angelic snow people

a friend arrives home from a big trip abroad, having travelled through different countries on different modes of transport, for days. arriving to an empty home, after being in the tropics for weeks on end. an empty home in the freezing rain. freezing rain at 0 or 1 degree celsius. freezing rain that's following immediately after 48 hours of snowfall. what could this friend's friends do? build snow people. that's a lot of fun. and it brought such a smile to her face.

le festival montréal en lumière

not much of a festival, but it's a nice idea... in the midst of a quebec winter, have a small european style festival that gets everyone outdoors in the middle of the city. drink warm drinks, stand by the fire, hear performers and look at art. there was supposed to be fireworks, but i guess we missed that. montrealenlumiere.com

cathédrale marie-reine-du-monde

avez-vous déjà venu à montréal - je veux dire, vraiment été à montréal? oublier la rue sainte-catherine ... je veux dire, avez-vous mangé une chocolatine au marché atwater? avez-vous erré dans le plateau vers le bas urbaine saint? avez-vous noyer votre crêpe au sirop d'érable? avez-vous vu le daniel mcallister dans le canal lachine? avez-vous eu votre coupe de cheveux par Pasquale à des styles différents sur lambert closse? avez-vous eu la poutine à la paryse? avez-vous ramené 3 douzaines de bagels de fairmount? nah ... vous n'avez pas été à montréal.

have you ever been to montreal - i mean, really been to montreal? forget saint catherine street... i mean, have you eaten a chocolatine at atwater market? have you wandered the plateau down saint urbaine? have you drowned your crepe in maple syrup? have you seen the daniel mcallister in canal lachine? have you had your haircut by pasquale at different styles on lambert closse? have you had poutine at la paryse? have you brought back 3 dozen bagels from fairmount? nah... you haven't been to montreal.

late buses on nathan road

all night, kowloon is alive. there are so many people here... so many commuters on nathan road. so many market stalls on temple street. so many taxis at kowloon station. so many girls on woo sung street. mong kok is quiet as it gets late, but jordan and yau ma tei are busy busy. this photo is in yau ma tei looking south on nathan road towards jordan.

australian wood duck

she is sitting on the shore of lake burley griffin as joggers pass by. she is with other australian wood ducks. is she a dabbling duck? is she a shelduck? australian wood ducks could be argued as either. the australian wood duck is the only species within its genus. as with many ducks, australian wood ducks are monogamous.

snöflingor påminna mig om sverige

det är fantastiskt hur varje snöflinga kan ha olika form och olika diemension. jag skulle inte gå så långt som att säga att de är helt unika, precis som människans fingeravtryck är, men jag kan säga att jag aldrig har sett två av samma. snön flake är vacker. det får mig att tänka på sverige av någon anledning, även om ihave aldrig varit där. jag vet inte varför. uppväxt som barn i australien, berättelser om snö och snöflingor alltid fick mig att tro att jag var i skandinavien, särskilt i sverige. här är en snöflinga, men det är i usa.

t's amazing how each snowflake can take different forms and different dimension needs. I would not go so far as to say that they are unique, just like human fingerprints are, but I can say I have never seen two of the same. snow flake is beautiful. it reminds me of Sweden, for some reason, even if ihave never been there. I do not know why. upbringing as a child in Australia, stories about snow and snowflakes always made me think I was in Scandinavia, particularly Sweden. This is a snowflake, but it is in the usa.

santa fe is 399

santa fe - the city different - with the aroma of burning desert sage, and the cool dry air teasing from across the plains. what a fantastic place... a place that seems to have it all together. what an unusual place - the oldest city in the united states. the oldest state capital in the united states. santa fe was acquired [by force] 399 years ago by our spanish conqueror friends. it's beautiful here, the adobe architecture, the dry landscape, but mostly the smell of burning sage lingering in the air.

greater black-backed gull

the king of gulls - the largest gull in the world. not a herring gull. not a lesser black-backed gull. yes, they are opportunistic feeders - like most gulls - but they are also very highly predatory throughout their 25 years of life, which is not typical gull behavior. they tend to behave more like a raptor at times, killing anything smaller than them to eat. they eat fish. they eat chicks of other birds. they eat puffins and ducks and terns. they eat babies.

