MORE TRAVEL MEMORIES

 

No surprise, but I took a whole lot of pictures during our trip. The quality and variety was limited by my need of a cane and wobbly balance, but some good ones came through. This is Prague, in the palace gardens of Albrect von Wallenstein, the leading general on the Catholic side during the devastating Thirty Years War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_von_Wallenstein. The garden has rare white peacocks, something entirely new to me.               

CITY DAILY PHOTO AUGUST THEME - GARDEN

Gardens come in a myriad of varieties. Many of us have our own (although not this son of the concrete). The scene here is the annual orchid show at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis. Stop and smell the roses with other City Daily Photo members from around the world at https://citydailyphoto.org/category/theme-days/  .           

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - BZZZZZ

Hello from Happy Valley, Pennsylvania, the somewhat sardonic name used by locals for the area around the town of State College and Penn State University. My sister is retired from many years in administration and her husband  is a senior member of the psych department. We visited the university arboretum and gardens yesterday. One of their projects is to encourage pollinators of local plant species. This hive is in sort of a glass and wood case, which I gather is opened periodically. It lets bee-phobic people like me get a close up view.            

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - AT THE GETTY CENTER

We spent Saturday at The Getty Center in the super-expensive Bel Air district of Los Angeles. J. Paul Getty made his fortune in oil and was in his time considered the richest man in America. He had a great interest in art  and left a very large amount of money to create a multi-building museum and scholarship complex, https://www.getty.edu/visit/center/.  It was uncharacteristically overcast in LA and the light wasn't great for outdoor shooting but this is part of the main garden.  

By the way, if you are in LA or may be here in the next couple of months, the large retrospective of the work of photographer Imogen Cunningham is a knockout, the most powerful show I've seen in this medium in a long time. Go. https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/cunningham/index.html  

Tohono Chul

There is a stunning desert garden, Tohono Chul, on the northwest edge of Tuscon. We spent a pleasant afternoon there yesterday. We met one of the docents, Don Eagle, a retired physicist, who became our private guide. Those of us in temperate climates think of deserts as barren. You have only to open your eyes to learn otherwise.

Oh, and watch where you step.

Tucson notes:

Many of the place names are Spanish. We passed a common-looking residential side street called Calle Sin Nombre - Street Without A Name. I can find no explanation online.

The weather forecast for this afternoon includes the possibility of a dust storm. Better get back to Phoenix, which is, in fact, the plan.