Saratoga National Historic Park, in upstate New York, preserves the site of a pivotal battle of the American Revolutionary War. Here, American forces met, defeated and forced the surrender of a major British Army in October, 1777, which ultimately led France to enter the war as a decisive military ally of the struggling Americans.

The building you see here is a restoration of the home of John Neilson, a local farmer who cast his lot with the Patriot cause, and whose farm was enclosed within the defenses of the Americans at the time of the battle. The home is one of the stops on a 9.5-mile driving tour that takes visitors past the Park’s historical sites.

Limonium is a genus of 120 flowering plant species. Members are also known as sea-lavender, statice, caspia or marsh-rosemary. Despite their common names, species are not related to the lavenders or to rosemary. They are instead in Plumbaginaceae, the plumbago or leadwort family. The generic name is from the Latin līmōnion, used by Pliny for a wild plant and is ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek leimon (λειμών, ‘meadow’). The genus has a subcosmopolitan distribution in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and North America. By far the greatest diversity (over 100 species) is in the area stretching from the Canary Islands east through the Mediterranean region to central Asia; for comparison, North America only has three native Limonium species. 30578

The idea of "everything is connected" comes with Endless Knot. I hope it goes with Macro Monday's theme "connection"

Wikipedia says

" The endless knot or eternal knot (Sanskrit: Shrivatsa; Tibetan དཔལ་བེའུ། dpal be'u; Mongolian Ulzii) is a symbolic knot and one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols. It is an important cultural marker in places significantly influenced by Tibetan Buddhism such as Tibet, Mongolia, Tuva, Kalmykia, and Buryatia. It is also sometimes found in Chinese art and used in Chinese knots.

Various interpretations of the symbol are:

The eternal continuum of mind.

The endless knot iconography symbolised Samsara i.e., the endless cycle of suffering or birth, death and rebirth within Tibetan Buddhism.

The inter-twining of wisdom and compassion.

Interplay and interaction of the opposing forces in the dualistic world of manifestation, leading to their union, and ultimately to harmony in the universe.

The mutual dependence of religious doctrine and secular affairs.

The union of wisdom and method.

The inseparability of emptiness (shunyata) and dependent origination, the underlying reality of existence.

Symbolic of knot symbolism in linking ancestors and omnipresence (refer etymology of Tantra, Yoga and religion) (see Namkha.)

Since the knot has no beginning or end it also symbolizes the wisdom of the Buddha."

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_knot

In Celtic times the island was called Eria's Island. Eria was a woman's name and this became confused with Erin, derived from Éireann, the Irish name for Ireland. The Vikings substituted the word Island with ey, their Norse equivalent, and so it became known as Erin's Ey and ultimately Ireland's Eye.

Snug Harbor State Park is located on Muskegon Lake. There are trails that spread out in several directions to the dunes and ultimately to Lake Michigan.

"It has been said that something as small as a flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world"

Chaos Theory

Inspiration: ♪♫♬

Taken at Rhossili Beach, Gower one of many shipwrecks around the coast. Trying to do more mono shots! Some history of the Vennerne below:

The Vennerne was a 275 tonne barque on the way from Aberdovey to Swansea when rough seas forced her to take shelter in the protection afforded by Worms Head. Unfortunately that protection did not prove enough as she dragged her anchor and found herself driven onto the beach beneath the cliffs. The Rhossili L.S.A. were quickly on the scene and tried to fire safety lines across from the land to the ship. All were unsuccessful. With the chance of the Vennerne suffering further damage increasing with every minute that past the Captain, along with his family and crew, made the decision to abandon ship and made it ashore on a small boat.