ocean avenue

how many ocean avenues are there in the world? there must be thousands of them - they do seem to be an american name though - ocean avenue. i mean, of course there are other ocean avenues out there [that aren't in the usa] but not as frequently as in the usa. in the united kingdom for example, it might be more like seaside crescent or the kingsway, and in australia it might be called the esplanade, espy. ocean avenue just seems so santa monica or malibu, or of course in this case, kennebunkport. can you believe this photo is only about 1/2 a mile from the bush compound? bush senior that is.

mary & carly

piscataqua river - on the new hampshire side - is the home to mary, carly and eugenia - three moran tugboats that are in operation in there. mary is on the left and at 3200 hp is the most powerful of the three tugs. carly is on the right, and unfortunately eugenia couldn't make the photo. i feel like eugenia is never around - does she stay somewhere else? what absolutely beautiful vessels. they say that you can do hour-and-a-half cruises on these babies from may through to october. they couldn't suggest something more exciting i'd rather do. i can't wait - an hour and a half on a tug - what a blast!

throw it away

there is no 'away' to throw things. no matter which way, away does not exist - when you throw something 'away', you are actually throwing it away from yourself, but towards something else - the concept of away: away from who? away from you maybe, but closer to me. away from me maybe, but closer to someone else. you can't throw things away, because away does not exist. so don't let me hear you say you are going to throw it away, because you can't. and you are out of line for even considering it. Who knows how far this bottle had to bob before arriving at coney island?

beantown's neighbour

the red coats are gone. just walking around you can't imagine what it was like - waiting for the whites of their eyes before opening fire. the white's of the red coats' eyes that is. but what an amazing place to live... i can imagine... a little straight, a little straight forward, but that's okay.

in the shadow of zakim

not really in the shadow - physically, but the metaphorical shadow... and almost the physical - after all, it's really nearby... oh wait, you don't know it as zakim, you know it as the i-93 bridge across the charles - you know... the one near the banknorth garden... near bunker hill... wait, talking about the wrong one. talking about the salted, near neglected charlestown bridge near the zakim. remember? the one in the shadow. look at the stairwell, it's gone!

aquidneck on aquidneck

aquidneck in its home port - its beauty is not from its deck. its beauty is from the shore or another deck looking upon it. its beauty is to sit and try the local, and a bucket of oysters if that's your thing. it would be mine, but on aquidneck island, i surely can't afford it... or maybe i can, but i can't justify that kind of cost - not when it's half the price down the road, but then of course, i would not be looking on... aquidneck in its home port.

1964 ford falcon

there's something nice about the idea of living in a small home in a country town in the forties and fifties. i imagine this guy was so excited to buy a brand new ford falcon in the early sixties. a well made car that probably cost a fair bit of money. he looked after that car, washed it every weekend, polished it, never took it out in the winter. he was a probably a little older than his twenties when he bought it, so he never thrashed it. he looked after it. and so because it was well made and cared for, it has lasted... forty-five years. he's had it more than half his life. he still takes the car out on the summer weekend afternoons. and his old dog, his best friend, joins him every time.

manor of rensselaerswyck

een boerderij schodack - rensselaerswyck - a place rich in dutch history, henry hudson and all that - and now there's farms, and lots of state troopers. farms are rich in local and organic strawberries - at least i hope they are organic. definately local.

ædɪ rawndæks

green is finally here - and there in the gorgeous northern limits of the adirondacks - they eat trees. i don't think the mohawks were being very nice when they described the algonquins that way, but regardless - in the depths of winter it may have been true. now they eat like the rest of us, subway and mcdonald's. and they sell this hay from this beautiful place to pay their way. how beautiful is this spring scene? i love the adirondacks, except the lake george part, and the glens falls part - don't love those parts so much, but this part is gorgeous.

le plateau mont-royal

i love the plateau - the back streets - those residential streets with the staircases. and those colours. and the bagels. nothing beats a fairmount bagel at the top of mont-royal - a small knife, local cream cheese.

customs douane

i feel like they've loosened up with their control attitude these days. they used to almost harrass you every time you came into the united states, but now they are really nice about it. a few routine questions, a couple of extras thrown in to make sure you aren't lying.

la isla bonita

"i want to be where the sun warms the sky
when it's time for siesta you can watch them go by
beautiful faces, no cares in this world
where a girl loves a boy and a boy loves a girl
last night i dreamt of san pedro
it all seems like yesterday, not far away"

hudson valley grasshopper

hudson valley grasshopper. a few minutes of interaction. i talk to the grasshopper. he sits on my finger. he looks at me. he can hear me, you know. but he says nothing. he just watches. he watches me. i love him. hudson valley grasshopper.

