they the same? Look at the center and how it darkens, drawing your eye. Don’t just see it, question it. Why would a flower have a darker center on such a vibrantly colored plant, why not make it a more colorful hue instead of black. There are a million and one ways to look at the same thing and each is unique within itself.
It isn’t always the front of a flower that holds the beauty. Try looking at things from a different angle. Sideways, upside down, from underneath and from above. Each new view can change the object entirely. Even the slightest shift from the first photo to the second, changes the view dramatically. Drawing your eye to one point, instead of to all of the flowers. Positioning is key, it can change how others look at an object and the message that they receive from it.
The objects standing right in front of you are not always the most important. Sometimes the things that seem so blatantly obvious are just masks for the real beauty that is staring you right in the face. Focus forward, don’t let what stands in front of you stop your ascent or progress. Look beyond and between the obvious and seek out the third path that leads you to your own future.
Beauty frames the world around us, I know it is hard but try to notice all of it. Not what stands in front of you, but all of it. At first it can be overwhelming to try to take in all of it, but the world will seems so much brighter because of it. Perspective is everything, without it, we would not be able to fully appreciate the minute details that build up the beautiful world around us.
So take some time, look at the ordinary things in your day in a brand new way. Notice what you would have never look at before. That is my only goal, to make people look at the world with eyes that can truly see.
Dichotomy
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
My question for you today is this; do you believe in dichotomy? Are there really only two sides, two options, black or white. One side or another to choose from. Or is there a third path that is yet undiscovered that you must find before you travel.
I believe it is easier to think of the world in black and white because it makes the world a little less complicated. But that doesn’t mean it is true or right. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems, as I say and it is true. It can be hard though trying to find the third path in life. There is no denying the fact that the third road is the hardest to travel because it is unpaved. Many people believe in a dichotomous world because it is much easier to travel the well beaten path. This is not how I live, this is not how I think anyone should live.
So I say, seek the untraveled path and find a new way. Escape the black and white to live in a new world that you create.