The next day an attempt was made to refloat the Vennerne but this ultimately proved fruitless. She wrecked later that day. The Iron Hull was sold at auction for the princely sum of £54. The remains that can be seen today is all that is left from that salvage operation. Taken from Gowershipwrecks.co.uk

I just recently got back from a beautiful trip to Hawaii (Maui and Kauai). After losing my dad suddenly 3 months ago I needed a mental and physical break. Hawaii is a special and spiritual place and seeing some of the world’s most endangered birds really was special. Here is an ʻIʻiwi taken at Hosmer Grove IN Haleakala National Park. I felt blessed to go into the restricted access Waikamoi Preserve on the island of Maui and see intact native forests and endemic Hawaiian Honeycreepers. Luckily rapid ʻōhiʻa death has not reached this island and hope it stays that way. These birds depend on ʻōhiʻa trees to survive. This is why it’s so important to brush and spray your boots with alcohol before hiking in these fragile ecosystems to prevent the spread of rapid ohia death. This is a fungus that kills the trees and ultimately detrimentally impacts these Hawaiian Honeycreepers. Avian Malaria is a huge problem in Hawaii and so many good people are working with Incompatible Insect Technique (IIT) technology to try and help save these amazing finches. These Hawaiian birds inspire me with their resilience and for hanging on despite it all. Thanks to everyone in the Hawaiian Islands working so hard day and night to protect these birds and their habitats. I enjoyed my visit both by day and night at Haleakala National Park as at night I got to watch Hawaiian Petrels or ‘Ua’u calling and flying in to their burrows as they nest up at the summit of the crater. Listening to their calls was so moving and I delighted in watching them by flashlight as they flew in. Later I would go on to the island of Kauai where I saw one of the most critically endangered birds in the world an Akikiki which are actively being collected now in the wild to help save the 40 birds left in the wild. I also got to see the critically endangere Puaiohi as well in the Alakai forest in Kauai.

See my "About" page on Flickr for the link to support my efforts... just the price of a cup of coffee is appreciated. Thank you. www.flickr.com/people/jax_chile/

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Thanks for your visit, FAVs, and comments, I truly appreciate it.

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Flores de Santa Gemita - 010622 - Enhanced

Last upload of this session features a CAF EMU 331102 departing Leeds with Northern's 3.21pm service to Doncaster (2B21), taken last year.

Good use is made of the scissor-crossover hidden behind me to boost station capacity - the train had actually departed from the platform l'm stood upon. I took a shot of a pair of trains stood at each of the platforms in view using a similar composition, but ultimately thought this one of the departing train snaking over the curves made for the better image. It's all subjective of course.

Leeds might lack the character of a Victorian station, but there's plenty to have a go at here with the camera, and it's compact busy-ness does have a certain appeal.

Comments off, thanks.

3.22pm, 30th November 2022

nanafashionsl.wordpress.com/2018/04/15/ultimately/

The sacred Lakota Mountain, Bear Butte, is an atmospheric place, given to sudden changes such as rain, fog, hail, and ultimately this.

A tree well encased in Ivy where ultimately the weight of the Ivy will break some branches as has happened in the past.

There is a distance view of Spaunton village to the right on the horizon in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park from Bottomsfield Lane. Part of a walk from Appleton le Moors to Hutton le Hole.

This Barn Owl has been delighting birders and photographers in the Atlanta area as it forages over grassy fields around sunrise and sunset. I hope all the attention doesn't ultimately drive it away from its current feeding grounds.

In this view you can see the heart-shaped face. I went back yesterday and was hoping for better face on views at closer range but despite the excellent show the owl gave it didn't make a close enough face on pass in good enough light to greatly improve what I got the first visit. So this is another image from my first visit. There are generally quite a few photographers and/or birders there-up to 3 dozen or more some mornings-so it is likely best for the owl if everyone is observing from the same area and for the most part most folks have been considerate enough.

The necessary vantage point is into the rising sun so the window of acceptable light is rather narrow unless you get a bright overcast morning light and such a morning must coincide with your own availablity to get there for it and of course there is the unknown each time of how long the owl forages any morning or if it shows up at all!!! In the evenings the owl generally appears when the light is already marginal at best.

The marble palace was used by King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia as a summer palace. It was built at the end of the 18th century in the early classical style from red brick and is located on the Heilgen See. The Silesian marble used for decorative elements on the facade ultimately gave it its name.

Amazing how one little fish can cause such a frenzy! The gull with the fish was able to hold onto the fish while the other two kept the chase up, but ultimately gave up.

Thanks so much to everyone who takes the time to view, like or comment on my photos!

© 2020 Craig Goettsch - All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use without permission is prohibited.

A woman ahead of her time...

I have watched the documentary 'Nothing compares to you' about Sinead O'Connor.

