At roughly 250 years old, the much-photographed Lone Cypress sits on top of a granite rock that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. You can see it along the 17 Mile Drive that circles the Monterey Peninsula.
The Lone Cypress (Monterey, CA)
Gingerbread Village at the Seattle Sheraton
Every holiday season, Seattleites can look forward to the Gingerbread Village, sponsored by the Seattle Sheraton Hotel (on 6th Avenue, between Union and Pike Streets). Architects and chefs combine their creative talents to design and construct large gingerbread creations. This is the 22nd consecutive year of the event. While all of them were worthy of admiration... Continue Reading →
Meerkats
It was the second time in less than a week that I'd seen meerkats, the first at the Los Angeles Zoo. The image above was taken at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. At first, they looked like taxidermed specimens until, bodies perfectly still, their heads swiveled one at a time in the way that meerkats do.... Continue Reading →
California Praying Mantis
There was a lot of excitement outside among family members. They discovered a praying mantis (Stagmomantis californiica) working its way along the driveway. One of us managed to relocate it to a shrub in the backyard where it would have a better opportunity to be the beneficial predator that it's meant to be.
Bellevue Demonstration Garden Dahlias
The King County Master Gardeners manage the Bellevue Demonstration Garden, also known as the Lake Hills Greenbelt Urban Demonstration Garden. Among the many plots is a section devoted to dahlias. There were two varieties that stood out. One of them had cream and ivory petals tinged mauve on the outer edges (top image). The other had peppermint candy... Continue Reading →
Botanical Ordnance: Cannonball Tree
A more fascinating tree I've never come across. It's more commonly known as the cannonball tree because its russet-colored fruits are shaped like and almost as heavy as cannonballs and give off an explosive sound when they fall and hit the ground. The fruit pulp inside is bluish-gray and attracts wild animals which eat the seeds that get propagated through droppings.... Continue Reading →
Moon Jelly
While cruising in Puget Sound waters on our friends' boat, I couldn't help but notice scores of jellyfish floating by. I'd never seen jellies in the wild, so it would be an understatement to say I was pretty excited. Even as we returned to the Quartermaster Yacht Club's dock, there they were again around the... Continue Reading →
Sunflower
This year, a fine stand of sunflowers appeared for the first time along an urban path in Bellevue, attracting many admirers, myself included. But, beyond the attraction to humans, there was a beneficial attraction of another kind.
Honolulu Aquarium’s Giant Clams
As aquariums go, Honolulu's in Waikiki may be small, but it is no less interesting than others twice its size. It has several captivating specimens, all of which inhabit the Pacific Ocean. The collection includes several species of giant clams (Tridacna gigas). When I first saw one there, I couldn't tell it was a clam. I was looking for colossal... Continue Reading →
Middle East Piece
Artist Miri Golan advocates peace and understanding through her organization, Folding Together. In collaboration, Israelis and Palestinians create origami cranes from their respective language newspapers and string them together in the manner of Sadako Sasaki, the Hiroshima bomb victim who folded a thousand cranes. These were displayed at the Bellevue Arts Museum.
zoomeboshi 