Colourful offering to bring in the New Year

First I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

The weather has been dreary, the days short and dark so needing some colour meant going indoors.  I chose the Blodel Conservatory which is both an indoor garden and aviary. In 1969, Prentice Bloedel, founder of Canadian timber giant MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., gave the park over $1 million toward the development of the plaza, including the covered walkways, fountains and domed Bloedel Floral Conservatory.

"... over 100 birds of various species call the Bloedel Conservatory home and free-fly within its spacious dome.  It was constructed through a very generous donation from Prentice Bloedel in 1969."

Made of an intricate framework of tubular steel elements supporting 1490 Plexiglas bubbles, the Conservatory is a triodetic dome, 140 ft in diameter and 70 ft high.

Inside, visitors enjoy tropical forest plants, flowers, cacti, and exotic birds including parrots. There are three simulated climates within the dome: tropical rain forest, sub-tropical forest and desert. At this time of year the dome not only has its usual array of tropical plants and flowers but also hundreds of poinsettias and some flowering spring bulbs.

After removing my coat, I spent an hour or more wandering slowly around and taking pictures.

One of the many types of orchids

The birds fly around or walk around on the pathways and the dome is filled with their chatter. Some oblivious to visitors others observing them closely. I saw one of the parrots (Casey I think) perched on a visitor's shoulder, both parrot and visitor seemed happy with the arrangement.

This is Monty the Princess Parrot

Casey the yellow crowned Amazon Parrot

A Chinese Golden Pheasant (above and close up below)

There were many small birds, some very colourful, some quite drab by comparison. I don't know the names of the small birds.

Nelson is a dwarf Macaw

Bamboo shoot

Art, a blue and gold Macaw

Another look at Casey

Lollipop Plant

Plantain Banana

Maria and Carmen, green winged Macaws

At the end of my visit I felt some colour and life had returned to my creative side, which had become drained by the hectic season and gloomy weather. I may have to return again before the winter is over, for another "fix" of colour, and with the modest admission charge (less than a movie) I think this very likely.

Colour My World:

I have been very busy reorganizing my studio and cleaning so have little creative to offer other than today's pictures.

Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week.....

"I cannot pretend to be impartial about the colours. I rejoice with the brilliant ones, and am genuinely sorry for the poor browns." Winston Churchill

Puzzled?

After a busy Christmas Eve and Christmas Day my tradition for Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day) is to veg out, and for me that means doing puzzles: a jigsaw puzzle or a favorite crossword or sudoku puzzle. Boxing Day shopping is not for me, I am not a great fan of shopping at the best of times so Boxing Day shopping is definitely out.

Jigsaw puzzles according to Wikipedia:

"were originally created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, and then cutting that picture into small pieces with a jigsaw, hence the name. John Spilsbury, a London mapmaker and engraver, is credited with commercialising jigsaw puzzles around 1760. Most modern jigsaw puzzles are made out of cardboard, since they are easier and cheaper to mass produce than the original wooden models."

The word "puzzle" has its roots in a word from Old French: pusle meaning “bewilder, confound” is a form of the obsolete verb pose (from Medieval French aposer) in the sense of “perplex”. The use of the word to indicate “a toy contrived to test one’s ingenuity” dates from the mid-19th century.

Why do puzzles appeal to people? Puzzles are a mental challenge and apparently keep the mind sharp. For me focusing on a puzzle is also an escape. I find a jigsaw puzzle occupies my mind but still allows me to mentally relax.

There are also visual puzzles. I don't know if others have ever had the experience of looking at something but not being able to recognize it. The side of the brain, (I think it depends on whether you are left or right handed which side this is), that likes colour and form for their own sake is content but the analytical side of the brain is knocking itself out trying to find a pattern or recognize the image.

I have seen my cat Oscar (in kitty heaven now unfortunately) looking at something new, in the house or outside, and approaching very carefully, obviously he didn't recognize this new thing and wasn't sure if was friend or foe; sometimes he would run up and touch the object and then almost launch himself into the air to try to get away.

The picture at the beginning of the blog today is taken after the sun hit my frost covered plastic owl, looks like he is smoking doesn't it? The process of frost evaporating is called sublimation.
I looked through some of the pictures in my archive and found some that were a bit puzzling, and they are the main subject of today's post. What is this one? Some kind of fruit perhaps?

Well you might be surprised to find that it is and edible fungi, although the colour is a bit bright and I was once told to be careful of the bright, showy ones because they were not good for you.

I am sorry about the grainy quality of the next one, I took this a few years ago with an old camera.

Well in fact it is a picture that I took in Costa Rica of a very small frog. We were on a guided jungle walk and this is the picture I got when the guide picked this one up to let us have a closer look.

Any ideas on this one? I can tell you that it was taken in southern Italy, but I am not sure whether that will help much.

This is a picture taken inside and ancient olive tree, up towards the sky. Even though the tree had a gaping holes in its trunk it seemed to be otherwise healthy and held not only leaves but also olives.

This next one is a puzzle to me because I don't know what it is. I took the picture while on a walk in Umbria, Italy. It is a berry, maybe a Mulberry, but I have never seen it before. There is a larger picture below, showing a cluster of fruit.

You can probably guess what this one is even if you have never seen one before. Hint: I took this picture in southern Arizona.

Yes it is a cactus skeleton. I was fascinated, I had never seen one before.

I don't think this one is particularly puzzling, but it is funny. It's a cactus again, but this one is alive and masquerading as a giraffe.

This one is intriguing to me, it is a reflection in a small pond with an overgrown stump partly submerged. When I look at it, it almost appears to be a view of the distant forest rather than reflections.

The next one is a float, surrounded by reflections from a nearby dock.

I find this picture interesting because of the sign, which advertises a Bake Shop (which was nowhere in site), and it sits beside this old relic of a truck. I wonder if someone put it up as a joke.

I just like the quizzical look I got from this blue heron.

Here is a closeup of a piece of weathered driftwood.

Obviously a snail, but what caught my attention was where it was, see the following image. It is on a leaf on a ledge? What the.......

OK, this is a bird, rather an interesting angle, but what are the lines? One appears almost to be coming out of his head. The sparrow was sitting atop a fence outside a sailing centre and the lines are actually the rigging of one of the boats.

Mystery flower?

It is the flower of a Tulip Tree, or Liriodendron Tulipfora.
Here is a macro for you to ponder. See the complete image below for an explanation.

This is something I saw when out walking on a frosty day. Two pairs of work gloves decorating a pine tree.

The next two images are both closeups in that they don't give the whole picture, but I think the second one is quite recognizable.

But why was a Double Bass in a park at the beach? I didn't ask, but it seems to be a pleasant place to practice.

One last image. I think it could either be something very small or very large.

It is very large, it is a rock formation in the Grand Canyon.

OK, I heard you saying ENOUGH already. I hope you have enjoyed my visual puzzles.

"Nothing puzzles me more than time and space; and yet nothing troubles me less, as I never think about them." Charles Lamb

May all, or most of, your puzzles have a solution but be satisfying.

If you haven't heard "Il Volo" before you will be amazed at how mature their voices are for their age. This is a treat too because it is recorded live in the arena in Verona. Italy.

Now that Christmas is past, I can share these images of three recent paintings; all are watercolours. The first is a commission of a Border Collie. The second is a painting of a blind, but pampered and happy, cat. The third is the image for our 2011 personal Christmas card.

Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week,