札幌市

this is of a fantastic city by choice, and if you get by train, it takes long time to here accelerate. already hakodate senses top of the world to him, what abounds russian influences and squids. the capital hokkaido this is several hours above hakodate. and it as cold as else cities on the world, even when january exaggerates him. the people absolutely beautiful, so stylish. i love this town and his women and men. such things make you beauty inside.

芸者

the gion district of kyoto is fantastic around the end of the day - sure... there's a lot of tourists, but it's such a beautiful place to wander around, eating octopus on a stick and window-shopping in so many beautiful shops. when the geishas are out as well, it makes you feel like you are in such a beautiful place. the women in kimonos are gorgeous, but the geishas are spectacular.

Communipaw Terminus

the grand old days of rail & ferry may be over, especially in the united states - but this place still has magic about it. men with their pipes and the new york times on the seven o'clock, women with their youngsters in tow on the ten o'clock - gone are the days of romantic rail travel. and those gorgeous old ferries with their wooden decks and wooden ramps. and to think that there are men and women who stepped off the train here and walked the same platform, the same corridor and down the same couple of steps, out on the same dock and onto the same ferry bound for manhattan for years - thirty and forty years - and now they are but ghosts of history, as are the trains and ferries that carried them. but the terminus still stands, as do the docks - left as they last were. manhattan has grown across the hudson river. the stories these docks have seen still exist, even if we may never hear them.

panamax

panamax is being redefined. transiting the panama canal is performed by a canal master. the panamax ships that make their way through need canal pilots to manage the ships operation through the canal, particularly to get them through the locks themselves. panamax refers to the maximum dimensions (width and length) that a ship may be in order to fit through the panama canal. but shipping companies need bigger, faster, stronger - and so the canal needs to be widened to allow these 'new panamax' to pass through. panamax - 33 metres wide. new panamax - 54 metres wide. what will be the new limiting factor? height - the height of the bridge at the pacific entrance - the bridge of the americas.

watchful eye

they look. upon the top of the tallest structure in new york city, stand the sentinels. these sentinels are throughout the state, and indeed the country. uniform in appearance, they watch over all the major tourist sites, no matter the weather, at all times of the day. they look. they view upon niagara falls, the statue of liberty, ellis island, and here on top of the empire state building. keeping a watchful eye.

veto power

what's with veto power? i thought the whole point of a democracy was to vote and to make decisions based on which option was the most popular. surely you could have healthy debate and discussion in the leadup to the vote, but the vote would be the voice for the majority. let me give you the united nations security council - a great idea for when the league of nations is too slow to respond. but what's with the 15 members being allowed, five of whom are nuclear powers who have signed the no-pro treaty, and those same five have veto power on any resolution on the table. what if, they worked collaboratively to develop resolutions that don't require veto, because they all buy in on it. now there's an idea. i don't like veto power.

no circular motion blur

pre-dawn in london is a beautiful time to be out and about - the only people you bump into are those really early birds, setting up newspaper stands, unlocking gates on tube stations. you can get the uninterrupted photos - uninterrupted by the throngs of people that are - well - everywhere in London, except at 5am. The millennium wheel is still at this time, so no blur, even though circular motion blur would also be kind of cool on this photo too. and i know you call it the london eye, but i call it the millennium wheel - which is also its real name.

bula yasawas

bula nacula - this place is paradise. imagine grabbing a snorkel and mask, a pair of swimmers and your absolutely stunning girlfriend and heading to the second furthest island out on the yasawas, getting to know people, especially drinking kava with local guys [and an awesome german couple] and then literally spending three days in a hammock and a thatched-roof bure.

gorgeous icons

the old coat hanger -the sydney harbour bridge - is a tremendously gorgeous icon of sydney. along with the sydney opera house, it easily makes up the most beautiful area of any city in the world. nothing is more spectacular than standing between the two near campbell's cove on an early summer evening, watching the flying foxes take off from the royal botanic gardens to fly out to the western suburbs where they eat the fruits of the cocos palms in suburban gardens. the three hoots of sydney ferries backing out from circular quay, the rumbling of a tangara crossing northbound, the place is absolutely perfect. gorgeous.

romaldo's parliament house

a fascinating building, on capital hill, the inner circle of canberra - romaldo giurgola has done a fantatic job with this one. of course, he didn't build it alone, but it is in his vision and is an architectural masterpiece - and efficient, being that most of it is underground. he has designed other interesting buildings, but this one truly takes the cake. the highlight? ...the waterpiece out the front and the marble foyer inside.

