Beyond Here

We had an unexpected visitor the other day. I was at work and my husband was at home. We were discussing something on the phone when my husband exclaimed - "Oh My God! There's a deer under our balcony. I will have to call you back". And he hung up on me. I would have rather had him on the phone, narrating each little bit. I heard back from him,though, an hour later when he sent in these pictures to me. They still made my day. Some background might be useful. We live in an apartment that overlooks the Los Penaquitos Canyon on the back side. There is a walkway at the rear and a fence that separates the canyon from the apartment community. You can see the latter in the last picture. Now my husband at one time refused to believe that there are any deer near our home. I had seen them multiple times before - once in our apartment parking lot and once around a sharp bend on the road at night. When I told him about them, he had replied back, saying - "It was dark, it was pro...

My writings on Epcot are not complete without this - my favorite ride at Epcot was "Soaring". It was a simulator ride which made you feel as if you were gliding or soaring over California. An exhillarating feeling and more so for us since we have been living in California for six and a half years. The ride provided a different view of the all too familiar sights of California to us. While I don't have any picture of the ride itself (we were all buckled up and everything), here is one of a nice exhibit outside the same ride. And a link from Disney's website with more insight into the ride. As a side note, there is a "test track" ride also in Epcot. Its famed as one of the fastest and longest rides in Disney history. And that was enough to scare me out of taking a ride on it. I am yet to hear the end of it from my husband because I wouldn't let him ride it either.

Disclaimer: No, its not an advertisement for the documentary. Though I was seeing it last night and am still thinking about it today. For quite some time now, we(work colleagues) have been having a discussion - to recycle or not ? Is global warming for real ? Or is it just one of the cyclical warmings that happens every so many years (we've had numerous such cycles in the history of this planet) and will most likely be followed by another Ice age ? Is it too egoistic of man to think that he can effect nature in such a big way ? I had been meaning to see the documentary for a long time now. And I finally rented it yesterday. 5 minutes into the documentary, I was in for a shock when Gore compared pictures of glaciers receding from mountains from 30 years before and 2005. What was even more alarming was the rate at which they were receding. Now these were places I some day hope to visit (as do many of you, I guess), and to think that they will be altered so much before I even get to c...

I am still at the airport, my flight is still not here and I continue writing. So as I mentioned in the last post, while in Orlando we visited the Epcot Centre. EPCOT, the word, stands for Experimental Project for Communities of Tomorrow. It was a Disney park, but with a difference - more nature and environment oriented, had some interesting shows and rides highlighting the interactions of humans with Nature, a world pavilion showcasing different cultures of the world etc. True to its name, there were many experimental projects being showcased also. One of these, which really had us interested, was their greenhouse effort, where they were experimenting with different ways of growing plants. For example, these chilli peppers that are being grown in small amounts of soil with just enough nutrient being provided. And you can also see the tomato vines hanging from the top and getting their nutrients from the centre tree trunk. Or these melons/cantaloupes growing from the top too. Notice th...

I am sitting at the Chicago airport, gate L2A, waiting for my connection to Detroit. And loads of time to kill. And since there is no wireless hotspot here, I thought might as well catch up on some of the blogging. I can type up the posts and then post them when I reach Ann Arbor. versus So I searched my computer for recent pictures and found some from our recent trip to Orlando. They were all taken at the Disney's Epcot Centre. (As a side note, I am a big fan of Disney parks, I have been to the LA Disneyland atleast 5-6 times in the last 6 years that I have been in San Diego). versus It being spring time there were flowers in abundance. Now I am a big fan of flowers growing just as they are vs. flowers that are made to look like something else. I remember commenting the same on one of Sigma's post too. In any case, when I found the latter mixed with my all time favorite Disney characters, it became hard to make the same choice. Here are the pictures of both kind. versus

Its a lonely world out there P.S. This is a view of the Florida Bay from Flamingo at the Everglades National Park. Just got back from a trip to Orlando and southern Florida, details to follow soon.

I had some friends come over for dinner last night. And one of them brought for me this huge tray full of the most lovely flowers - Orchids. It took me quite a while to snip and snap the stems and arrange the flowers in the different vases ( I was able to fill up 6 bud vases in all) and even after that I had a small tray of flowers left over. But once it was all done, they made a pretty sight. And I went "Oh!" for Orchids. P.S. Love the flowers - thanks Rosalyn.