Cactus Flowers and Shade Trees : Tuesday Photo Challenge – Backyard

This week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge prompt from Frank  is  “Backyard“.

Backyard trees in the morning sun as seen from my breakfast nook.  All the trees are in my backdoor neighbors yard.  Flowers and leaves from the trees make my backyard quite dirty but they provides nice shade in summer afternoon as the sun moves to the western sky.  Therefore I have learnt to tolerate the extra work and coexist.

Photo above is from my extended backyard. Couple of minutes walk from my house is a creek. Nearly a kilometer long portion of  the creek divides the newer and older areas of the subdivision. The creek runs completely dry in summer.  On our side of the creek, the trail by the side of the creek is shaded by trees and on the other side is a wide trail.  In summer the creek bed is choke full of  dry reeds that give shelter and nesting environments to wild birds and animals, mainly quails, ground squirrels, gophers, moles and hares. Saw these beautiful cactus flowers during morning walk with my dog, Skooby. 

Many had commented that it looks like a human foot.

Note: All photos taken by author on September 5, 2018. Please ask or cite source for reproduction.

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Hiking QuickSilver County Park : Tuesday Photo Challenge – Scene

This week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge prompt from Frank  is  “Scene”.

After a long time, I went hiking solo up the hilly trails of QuickSilver County Park near my home.  Now a days I rarely go hiking solo as my better half  is worried that I will die up on the hills and no one will know.  As far as I am concerned, nothing can be better than that.  As one is about to leave this world, sun shining on the face and nature surrounding you, what more can any one ask for.  Anyway, that is for another day.  After a seven and half miles ( approximately twelve and half kilometers) hike up and down the hills and many photo stops in between, here is what I have for Frank’s Tuesday Photo Challenge.

Note: All photos taken by author on August 22, 2018. Please ask or cite source for reproduction.

 

Lady Liberty : Tuesday Photo Challenge – Promise

This week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge prompt from Frank  is  “Promise“.

Does she still stand for promise of justice and liberty for all?

I think Ellis Island Immigration Museum below holds more promise for the coming generation to remember  the legacy of immigration that made this country the land of the free and the home of the braves.

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Both of these photographs, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island Immigration Museum, were taken by me during my visit in September of 2017.  I wish I had more time to spend in the museum.

Koko Head Trail : Tuesday Photo Challenge – Height

This week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge prompt from Frank  is  “Height“.

My entry for this week is from my trip to Hawaii last year. This photo was taken on my hike up the Koko Head trail.  The trail is about 1.5 miles round trip from the parking lot, 1200 feet high ( ~ 1000 feet elevation gain) and up nearly vertical and  steep 1048 steps of abandoned railway steps.  But the trip was also memorable to me as providence, in the guise of my beloved wife, saved me from near death ( or at least a broken body as I slipped during my return trip.  I do not know where she got the strength ( I weigh roughly 1.5X her weight ) to hold on to my shirt without herself slipping and stopping me from rolling down steep 500 feet.

Koko Head Trail, Oahu, Hawaii – September 2017.  Last 500 steps up is really steep.  As per veloviewer.com statistics, average grade is 39.8% with a maximum grade of 85.8% (https://veloviewer.com/segment/1577261/Koko+Head+Trail+Climb).

As I promised Frank, below is my photo from Capilano Suspension Bridge taken during my trip to Vancouver, BC in December, 2004.

Kilauea Volcano : Tuesday Photo Challenge – Rise

This week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge prompt from Frank  is  “Rise“.

On September 17, 2017, Wednesday early morning, I and my eldest son got up and drove from our rented house near Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park  to Kilauea volcano to see the sun rise.  My wife and other two kids decided to give it a pass as they were tired from the drive from Kona and the day long activities and sightseeing of the day before. As it turned out, we were deprived of enjoying the sunrise due to the heavy fog created by rising steam from numerous steam vents.  As the saying goes that “when one door closes, another opens”, nature did not deprive us of its bounty. We were rewarded with another rise, lava and steam rising from Kilauea cauldron.  We had been there the night before but it was not as spectacular.  As Kilauea volcano is in the news currently, erupting and damaging a huge area and several homes, I thought this would be an appropriate post for this week’s photo challenge prompt.

Pregnant Sky and Rainbows : Tuesday Photo Challenge – Rain

This week’s Tuesday Photo Challenge prompt from Frank  is  “Rain“.

I grew up with rains, lots of it, about seventy inches in average a year.  Monsoon, thunder and lightning.  Sound of raindrops drumming on the rooftop.  Hot, humid summers cooled down by a sudden downpour.  Flash floods and muddy roads, swift flowing rivers, overflowing drains.  And the place with most rain, Mawsynram, four hundred seventy inches of it, is about sixty miles away from the city I grew up.

Now I live in place with hardly any rain, just an average of fifteen inches a year and that too in winter.  Last few years we had much less than fifteen inches, with about eight inches in 2015 and about four inches in 2013.  So as you can imagine many a times we play hide and seek with rain clouds and we get deceived. Today is such a day, the sky is gray, the day is cloudy and there is just a nine percent chance of rain.  From experience I know it is not going to rain.  Here is a photo of  grey sky today pregnant with the promise of rain that will turn out to be deceiving.  Couple of months back I had posted a poem, Flirtatious Rain Clouds , on this topic.

Sun fighting a losing battle with the clouds but chances of rain is minimal.

But there is always hope and what is hope if not that elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And where would be a rainbow without rain.

Apple and Orange Blossoms : Tuesday Photo Challenge – Future

Frank’s Tuesday Photo Challenge prompt for this week is  “Future“.

I was looking for a suitable photo to post to represent “Future” theme.  Today was Linda’s One Liner Wednesday prompt and suddenly an opportunity presented itself to kill two birds with one stone.  Please don’t get me wrong. I am not for any killing, specially birds.

Weather had been really nice here for last couple of days and I was working in my garden to take care of various plants.  Orange trees and apple tree are in full bloom.  The apple tree is small and comparatively young.  It also did not give us any fruits last year.  As I was coming back from my morning walk with my dog, Skooby, I looked at the blooming apple tree in my front yard.  I hoped that this year it will bear fruits.  My wife had been talking to the gardener for some work to be done for a vegetable garden and she had talked with him regarding some needed care for the apple tree.  As I was looking at the tree and the apple blossoms, the one liner quote suddenly came to my mind that would also work for the photo challenge prompt “Future”.  So here it is and for good measure, I am including my entry for One Liner Wednesday prompt also.

A present not taken well care of will not bear fruit in future.

©Pranab Sarma, 2018

Orange blooms are from a California navel orange tree in our backyard.  Couple of years back we had so many oranges that few branches broke because they could not bear the weight of the fruits.  Last year there were barely a few on the same tree.  My wife had been caring for that tree during last year and looking at the new blossoms, we are hopeful that it will bear fruits this year.

Let’s see what the “Future” beholds.