Better than Galileo

No, not that I am better than Galileo!  But, my camera does have more magnification at 300mm than Galileo did  in 1609-1610 when he first turned his eyes to Jupiter.  And at a complete surprise to me, on a clear fall night in NY I was able to capture this picture of Jupiter with my camera...and yup, those are the Galilean moons surrounding it.  COOL!

A hint of purple

Right near where we were grillin' up dinner on the NY trip were these pretty little flowers.  Those who know me know that I can't resist a flower picture!!!!

So Much Depends...

On the blue wheel barrow...

Another goodie from the NY trip a couple weeks ago.  This picture just says fall and farm to me.  They also had a bathtub as a planter...most creative!

Salad Dressing Anyone?

Another picture form the NY trip.  Poke salad (also known as Pokeweed) has some darned pretty berries in the fall and I always seem to find some to take pictures of now that I live in the south!

Hello, I am Fall and I Am Cool!

OK, so I really should be grading student papers right now, but I think I will avoid it a bit longer by blogging! :)  A couple weeks ago Courtney and I had the chance to head up to near Salt Point, NY to visit with some family (new family for me!) and go to their home winery bottling party!  More on the party is here.  Fall was starting in up north and we got to see some great foliage.  This little guy was just outside one of our friends' house and I fell in love with it.  No idea what type of plant it is but I love the way the leaves changes in stripes!  Most Cool Fall!!

Growing in the Trees

The various plants that hand onto trees in the Jungle are just cool. No soil, and all the water they need form the air. Nifty! And not just small little plants, but, like this one, the tree dwellers can get really darned big!

Don't Blow Your Top

Arenal, Costa Rica. This is the view from our hotel! I guess that many people visit Arenal and never get the chance to see top of the volcano so we were very lucky. We were in Arenal for 4 nights and saw the mountain top every single day. WooHoo! We did not, alas, get a chance to see the actual lava flow, but the continual steam form the eruption was pretty impressive!

Feeling a bit Luna-ey

A couple of weekends ago I joined Courtney and Kate for tour of chicken coops in Oakhurst...yup, you read that correctly :) If you want to see a post on the coops then check out Courtney's post where you will also get to read about my Peep experiments! :) At one of the stops, the one with the baby ducks, there was the incredible Luna moth sitting on one of the coops. I don't remember ever having seen one before and was amazed. he is pretty big--3-4 inches across. and was just sitting there for the many photographers to come by and have a ball taking pictures. A truly beautiful animal!

Snow!

Well, we finally got a good snow out here in Atlanta. I know that many people might think me crazy, but I absolutely love the snow. It really makes my soul happy to be out in it and see it all around. There is something about breathing in that crisp cold air that just rejuvenates me. I forget how much I miss it and how important it is to me until I get back to it. So, needless to say, this weekend was wonderful for me! We got a couple inches here in Atlanta and though most of it has melted, my snow angel was still intact this morning in my front yard :) The first picture above is actually from Douglasville just West of Atlanta--where we are having out wedding in May. I just love the big old tree with its bare branches covered in snow. Pine trees are pretty in the snow, but there is something about a deciduous tree that strikes me. The second show is from a block away from my house in Atlanta showing just how hard it was snowing :)