An exploration of Sinead O'Connor's rise and fall and her enduring cultural impact. By the age of 20, O'Connor was one of Ireland's brightest rising stars but her decision to use her fame as a platform to speak out on a number of controversial issues shifted her narrative from global stardom to worldwide condemnation. In a new interview, O'Connor reveals the abusive upbringing that left her feeling betrayed by both church and community and ultimately led her to find the therapeutic power of music.

In my country it is on National TV, but can be found here.

www.sho.com/titles/3516714/nothing-compares

We as women...humans, should watch and learn.

And please do not tell me she was mentally ill, women have been called that as well as witches as long as Adam and Eve, when they stood out or spoke up, showing curage and integrity ♥

dusk on the forest floor...

where there are no fences ;-)

icm using flash with a 1/8 second exposure at f5, ISO 100..

and a little work with levels to lift the tone (believe it or not ;-)

the exif data confused me.. it belongs to another image (stars :-) used in the same psd file but ultimately not included in the final result... so much work to go back to something simple ;-)

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Again... I'm sorry to say I'm unable to keep up at the moment.

But I appreciate every visit!!

I hope to be more able to respond soon

(life's a bit slow on the forest floor ;-)

_________________________________

Prince of Wales Hotel on Waterton Lake, Waterton Lakes National Park, in Alberta, Canada. Photo taken two years after the lightening-sparked Kenow Wildfire (2017) burned 30% of the park. Many burned trees can still be seen in the area. At one point, the fire was 50 yards away from the hotel. Embers the size of baseballs were reportedly landing on the hotel roof. Ultimately, however, the firefighters saved the hotel with surprisingly little damage to the hotel's main structure.

A bald eagle was flying across the lake and coming directly at us and ultimately flew over us. This was one of the most exciting interactions I've had with the eagles. However, the sky was very overcast. I replaced the sky using Luminar 4. There is a sky replacement module where you can choose their skies or you can use your own. I don't do composites very much but, in a case like this, I really think a nice sky really enhances the image.

Photographed at John Chesnut Senior Park, Palm Harbor, FL.

This photograph/image is copyrighted and may not be used in any way without my permission. If you would like to use it, please contact me via Flickr mail.

Thanks for visiting and for your faves and comments.

The Falls of Falloch (Eas Falloch in Scottish Gaelic; meaning the Hidden Falls) is a waterfall and picnic area, north of Loch Lomond.

Located just of the A82, 3 miles south of Crianlarich.

When you park in the car park, it's only a short 5 minute walk to the falls. You can view the falls from the riverbank, or a specially designed cage.

The Falls are part of the River Falloch which ultimately run into Loch Lomond.

It hadn't rained for a few days when we visited, but apparently the falls can be very dramatic after a heavy rainfall.

There is so much beautiful light in the world.

Ultimately the winter is also a color artist.

I was super lucky to spend 72 hours in Prince Edward County, where my good friend Paul Jones is now a resident, and the leading birder in the area. Picking which 72 hours to witness some part of the spring migration is ultimately a bit arbitrary - a late or nonexistent spring, the weather, and the luck of time in general all contribute to the guesswork.

But it worked, and worked brilliantly. We saw almost a hundred species the first six hours. By the end we had seen all of the Vireos we were likely to in that part of the world, all the Woodpeckers, dozens and dozens of Orioles, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Great Crested Flycatchers. And as broad a range of Warblers as I have ever seen, including (for me:lifers!) Cerulean, Hooded and Mourning Warblers.

The concentration and intensity of the species and their behaviours meant this was first and foremost a birding adventure. But we brought cameras, and found time and opportunities to record parts of the experience.

Four male Scarlet Tanagers dropped down out of the canopy and visited the shrubs along the trail at the Lighthouse. They were playful seeming, and completely unaffected by the three or four of us there. One male landed briefly on my lens. I have a series of images - all uncropped - of low and close Scarlet Tanager males. It is one of the neat benefits of a bunch of the same colourful bird that you get to see first hand the variability in their plumage.