dead and living

two old gum trees - one dead, one living - standing side by side, as they've done so for years. romantics may like to think of it as the old couple, one of whom has passed away and the other standing faithfully by - but the truth is that they may have just grown too close together from the day they first sprouted as young eucalypts and one stole the other's water and nutrients from nearby soils, such as nitrogen. or most likely of all, one tree, unrelated to the other, just happened to be ringbarked more successfully by cattle in the field. and there are cattle in these fields, not sheep as you would expect around here. i know, i was surprised too! either way, what a beautiful night star gazing, out near darby's falls observatory - with absolutely no lights around to spoil the night sky.

early starters - a southbound skein

it's only september, but these canada geese have begun their journey southbound for the coming winter. geese fly in v formation for several reasons, primarily to boost flight efficiency and improve range through reduced drag. all birds, apart from the lead bird, are flying in the upwash of the birds ahead. the birds rotate through the lead position to reduce fatigue. birds are also better able to communicate and to keep an eye on one another in this formation.

apis of phylum arthropoda

apid worker bees travel from flower to flower, and end up coated in pollen. using their long tongue, these female bees moisten their forelegs and brush all the pollen that has collected on their heads and the front part of the body to their hind legs. this pollen is packed together in what is known as a pollen basket, on the tibia of the hind legs. the bee then transports this pollen back to the hive, to be processed into honey and stored for food. these arthropods are social animals that all fulfill working roles for the common good of the hive. and they're beautiful.

streamline moderne

arts decoratifs - in its late stages during the 1930s - was expressed in various forms. streamline moderne, the last art deco style, was done by 1940. there are some examples still remaining, the best of which is miami's south beach. what a gorgeous place - warm, sultry nights, beautiful, beautiful people, the sound and smells of the ocean, and this classic art deco architecture - restored to its original glory, with bright neon lights off-setting its streamline charm. truly elegant, stylish and eclectic. truly streamline moderne.

courage, strength, happiness

...courage, strength and happiness - this green darner rests on a spring-fed pond in the middle of town. and yes, i know it looks blue. it is a green darner. darners are the largest of dragonflies, native to the northern hemisphere. they feed mainly on mosquitoes and other such smaller insects. dragonflies are a symbol of courage, strength and happiness [and unfortunately in romania they symbolize horses possessed by the devil, but this wasn't taken in romania and they're gorgeous, so let's just go with the positive attributes shall we?] look at it - it is perfection in nature.

tramvaji na trg bana josipa jelačića

everyone in zagreb seems to be pregnant - well obviously not everyone, but a lot of people are. must be a sign of prosperity. this city is beautiful, uninfected by hordes of postcard sellers with their ten for a dollar crap. thank god there are still beautiful cities in the world where you can sit outside and have a coffee as late as you want without wankers everywhere. it's a shame i have a common cold, but this place is amazing. i wish we were getting the train south, deeper into the country, instead of just returning to ljubljana west from here tomorrow. not that there's anything wrong with ljubljana, it's just that there's so much to see in croatia.

independent thinker

this creature is an independent thinker. it has its own ways, its own habits, its own thoughts, memories and concerns. it has its own fears, and things that make it happy. this creature is a mallard, a dabbling duck, and she's beautiful. this mallard, let's call her daisy... no, wait, let's think of something more unique... let's call her dojencek nadrilijecnik. anyway, she lives in blejsko jezero - lake bled - the only lake in slovenia with an island, and it is an absolutely gorgeous place. and as an independent thinker with mobility, she lives there by choice.

maritime greenwich

greenwich is my favorite borough of london, and maritime greenwich is my favorite part of greenwich. alongside the cutty sark is a 1902 shortcut to the isle of dogs. it is a footpath that runs below the thames to the northern side of the river. maritime greenwich has beautiful markets, fantastic restaurants and gorgeous parks and palaces. the gipsy moth pub is a place i'd love to have a drink when i am back in greenwich.

