I am starting to edit my backlog of images and found this white orchid that I took in January at The Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh. Orchids are appreciated anytime but in the dead of Winter when it is seven degrees they are even more beautiful.
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Winter Joy
Visiting the Phipps Conservatory of Pittsburgh is nice any time of year but I like it best in the dead of winter. When your skin is dry and you are cold and chilly it is wonderful to spend an hour or two in warm humidity smelling the blooms of orchids and other fragrant flowers. It’s almost as good as a spa treatment. I have no idea what the actual name is of this orchid but it brought me joy in the cold of winter so to me it is Winter Joy.
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Winter Joy
I think the best time of year to visit a conservatory is in the dead of Winter. It’s warm and humid inside and loaded with the scent of fresh flowers and orchids in bloom. In Pittsburgh we have one of the best conservatories in the world. The Phipps Conservatory has fourteen different green house rooms connected with walkways. Waterfalls, glass sculptures and benches are scattered throughout and volunteers and employees are there to answer your questions while they maintain the beauty of the environment.
The Bonsai room has some spectacular specimens that have been in training since the 1950’s and the new education center is one of the most advanced green buildings in the United States. All the environments are computer controlled and react to wind,humidity and temperature providing a perfect environment for the flora.
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The Phipps Conservatory
Just another beautiful fall tree.
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If you follow this blog you know we have settled in to our new neighborhood in Pittsburgh. It is one of the three neighborhoods we wanted when we decided to relocate and was our first choice. We are only two blocks from Pittsburgh’s largest park and less than a half of mile form stores, restaurants and our very own movie theater that is the home of The Pittsburgh Film Makers. One of the things that makes it so special are the cobblestone tree lined streets.
A neighbor told me that the stones are actually Belgium block. Pittsburgh would ship steel to Belgium in the 1800’s and they would line the return holds with blocks for ballast. To maintain the neighborhood feel they don’t pave over the blocks. If there is a depression or hole, they remove the block, put in fresh fill and reset the blocks. This helps the neighborhood retain its old time feel.
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Regent Square
Every year people flock to our state to see the beautiful Autumn foliage. If you don’t live in Pennsylvania you will be awed and happy you made the visit. However observing this every year makes some people, especially photographers obnoxious and cynical critics. Different weather factors impact the color. The temperature, humidity, rain fall and wind all impact how colorful and widespread the foliage panorama will appear.
2012 was the perfect storm for fall color in The Northeast. Of course it is a regional thing, one year the color may be better in Maine than Pennsylvania or New Hampshire may be the best. However, in 2012 it was prefect throughout the region. This is a 2012 flashback taken in October 2012 in the Pocono Mountains.
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Pocono Mountains in the Autumn
I took this picture of a fawn in 2002 at the end of our first summer living on the mountain. People that lived there full time like us said wait a year and you will start to think of them as vermin. It never quite got to that level for me because the next year our community voted for a deer cull in a heated political battle between the “full timers” and “weekenders”. The herd grew at a rapid rate in our community because no hunting was allowed. Deer are not dumb and they began to migrate into our community. DCNR noticed that some deer had wasting disease and fawns that were born were small and struggled to survive. The amount of deer/auto accidents increased dramatically.
The size of the herd was unhealthy according to DCNR and our local environmental experts. After the first two years of deer culls the herd reduced to a more normal size. We began to see fawns again and the herd was restored to health. This deer has all but lost the markings fo a fawn as it munched in my back yard waiting for its first summer to end.
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Bambi Lives
Each year during the first two weeks of June, Pittsburgh hosts the three rivers arts festival. The events take place at the confluence of the Ohio River at Point State Park where the Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers meet. There are free concerts, ethic foods and fantastic art for sale in addition to a juried art show. We didn’t have a lot of time to spend this year, a Pittsburgh Pirate game beckoned and it WAS hot. We did manage to get a couple of photos to share.
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Art Lovers?
The Black Rock Negative Energy Absorber was a temporary exhibit that travels the country. You touch the black rock and it absorbs all your negative energy. No really!
Black Rock
Another temporary installation were Dogs Under the Bridge. You go under the bridge to get to the vendors and the park and these quite well behaved dogs were there to great you.
Dogs Under Bridge
This guy was pathetic. His suit was taped together and he walked very slowly with his head hung. It was almost 90 degrees and I am sure he scared more kids than not.
Gaffer Tape
A great place to chill out is at the fountain built on the spot where The Ohio River begins.
At The Fountain
The Gulf Building in Pittsburgh is a national landmark and one of the city’s art deco masterpieces. Prior to the late 1970s, the entire multistory structure at the top of the building was neon-illuminated, changing colors to provide a weather forecast that could be seen for many miles. The building manager Edward H. Heath used the Gulf Oil colors to create a simplified forecast: steady blue meant colder and fair; flashing blue meant colder with precipitation; steady orange meant warmer and fair; flashing orange meant warmer with precipitation. In an effort to conserve energy, the weather beacon was abandoned for a while.
However thanks to modern lighting and in partnership with KDKA-TV, the Gulf Tower has been retrofit with a modern, automated LED weather beacon that will tell a more complete forecast than ever before. Since 2012 each floor tells part of the weather forecast.
44th floor – temperature
43rd floor – temperature
42nd floor – temperature
41st floor – precipitation
40th floor – humidity
39th floor – wind speed
This is an image of the “weather top” from PNC Park across the Allegheny river.
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Weather Top
We have sold our house and are preparing to move ourselves back home to Pittsburgh. We left Pittsburgh in 1978 and have lived in State College PA, Dallas Texas, Smithtown Long Island,Montclair New Jersey and the Pocono Mountains since then. I took this the year before I left in Market Square. We always called this guy “The Birdman”. I wonder why?
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The Birdman of Pittsburgh
Imagery Photography 