Here's a view of the largest hilltop castle of northwestern Germany across a pond just in front of it. I'd gone to visit it because of the connection to one of my seventeenth century favorites, Henric Piccardt, syndic of the Groningen Ommelanden and before that something of a rogue at the court of Louis XIV of France. His greatgrandfather, one Johann Kemener (1522-1613), became the court preacher of this castle's count, Arnold II van Bentheim-Tecklenburg (1554-1606). On the second Sunday of advent in 1575 he and his congregation turned to Calvinism. And that fit in quite properly with their sympathy for the struggles which led to the young Dutch Republic, nearby across from today's borders. Piccardt's father became a minister ultimately at Groningen and his uncle Johan, also a protestant minister, was the first historian of Drenthe.

The castle and its town are a delight to visit, and so is the park deep below. That's where I saw that shrubbery Rose, quite fittng for castle gardens.

The fading of Autumns blush under a haze of gray. Echoes of a crow calling out travels through the crisp October morning. I am surrounded by a desert of sediment, bits and pieces, remnants of the past now brought to the surface from a receding flow. An immovable boulder is my companion this morning. For the moment we are both frozen in time, me frozen in thought, contemplating, evaluating and ultimately capitulating to the moment.

CP 260 continues down the Marquette Sub behind an SD70ACU/AC4400 pair after crossing the state line into Iowa at New Albin. An overnight trip along the river will put the train in the Quad Cities by early morning and ultimately Kansas City by the end of the next day.

The Geomethras - Spiritas Geometrium by Daniel Arrhakis (2022)

The Geomethras - Spiritas Geometrium

The Taró fog is known by sailors and fishermen from El Palo to Estepona, a name of Phoenician origin that, like many other words, customs and ultimately culture, we have inherited from the so-called carriers of ancient times.

The male, sitting below, is holding a fish that he ultimately deposited into the nest for his mate to enjoy at her leisure.

Probably the most photographed castle in Scotland, spectacularly sited on an island at the head of Loch Duich. Eilean Donan was involved in many raids and sieges, reduced to rubble and authentically reconstructed to its medieval state in the mid 1900's. Several of the rooms are open to the public, including the billeting room, with 14-foot thick walls and a barrel vaulted ceiling, and the banqueting hall, with fine Sheraton and Chippendale furniture.

Eilean Donan also played a role in the Jacobite risings of the 17th and 18th centuries, which ultimately culminated in the castle’s destruction…

In 1719 the castle was garrisoned by 46 Spanish soldiers who were supporting the Jacobites. They had established a magazine of gunpowder, and were awaiting the delivery of weapons and cannon from Spain. The English Government caught wind of the intended uprising and sent three heavily armed frigates The Flamborough, The Worcester, and The Enterprise to quell matters. The bombardment of the castle lasted three days, though met with limited success due to the enormity of the castle walls, which in some places are up to 14 feet thick. Finally, Captain Herdman of The Enterprise sent his men ashore and over-whelmed the Spanish defenders. Following the surrender, the government troops discovered the magazine of 343 barrels of gunpowder which was then used to blow up what had remained from the bombardment.

youtu.be/v3ossgRK9gc

Drivetrain: Front engine, rear wheel drive

Engine: Inline 6-cylinder

Displacement: 150 cu in

Horsepower: 95hp

Max RPM: 4,600

Transmission: 4-speed manual

Milan-based Alfa Romeo has been called the Ferrari of the 1920’s and 1930’s. In fact, Enzo Ferrari worked at Alfa as a young man before founding his namesake manufacturer. With thousands of full-time artisans, mechanics and administrators dedicated to the construction of only a few cars, Alfa Romeo-made supercars that represented the height of artistic, automotive and technological prowess.

Unfortunately, and perhaps predictably, the company fell into financial trouble, was scaled down, and eventually absorbed by Fiat. Many high-performance cars existed at the time but none of them could match the performance standards set by the 6C 2500.

The 6C was the last and fastest of Alfa’s famous six cylinder cars, capable of reaching speeds of 100 miles per hour thanks to a lighter body, increased engine capacity and improved fuel feed. The 6C is perhaps the greatest design of the period, and the one that would ultimately cause Alfa Romeo’s reputation to soar. When it debuted at the Milan Auto Show in 1925, the car would set new standards in many categories. Production of the 2500 would begin in 1939. However, a small number, just 13 examples, would boast of coachwork manufactured by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan.