香港维多利亚港

star ferry's tsim sha tsui pier on kowloon provides a magnificent sunset view of victoria harbour and hong kong island. the star ferry has plowed this cross-harbour route for more than 100 years, starting in 1898.

the tube - manually

entering by stairwell into the london underground, you truly appreciate how far beneath the ground some of those stations and tunnels are. the london underground is the oldest subway system in the world and some of these entrances are beautiful. manual entrance - walking down the stairs - no escalator, no lift - just walk down a spiral staircase for several hundred steps.

paris, je t'aime

je me tiens ici, à la basilique du sacré coeur et de vigie sur une ville vraiment la plus belle. je peux maginez vivent ici depuis plusieurs années - pas pour beaucoup, vivant juste ici. certes, tout le monde pense à la vieille "flâner et manger des baguettes et des scènes de croquis à l'aquarelle ou le charbon", mais je pense plus juste de vivre ici - des rencontres, de propriété d'un appartement, vivre la vie locale, et je pense que les baguettes trop . je crois que j'aimerais bien rester ici un soir d'été chaude, bavardant avec trois amis parisiens.

I stand here at basilique du sacré coeur and lookout over a truly most beautiful city. i can magine living here for several years - not doing much, just living here. sure, everyone thinks about the old "wander around and eat baguettes and sketch scenes with watercolours or charcoal", but I am thinking more of just living here - meeting people, owning an apartment, living the local life, and I guess the baguettes too. I think I'd love to sit here on a hot summer's evening, chatting with three parisian friends.

árd eaglais naomh pádraig

saint patrick used to hang out on this site back in the 400s and baptise converts to christianity at a local well, and a church has existed here ever since. so in 1192, the normans built a cathedral here, and dedicated it to saint patrick. rebuilt in the early 1200s, this is now the national cathedral of ireland. floor tiles guarded by the knights of saint patrick.

face to face

face to face with a crustacean, for a while - i am the visitor to the hermit crab's space. i have all these assumptions - that he is a he, that he would speak english if he had human capacities such as the ability to speak, that he is able to understand a spiritual connection that forms between us when we come face to face. "don't be afraid", i wish upon him. can he sense my willingness to protect him from harm, at least while i am present? sure, he scurries a little, but when i get really close, he just looks at me with those eyes, and i like to think that, for a moment, when we are face to face, we form a connection.

ridiculous treasury

tell me of what use is the us penny? it is ridiculously useless - an aggravating coin. many people throw them away in frustration. and i feel kind of bad - lincoln seem to be a good guy - good enough to have a shrine [memorial] named after him, indeed... erected in his honor. and the shrine [memorial] was good enough to be placed on the penny in 1909 - but now's the time to get rid of it. it is a beautiful monument, but it is a stupid, useless coin.

dastardly tent moth caterpillar

despicably malicious tent moth caterpillar. ravenous. villainous. eating everything. searching endlessly. seemingly sniffing the air for fresh foriage: foliage. to eat and eat and eat. voracious herbivore. insatiable appetite. edacious tent moth caterpillar. gregarious tent moth caterpillars combining forces to decimate. safety in numbers. not gypsy moth caterpillar. tent moth caterpillar. dastardly tent moth caterpillar.

cách nhanh nhất từ nhà trường

you work hard all your life. you come from a family of people who have worked hard all their lives. you wake up early, you do some work. you go to school - working hard all day to get an education, to make something of your future - you work to get there. you work to get home. and then when you get home, you work some more. you work on weekends, and you work on your school breaks. after you have completed your last year at school, you get a job, and you work. everyone around you works, so it is normal. but however hard you work, you always find the fastest way home from school.

aleje jerozolimskie

the main east-west axis of warsaw - art nouveau and modernist architecture destroyed and replaced with the soviet gift - the palace of science and culture. but still, a bustling thoroughfare that black and white can capture with such interest. black and white and a little bit of that continental early morning fog smog. a brisk breeze keeps locals bundled in their faux fur coats and their warm hats, gloves and scarves. warsaw poland has adopted western europe, but i can imagine those days of the warsaw uprising, and i can appreciate the polish home army's efforts to rid warsaw of nazi scum.

haapiti mo'orea

tropical paradise is the best way to describe moorea. if you have time to meet locals, you will feel such a warm, friendly people. i left hauru very early this morning and drove my fiat rental car south along the western coast of moorea, stopping in a few spots to photograph the rugged mountains in the center of the island. this church is in haapiti. i met a young guy, probably about my age, last night. he and his wife live in haapiti. they want to move to papeete where they can make more money, but they understood how beautiful moorea is.

死鸽子背后圣凯瑟琳大街

it's sad to see death. it's sad to imagine death going unnoticed. this pigeon is dead, laying in a corner of an alley behind montreal's chinatown. i've no idea how long it's been there. pigeons. you see millions of them alive, but this is the first dead one i have ever seen.