From Word Press – “Welcome to the final installment of the Weekly Photo Challenge. In wishing you a fond farewell, we wanted to share our all-time favorite photos with you. We welcome you to share your favorites with us. Happy photographic trails!” – Krista Stevens
I want to thank the Word Press staff for years of Daily Challenges. I have enjoyed participating in the challenges and love to do my best to present my posts. This is my second post to the final installment.
I love taking sunset photos for its dramatic colors with the combination of clouds, moist in the air, and reflections in the ocean. The fascination is the colors change so quickly within a matter of minutes. I have taken sunset photos during travels to many countries. Including in this post are photos from July 18, 2017 at La Habra, California; November 23, 2015 at Huntington Beach, California; October 11, 2014 at Maui, Hawaii; and January 10, 2011 at Key West, Florida.
My all-time favorite photos are the ones keep the memories of family time. The precious moments we created together. They always bring a smile to my face and warmth in my heart. These are the photos taken between 2012 to 2018.
May 22, 2018, was our last day of sightseeing before leaving Alaska on the following day. We went on the Portage Glacier Cruise. We were fortunate to have a sunny day for the Denali National Park trip. We had a sunny day again for our glacier cruise. When we arrived at the site of the glacier, the boat stopped, and the captain gave us an orientation of the phenomena of the glacier. Toward the end of the cruise, we had photos taken with the safety ring labeled the company name as our souvenir.
As a point of interest, here are the what and why of blue ice and iceberg.
Blue glacier
In the case of oceans or lakes, some of the light hitting the surface of the water is reflected back directly, but most of it penetrates the surface, interacting with its molecules. The water molecule can vibrate in different modes when the light hits it. The red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths of light are absorbed, the remaining light is composed of the shorter wavelengths of blue and violet. This is the main reason why the ocean is blue.
Small amounts of regular ice appear to be white because of air bubbles are inside them and because small quantities of water appear to be colorless. In glaciers, the pressure causes the air bubbles to be squeezed out, increasing the density of the ice. As it absorbs the colors other than blue, a large piece of compressed ice, or a glacier, would appear blue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_ice_(glacial)
Iceberg
As we look around the lake, we saw many pieces of the iceberg. Iceberg is a large floating mass of ice detached from a glacier or ice sheet. It floats until it’s carried out to sea. When we see “the tip of the iceberg,” we only see 10% of its mass. We saw one piece of blue iceberg, the mass below the surface must be a large body of ice.
May is the beginning of summer in Alaska, the snow water gushes down countless twisting creeks. If we had gone back in two or three weeks, we would see the beautiful blooms.
My husband and I spent Mother’s Day weekend with Mercy, Will, and Autumn. Autumn is now seven and a half months old. She started crawling fast on Mother’s Day. What a joyful Mother’s Day gift she gave to her mom. She also learned to clap her hands and feet. Yes, she curls up her legs and claps her feet. She pinches something smaller than a piece of rice with her index finger and thumb. I was impressed with her fine motor dexterity.
We arrived Portland on Wednesday. Mercy took us to different gardens on Thursday and Friday.
For this post, I include several photos of Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden. It is a botanical garden located near Reed College in southeastern Portland, Oregon. The garden covers 9.49 acres (3.84 ha), is named for the numerous springs within the garden. Crystal Springs Garden features more than 2,500 rhododendrons, azaleas, and other plants in small lakes, fountain, and small waterfalls.
Many kinds of ducks, birds, and geese are residents in the Garden. My favorite is Wood Duck. This time of the year, Canada Geese have a whole bunch of offspring. It was fun watching the goslings running around eating seeds.
We had an outing to The Huntington Library today. We made this plan last week. The weather was getting warmer and I packed things I needed to protect me from sunlight and the heat. My skin is still sensitive to the heat and the ray of the sun, so I need to be careful. When we got up this morning, I saw the unusual hazy sky. As I looked north, the mountains were disappeared.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and located in Los Angeles County in San Marino, California. In addition to the library, the institution houses an extensive art collection with a focus in 18th- and 19th-century European art and 17th- to mid-20th-century American art. The 500 acres property includes approximately 120 acres of specialized botanical landscaped gardens, the “Japanese Garden”, the “Desert Garden”, and the “Chinese Garden”, along with the Rose Garden, Australian Garden, Herb Garden, Shakespeare Garden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huntington_Library
The haze in the sky blocked the heat from the sun. It turned out to be a better day for me. We walked for three hours and visited some of the Exhibits and several Gardens. The structure for the climbing roses in the Rose Garden is beautiful.
My plum tree is four years old. In March 2017, the tree was full of blossoms. Thanks to the hard-working bees, we had a prolific harvest in the early summer. I took photos of the plum tree in March this year, the blossoms were scattered. I was puzzling about the difference between the two years. Then I remembered that the rain came late this past winter. The air was still cold in February and early March. As a result, there was not enough sunlight to call out the blossoms. Only after the rain and a couple weeks of warm weather, the blossoms started to appear. The harvest this year may not be as bountiful as last year.
We planted some Date Palm Trees in our front yard fourteen years ago. They are now mature and leafy. I enjoy sitting on the front porch, breathing in the cooler air, and watching the flowers in my garden. They are awakening to answer the call of spring.