Credit: Audrain

Central Maine & Quebec Job 1 steps out across the East Outlet of Moosehead Lake as the sun sets on an unseasonably mild Maine afternoon. This is the headwaters of the Kennebec River, but the former Canadian Pacific route won't be following the Kennebec south towards the Atlantic Ocean, but rather continuing westward through the wilderness and ultimately into Quebec at Boundary.

Looking upstream from the Beartooth Lake outlet at the Butte of the same name.

"When you visit Beartooth Lake you will immediately notice the large butte on the opposite (west) shore of the lake. This is Beartooth Butte; a formation that has a completely different geologic origin than the surrounding area. During the Devonian period (420 - 360 million years ago) this entire region was covered by a vast sea. For several million years sediments deposited on that sea bottom compacted tighter and tighter to ultimately become sedimentary rocks. The resulting layer of rock, named the Beartooth Butte Formation, was at least 150 ft thick. Here on the Beartooth Plateau, the layer has been eroded away everywhere except here at Beartooth Butte.

The sedimentary rocks that make up Beartooth Butte are loaded with fossils from the various organisms that died and were buried in the ancient ocean. Geologists and rock hounds visit Beartooth Butte to sample rocks from the formation.

While Beartooth Butte is the namesake of the Beartooth Butte formation, the layer of rock is found in other mountain locations in Montana and Wyoming. Although these locations are hundreds of miles apart, there is no doubt that all of the areas were once part of the same inland sea."

montanahikes.com

Have a wonderful (and safe) Friday and weekend!

The sharp tops of Mt. Athabasca and Hilda Peak caught my eye while driving the Icefields Parkway. The pointier the better eh! The famous Athabasca glacier is on the other side of them.

"Athabasca is derived from a Cree word meaning “where there are reeds.” This word was first used by fur-traders to describe northeast Alberta’s Athabasca Lake and ultimately found its way to the lake’s source in 1898 when Normal Collie, Herman Wooley and Hugh Stutfield christened the peak. Upon completing the first ascent of Mount Athabasca, Collie famously remarked: “The view that lay before us in the evening light was one that does not often fall to the lot of modern mountaineers. A new world was spread at our feet; to the westward stretched a vast ice-field probably never before seen by human eye, and surrounded by entirely unknown, un-named, and unclimbed peaks.” The glaciated expanse discovered and described by Collie was the Columbia Icefield. Covering an area of about 325 square kilometers, this icefield is the largest in the Rocky Mountains."

On-Top.ca

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

My "Gold Medal" hybrid tea rose is always the first to bloom in my rose garden every year. This year, in spite of bad weather, an excessive amount of rain and more grey and overcast spring days rather than fine, my "Gold Medal" has had the finest showing of blooms looking at all the buds about to burst out in the first flush of blooms.

The "Gold Medal" hybrid tea rose was first bred in 1982 in the United States by Jack Christensen, and later introduced to market by Armstrong Nursery. Jack is the youngest rose breeder to develop an All-American rose and he is credited with hybridising over eighty different types of roses. This rose was created by crossing elements from the roses Granada, Garden Party, and Yellow Pages. The result is a gorgeous yellowish rose that has rich copper accents, that ultimately fades to a soft cream color.

Summer has finally come to Melbourne after a long and grey winter, and one of the wettest springs on record, and everywhere, gardens are bursting forth with beautiful coloured blooms in a profusion of colours.

Great Crested Grebe - An intruder got too close to the nest of a mated pair and their 2 chicks. The male of the mated pair confronted the intruder and ultimately chased it away.

I’m sure the snapping turtles enjoyed a feast.

Shot on our recent Thailand Holiday (Nov 25) on a boat trip ultimately to 'James Bond' Island, so named as it appeared in the 1974 movie 'The Man with the Golden Gun'.

The boat trip was fantastic but the area is busy with many other visitors doing the same islands loop meaning the challenge was to try and get some good images (minus fellow tourists) rather than holiday snaps. I just think their traditional looking boats are photogenic - even though they are largely for the benefit of the touristicos. This one turned out almost abstract and is one of my favourites from a super day. It’s the simplicity of the composition and the way the boat is nicely set against the island that do it for me👍

Gannets are seabirds comprising the genus Morus, in the family Sulidae, closely related to boobies. "Gannet" is derived from Old English ganot, ultimately from the same Old Germanic root as "gander".[1] Morus is derived from Ancient Greek moros, "foolish", due to the lack of fear shown by breeding gannets and boobies, allowing them to be easily killed

Halmstein, Malching am Inn.

