another one

The pink phalaenopsis was opening more and more flowers for about two months now, and I got tired of photographing it somewhat.

Now the white one fully opened its three flowers. Yellow one formed two flowering spikes, and cattleya is about to open a flower. I think it's yellow one, although not sure.

I just checked and apparently many orchids start blooming in response to dropping temperature. well, temperature inside our house is well and truly dropped what with cold snap and all. Let's see if that's going to be too low for them. So far they are doing great


orchid pics at shutterstock

braids

Kirill's back from Fuerteventura, and this time he decided (to pass some time on a rainy day) to adorn himself with multiple braids. There were some ladies on the street doing it, usually on women' and especially girls' hair, so his request was sort of paradigm shift (as in pattern change, no science involved there). Caused a lot of interested from passers-by, in any case.

He especially noted a reaction of a practically bald guy, who walked up to their little group and asked if they can do something with his hair.

While I don' think this hairstyle suits him much, they are sort of fun and they won't last long in any case.

toned monochrome images at shutterstock

smoke tornado

Once a method for doing something is perfected (or something close to perfected), it should theoretically get boring, right? Learning curve is in the past, after all.

Somehow, not so. It seems I can annoy my family with burning incense sticks and photographing the smoke endlessly. It's hypnotic, the shape the smoke makes.

When Timur saw this one, he went "Wow! Tornado!"
smoke pics on shutterstock

Aira Force

funny name, almost air force but not quite.

The format of the main waterfall is not suitable for the orientation of most computer screens - it's very vertical. So what you see above is the Aira Beck just above the falls.

Main cascade would looks great on a hanging scroll, though



all images from Cumbria on shutterstock

sparkly stuff

Now, she had a dream about the king of Sweden,
He gave her things that she was needin',
He gave her a home built of gold and steel,
A diamond car with a platinum wheel.
(Cab Calloway, Minnie the Moocher)
I need a King of Sweden to give me things that I am needin'. And I don't even need a diamond car. Cheaper things of sparkly variety will do just as nicely.

I spent a few minutes yesterday in Scotsdales garden center looking though their Christmas decoration things. I like it, I just do. I don't need any of that, But I bought two branches with crystals hanging off them. I wanted to buy one, I really did. I couldn't choose. I asked for help from another shopper. He graciously agreed to choose for me. I took the branch that he choose, wandered off... Returned and took the second one as well.

hoar frost

It was frosty today in the morning, second time in a row. I had to spend some happy time with ice scraper before we could start for school.

While checking for the correct name of this type frost (yes, I am a checking person), I found the name for another type of frosty formations that I saw only ones before. I didn't see any today, but basically it looks like thin flat same-width rims of ice. Pics that I took on one occasion I saw it - here and here

According to wikipedia it's called advection frost or wind frost and it forms _against_ the wind direction. A puzzler that.



winter images on shutterstock

pomegranate

pomegranate on black mirror

it's difficult to guess what the inside of it will be like once you opened it, but this one proved to be good choice - nice-looking, photogenic, and apparently tasty. I didn't try it - I don't like pomegranate, bought it as a prop :)


black mirror images at shutterstock

Nashi pears (apparently)

Bought those today in Chinese supermarket on Mill road. Lady behind the counter told me that they are thought to be good for lungs. That's news to me, but I like the crunch of them anyways. And the look of them too.

In wikipedia I found that I those round ones are called "Nashi" pears, and that the ones that are more, well, pear-shaped, are called "Ya".

black mirror images at shutterstock

more sunlight

Cumbria again.

St. John's-in-the-Vale view, from lay-by on A66

Cumbria pics on shutterstock

I just like it

no other reason.

Continuing down the nostalgic route - close to my house in Moscow, there used to be "birds' market" - biggish marketplace dedicated to pets or all kinds. As kids we went there to look at cute puppies and kittens. There were also other things - plants and natural objects for home decorations (come to think of it, it was rather like a big pet-shop combined with garden center merchandise-wise).

Anyway, there were couple of traders there selling exotic seashells. I was convinced that they were not real shells - I just couldn't imagine that something so beautiful can just happen, surely cunning artifice came into it at some point.

By now the market was moved beyond the outer ring road of Moscow, apparently - they figured out it was not sanitary enough, or something.

rays

when you go along A66 to the west, not long before you come to Keswick, the road goes up and then along one side of a pretty valley for a while. I don't know the name, although I am sure it's perfectly findable. Most of my photos from this visit were taken from a lay-by somewhere, because it seems the the best light of each day was gone by the moment we came wherever our destination was. This photo is no exception - roadside one, from that section of A66

btw, in our family those slanted visible rays of sun are called, strangely, "death rays". The origins lay in a comic seen somewhere decades ago. Drawing was showing a little boy pointing some sort of toy at his dad's back, saying "Daddy, do you feel anything?". Open box with inscription "Death Rays" was beside him on the floor

PS: Apparently what we see here is a view of glacial valley "St. John's-in-the-Vale"

Cumbria pics on shutterstock

green fractal

I was choosing the most undamaged and photogenic romanesco broccoli at our market, accompanied by the usual trader shouts ("strAAAAWWberrrrYYY! Put a cauli in your trolley!", etc), somebody asked me "What are they?". I explained of course, although was surprised that they didn't know.

Later on I remembered that I didn't know either till a few years ago. First I saw it on photographs and couldn't quite believe that it was a real vegetable. Then I saw it outside a deli in Norfolk somewhere. And now I finally made a picture and have subsequently eaten one