Our water lilies are enjoying the hot summer and have been blooming regularly. We recently had a ten-lily-day! We were close to an unprecedented eleven-lily-day but it didn’t happen… YET.
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Scene while flying: July 11, 2014
As a reminder – the date in the title is the date of publication, not the date the photo was taken. I was recently in a window seat on the correct side of the plane as we flew into Seattle – so I got a couple of lovely photos. I’m pretty sure this is Mt. Rainier and Mt. Adams (background) but not 100% certain.
There are no significant peaks in the second one. I just thought the whole scene felt like a painting.
Scene in New York, part two
While in New York we also visited the Intrepid Museum. I’m not going to lie – at $31 a person in order to see the space shuttle as well, it was an awfully expensive a ticket for what you saw. There was really cool stuff, but while I get that we couldn’t go *on* the shuttle, they could have had some doors open so we could look in it at least. However, we had a good time and I am glad we went.
I loved the backlight effect while we were on the flight deck.
Of course as a Star Trek fan, I had to see the Enterprise!
The Intrepid is a ship and still on the water – and the ropes keeping it there are impressive!
Scene in New York
Last week my husband and I were in New York City. It was the first time I’d been there since the attacks in 2001. We made time to visit the 9/11 Memorial, although we were not able to visit the museum. It’s an incredibly moving memorial – a massive fountain/waterfall for each tower, and around the edge are engraved the names of those who perished – though out of respect for their families I am not going to include names in the photos here. The water flows endlessly down and you cannot see the bottom. The new 1 World Trade Center (“Freedom Tower”) is also quite a sight. The resilience of the city is most impressive.
1 World Trade Center
1 World Trade Center from the base
one of the two memorial fountains
A welcome visitor!
While sitting on our porch my husband spotted a bird fly into a sentinel pine right by the house. He got up and noticed it was on a nest. We decided it was a mother robin.
It’s hot, so the open beak is part of heat regulation (common for birds). A bit later I noticed she had left so I went to the upper deck to see what I could see. I spied three “robin’s blue” eggs! Hard to get the camera in for that, but here are two of them (okay, part of two of them):
This is likely their last brood of the season, and I’d like to know how we missed the first one (or two)?????
Anyway, we’ll be keeping an eye out!
Scene in Spain, #19
After Barcelona we were on our way to Ponferrada. We took an overnight train to get there, so this was our hotel room for that night. I had the top bunk! (and yes, I had whiskey with me).
Scene in Spain, #18
One of the “must do” items in Barcelona, apparently, is to go to La Rambla. So we did.
My favorite thing we saw was this Chinese dragon.
Scene in Spain, #17
Soooooo. Yes, it’s been quite a while since I posted a Spain entry and I have a good reason for it. I was stumped. My next chronological step would be to post my photos for Sagrada Família in Barcelona… and honestly it’s overwhelming. So so get over this hurdle I’ve decided I’ll just pick a few and post them and move on. It’s an incredibly complex building that is still under construction and I can’t imagine how long it would take to actually see it all. Many of these were taken “blind” – I was using my husband to steady my camera with my longer lens on it, aiming, and hoping. Turned out a significant number of them were decent shots.
By the way, it turns out pigeons have little respect for architecture…
Brightening the pond
We got some new pond plants and my favorite so far is a rain lily (Zephyranthes flavissima). Lovely bright yellow flowers that keep coming back.
A lovely volunteer
Usually the plants that volunteer to grow in your yard without your explicit request are the ones that you have to call weeds and pull from the ground by their roots. They are, sadly, generally quite ugly.
In this case a butterfly bush decided to plant itself in our circular drive garden. (Technically, it’s an elliptical drive. THAT is a very long story.) Because I knew what it was, I let it grow. At some point we may choose a different home for it, but for now I’m happy to have it where it is. It just started blooming and I’m looking forward to the butterflies finding it soon.
I think the second version will make a nice cover photo for twitter or facebook…
@KellyOSullivan 