The people have always sought an explanation about the origin and its formation. This massive boulder, Halmstein, is ultimately attributed to heavenly or hellish powers in two legends.

Anemone are the graceful ballet dancers of the flower world. In spite of the wind tossing their petals to and fro, they ultimately reach for the sky.

Taken in our garden earlier last spring...

The tulip is a perennial, bulbous plant with showy flowers in the genus Tulipa, of which around 75 wild species are currently accepted and which belongs to the family Liliaceae.

The genus's native range extends west to the Iberian Peninsula, through North Africa to Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, throughout the Levant (Syria, Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan) and Iran, North to Ukraine, southern Siberia and Mongolia, and east to the Northwest of China. The tulip's centre of diversity is in the Pamir, Hindu Kush, and Tien Shan mountains. It is a typical element of steppe and winter-rain Mediterranean vegetation. A number of species and many hybrid cultivars are grown in gardens, as potted plants, or as cut flowers.

Tulips are spring-blooming perennials that grow from bulbs. Depending on the species, tulip plants can be between 4 inches (10 cm) and 28 inches (71 cm) high. The tulip's large flowers usually bloom on scapes with leaves in a rosette at ground level and a single flowering stalk arising from amongst the leaves.Tulip stems have few leaves. Larger species tend to have multiple leaves. Plants typically have two to six leaves, some species up to 12. The tulip's leaf is strap-shaped, with a waxy coating, and the leaves are alternately arranged on the stem; these fleshy blades are often bluish green in color. Most tulips produce only one flower per stem, but a few species bear multiple flowers on their scapes (e.g. Tulipa turkestanica). The generally cup or star-shaped tulip flower has three petals and three sepals, which are often termed tepals because they are nearly identical. These six tepals are often marked on the interior surface near the bases with darker colorings. Tulip flowers come in a wide variety of colors, except pure blue (several tulips with "blue" in the name have a faint violet hue).

The flowers have six distinct, basifixed stamens with filaments shorter than the tepals. Each stigma has three distinct lobes, and the ovaries are superior, with three chambers. The tulip's seed is a capsule with a leathery covering and an ellipsoid to globe shape. Each capsule contains numerous flat, disc-shaped seeds in two rows per chamber. These light to dark brown seeds have very thin seed coats and endosperm that does not normally fill the entire seed.

Etymology

The word tulip, first mentioned in western Europe in or around 1554 and seemingly derived from the "Turkish Letters" of diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq, first appeared in English as tulipa or tulipant, entering the language by way of French: tulipe and its obsolete form tulipan or by way of Modern Latin tulīpa, from Ottoman Turkish tülbend ("muslin" or "gauze"), and may be ultimately derived from the Persian: دلبند‎ delband ("Turban"), this name being applied because of a perceived resemblance of the shape of a tulip flower to that of a turban. This may have been due to a translation error in early times, when it was fashionable in the Ottoman Empire to wear tulips on turbans. The translator possibly confused the flower for the turban.

Tulips are called laleh (from Persian لاله, lâleh) in Persian, Turkish, Arabic, and Bulgarian. In Arabic letters, "laleh" is written with the same letters as Allah, which is why the flower became a holy symbol. It was also associated with the House of Osman, resulting in tulips being widely used in decorative motifs on tiles, mosques, fabrics, crockery, etc. in the Ottoman Empire

Cultivation

Tulip cultivars have usually several species in their direct background, but most have been derived from Tulipa suaveolens, often erroneously listed as Tulipa schrenkii. Tulipa gesneriana is in itself an early hybrid of complex origin and is probably not the same taxon as was described by Conrad Gesner in the 16th century.

Tulips are indigenous to mountainous areas with temperate climates and need a period of cool dormancy, known as vernalization. They thrive in climates with long, cool springs and dry summers. Tulip bulbs imported to warm-winter areas of are often planted in autumn to be treated as annuals.

Tulip bulbs are typically planted around late summer and fall, in well-drained soils, normally from 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 cm) deep, depending on the type. Species tulips are normally planted deeper.

Propagation

Tulips can be propagated through bulb offsets, seeds or micropropagation. Offsets and tissue culture methods are means of asexual propagation for producing genetic clones of the parent plant, which maintains cultivar genetic integrity. Seeds are most often used to propagate species and subspecies or to create new hybrids. Many tulip species can cross-pollinate with each other, and when wild tulip populations overlap geographically with other tulip species or subspecies, they often hybridize and create mixed populations. Most commercial tulip cultivars are complex hybrids, and often sterile.

Offsets require a year or more of growth before plants are large enough to flower. Tulips grown from seeds often need five to eight years before plants are of flowering size. Commercial growers usually harvest the tulip bulbs in late summer and grade them into sizes; bulbs large enough to flower are sorted and sold, while smaller bulbs are sorted into sizes and replanted for sale in the future. The Netherlands are the world's main producer of commercial tulip plants, producing as many as 3 billion bulbs annually, the majority for export.

For further information please visit en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip

Midday view of Svalbard's Ekmanfjord and surrounding mountains. There is still a bit of sea ice in the fjord, which will ultimately disappear later in the summer.

Camera: Canon PowerShot G12.

Edited with Adobe Photoshop.

Another image from the river on Saturday. I originally created this in camera, but ultimately I've refined it a little using the original RAW files.

We are literally, ultimately children of the stars.

Jocelyn Bell Burnell

Texture with thanks to Alan- sunsetsailor

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Use without permission is illegal.

Please, don't fave and run, you will get yourself blocked.

This beautiful hawk was seen at Lake St. Clair Metropark, Michigan.

It's one of my favorite birds, and they are sometimes seen in my neighborhood chasing sparrows or pigeons.

I say call it a Cooper's "for now" because there is a movement to change all of the eponymous names of North American birds (birds named after a person). There are many commonly seen birds whose names will ultimately change.

The arch sits on a rock shelf or terrace on the side of a hill.

In my head I had debated weather or not I should stay at the arch into the night and sleep there.

Ultimately I decided to stay into the night but not to sleep there.

After all, there is some minor climbing involved in reaching it. Minor yes, in the daytime! But in the pitch black of night things look a little different. But I managed to climb down thanks to a bright head lamp that helped more than I thought it would. The idea of sleeping in my car appealed to me more and more as the evening progressed, it just made me feel safer than spending the night with the bears and the rattle snakes.

It is a spectacular place and the Milky Way core moves through the arch just in the right spot at around 10:45 pm in the middle of June.

I know the position and movement of the Milky Way pretty well, but to be able to pre-visualize it with an app while it's still light out is very helpful for positioning the camera ahead of time.

Yes, we have spectacular arches in New Mexico. This one can hold it's own against anything Utah can throw at you. -:)

Made from 16 light frames with 13 dark frames by Starry Landscape Stacker 1.8.0. Algorithm: Min Horizon Star Dupe

This little fishy was not going down with out a fight. But ultimately this great egret sent him down the hatch, his fate to provide sustenance to a big white bird.

The deeper the blue, the more it summons man into infinity, arousing his yearning for purity and ultimately transcendence.

Blue is the typical celeste colour.

Blue very profoundly develops the element of calm. -

Vasily Kadinksy, On the Spiritual in Art

Thank you for your kind visit. Have a wonderful and beautiful day! xo❤️

As I was walking yesterday through pretty W.H. Vliegenbos and admiring a Spring pond, suddenly there it was, Beautiful European Peacock Butterfly. First called generically Aglais by Johan Wilhelm Dalman (1787-1828); earlier it went by the generic Papilio, used for many Butterflies. 'Papilio' is probably ultimately derived from a Proto-Indo-European word - 'pal' - meaning something like 'shake', 'shaking'. The reduplication to 'papilio' can be rendered, I think, into English as 'flutter', 'flutterer'. Aglais io is not very particular where it'll flutter as long as there are nectar-producing plants or water nearby. And such there were in the pleasant wood.

'Aglais' does not belie its name. Aglaea, from which it's derived, is one of the three Classical Graces, who boasted great splendor and brilliance. Voilà!