We came upon this little guy at The Los Angeles Arboretum outside Glendale, California. I am not a duck expert but I never saw one before that had this blue stripe badge on its side. I thought it unusual and hope one of my followers can educate me on what type of duck this is.
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Duck
Last year i published a post on the famous Glockenspiel in München Bavaria. Although it was a nice scenic picture of Town Hall where the Rathaus-Glockenspiel is located it occurred to me that you really couldn’t see the detail of this famous landmark. I recently found this closeup which provides a much better view of what the Rathaus-Glockenspiel is all about and why each day hundreds gather to see and hear the performance.
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Rathaus-Glockenspiel Detail
We wandered in to a small dark Church in Munich. It was very dark, small and not real impressive. We went through the small Church museum and the place was also small and relatively unimpressive. Then we went upstairs and discovered another another hall of worship and wow, it was flooded with light, stain glass windows and one of the most beautiful ceilings I have ever seen.
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Magnificent Ceiling
The Charles Bridge is an historic bridge that crosses the Vltava river in Prague. Construction began in 1357 and for a long time it was the only way to cross the river in Prague. The bridge was the most important connection between Prague Castle and the city’s Old Town. The bridge is lined with sculptures and always filled with vendors, street musicians and tourists from all over the world.
The bridge was closed to vehicular traffic in the 1970’s and had to undergo significant repairs. It was decided to make it only pedestrian traffic and has become a famous tourist location. You stroll on the bridge, but it is not a good place for excercize although you see some attempting to jog.
The balustrade of the bridge is lined with 30 baroque sculptures created between 1683 and 1714.The Holy Crucifix and Calvary is one of the most famous and as you can see difficult to photograph on a crowded bridge. I do believe the young lady’s face adds more to the composition than would the top of the cross. Although at the very top are the Hebrew words “Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh” which is part of an ancient and important Jewish prayer.
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The Holy Crucifix and Calvary on the Charles Bridge
The Tucson Botanical Garden has an excellent butterfly room featuring butterflies and moths from all around the world. In addition to the live Butterfly Garden they also have exhibits of chrysalis and preserved insects. The garden is not large but the Butterfly Exhibit is worth the price alone.
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Butterflies in the Desert
Butterflies in the Desert
Butterflies in the Desert
These two large cactus seem to act as a goal post for the other cactus. The setting sun provides an interesting back lighting making what was beautiful seem somewhat sinister and spooky.
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Goal Post Cactus
Palm Springs is surrounded by the San Jacinto Mountains on the western side of the city and leading up to the mountains are the world famous Indian Canyons.. There are a variety of hiking trails and while many are strenuous, less serious hikers can also find suitable trails. Palm Canyon is the most popular but we hiked the Murray Canyon Trail.
We couldn’t make it back to the waterfall because of the violent storms that preceded our hike. It was a beautiful day and the palm trees in the desert made me think of the desert oasis I was reading about in the novel,The Alchemist .
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Indian Canyons California
The Sonoran Desert is a North American desert which covers large parts of the Southwestern United States in Arizona and California and of Northwestern Mexico including parts of Baja California. Inside the desert there are a number of National Parks including Saguaro National Park which is near Tucson Arizona. Of course one of the reasons for the parks name is dozens of small forests of Saguaro cactus.
There are miles of trails and hikes available for all levels and the winter weather in the low 70’s with crystal clear skies was perfect.
Saguaro National Park
The estate originally built by Walter Annenberg in 1966 was used as a winter residence by the ambassador and his wife. Sunnylands Center has since been used by many famous people and where President Obama recently escaped for a few days after finishing his term.
The gardens are stunning and free to the public. Tickets can be purchased to tour The Residence when it is not in use.
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Sunnylands Center and Gardens
I remember first hearing about Palm Springs on the Edwin R. Murrow Television show Person to Person. That show was my first exposure to Murrow. I don’t know which star he was interviewing, maybe it was William Holden, but we were riveted to our ten inch black and white TV like we were every Sunday. I was amazed that they were sitting at a pool in swimwear but it was the winter in Cleveland (freezing,cold,tons of snow) and they were sitting at a pool and looking at the snow on the surrounding mountains.
What a magical place I thought.
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Imagery Photography 