Little poppy

I love the yellow poppies which grow everywhere on the Californian coast. They seem much more sturdy than their European counterparts...like the one below which grew where nothing else seemed to want to live:



For gorgeous flower photos from everywhere visit Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz, Denise, Denise and Laerte.

...another beach

Yet another Californian beach on a very beautiful evening. As one travels up the coast on Highway 1 they seem to get prettier by the minute.



Aileni, over at Monochrome Maniacs, is hosting lots more monochromes.

Cloud at sunset

Sunset on Limantour beach some days ago - not as entertaining as the seal watch, but quite dramatically coloured:



Visit Skywatch Friday for skies from all over the world.

Seal watch...

If you go walking on Goat's Rock Beach near sunset trying to spot seals you will find that it is easier than expected - as the seals are all there floating in the surf spotting humans.
They look like cute little ghosts - but we didn't figure out if they were just waiting for us to sod off so that they could get to bed (my theory) or if watching us was a leisure pursuit (the theory that was posted on educational information boards on the bays wildlife):




For watery pictures from all over the world visit the home of Watery Wednesdays and enjoy.
If you're kind enough to leave a comment: I'm still on holiday but will visit your photos when I'm back.

And Today's Flower

I don't know how these little flowers are called - but I'm on holiday at the moment and wherever I go here, they grow at the roadside. I think they're adorable and love how they create their own little ponds.
For many more flowers please visit Today's Flowers. I have very limited internet access, so apologies if I can't visit your flowers this week at Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr .

Monochrome Monday...

Here is Mc Clures Beach on Point Reyes. I love Point Reyes, beautiful landscape, whales, elks, seals - do visit if you can.
I'm still on holiday, so apologies for not being able to visit all your lovely Monochrome Monday pictures.

Skywatch

Here is last Monday's sun set above the clouds:



For great sky photos from everywhere visit Skywatch Friday.

Baffin Bay

I flew over the Atlantic yesterday - the sky was cloud free for big stretches and the views where gorgeous. Most of the waters between Greenland and Canada are still pretty frozen. Below is Baffin Bay, though, where there were some areas which seemed well in the process of melting:



For great water pictures from all over the world visit Watery Wednesday at

Holidays

I'm going on holiday:



Can you guess where this is? One can see whales there, but I don't think any of my lenses is good enough to get reasonable photos.

I don't know how much I will be able to blog from there - so thank you for visiting while I'm away. I'll be back in two weeks.

Monochrome flowers

Here are more pictures of cherry blossoms - the white ones are out, too. So I decided these were made for black and white:



If you have time, visit Aileni's Monochrome Maniacs website for more monochromes.

Springwatch 3

The cherry blossoms are out - so it's flower photo time. The other day I managed to sneak out into the garden between work and work to catch the last bit of light:



But there are plenty of daffodils around, too:



There are all sorts of gorgeous flowers at Today's Flowers hosted by Luiz Santilli Jr - enjoy.

Four

Four was the number of leaves on a little plum or greengage seedling, that has magically appeared in one of my flower pots. Well, maybe two and two, if you're pernickety and you think cotyledons should not be thrown together with other leaves. However, that was yesterday morning. When I came home after work in the evening, I could already see the next two.
It's amazing how things can grow when they're young.
I'm going on holiday soon, so I fret that it might not survive - I hope it will, and that it will produce lots and lots of greengages when it has grown up.



Go to TNchick's Photohunt 153 to see what other people make of 'four'.

More clouds

I think at this point it might start to show that I'm a terrible sucker for a good Night-sky. Here is quite a dramatic one, which I photographed some time ago during a stormy night. I was staying at an old english country house. The wind caused everything to creak and bang, and I couldn't sleep - so I ended up staring out of the window. The clouds moved swiftly across the sky and the moon cast quite a creepy light. Soon enough a ghost appeared under my window, so I thought - but then it just turned out to be my host dressed in a night gown, taking his pugs into the garden for a late night pee.



For more delightful sky photos visit Skywatch Friday.

Flower heart

Here are some psychedelic colours to brighten up the day:



I couldn't resist the little flower on the bottom left which is a perfect heart. Happy Love Thursday to everyone!

Watery Wednesday - Back to now

In the cloud forest I looked at droplets moving from the gaseous phase of their life back to a watery one. These days I'm working on where these droplets go for the next stage of the water cycle and what happens to them there. The River Kennet, which is one of the rivers I work on, is a chalk stream which would under non-polluted conditions be totally clear. The stretch on which the photo is taken, however, isn't - and nobody quite knows why (that's why it is being researched). Still, there are some plants growing and the water is clear enough to be able to see the bottom:



Matters could be far worse, as for example in the Riachuelo, a tributary of the River Plate. Apparently it is the third most polluted river in the world - but it doesn't really need any official credentials. One can smell it from some 300m away and it looks pretty toxic - it must be a hotbed of fantastically interesting microbes:



For more water photos visit Watery Wednesdays.

More night, more mountains

Staying in the Andes, here is another almost-night-shot. This time with the first traces of sunrise. I would have liked a slightly less grainy picture but it was cold outside. As it was only marginally less cold inside (there is no heating in the wooden huts which are the field station) I decided to preserve warmth rather than fiddle around with camera settings. I do somewhat like the image. Probably irrationally so.



To see a whole range of other monochromes visit the Monochrome Maniacs and their host, Aileni.

In the clouds

Almost two years ago I was on fieldwork on the easternmost slopes of the Andes, right where the Amazon basin begins. I was researching cloud/forest interactions and so I stayed literally in the clouds. Sorting photos today I came across this 'almost-night-shot'. The cloud forest is very beautiful, but also quite remote, humid and cold. Therefore a lot of living things stay away from it and evenings can feel quite lonesome. Watching fantastically shaped clouds get stuck on peaks is generally the most reliable form of evening entertainment the place has to offer.



For more sky photos, visit Skywatch Friday.

Love Thursday

The husband and I are quite good at sharing our space. Except when preparing meals. This is probably because the kitchen is hexed.
Whilst cooking, I generally find that whenever I need to use a particular cooking utensil, the husband needs exactly the same item, too. When I need to be somewhere, the husband also needs to be just there just then. This is especially so in the most important moments of the cooking process. We've been experimenting with different approaches to solve the problem for roughly the last decade. I think the best outcome so far is that we still very much enjoy eating the meals that we've cooked together. Today's LT picture is a quick snap of last Thursday's orange hearts for the fennel salad:



Happy Love Thursday!

Watery Wednesday - another Reflection

Here is another one of the reflections I shot during Sunday's walk:



There are lots of other water photos at Watery Wednesdays.

Still Snowdrop Season

Here's how they look like on a gloomy day:

Monochrome Monday 1

The beautiful Lake District in Spring - some years ago:



For more Monochrome Monday fun visit the Monochrome Maniacs, brought together by Aileni.

Afternoon Walk

There was some much longed for sunshine this afternoon, so I spent time outside. The bottom of the valley is a flood plain. It was totally flooded shortly after the snow had melted, and there are still lots of puddles in which I found great reflections:



There were also some very fresh leaves -



and a great sunset: