Because the world is photogenic.
We were so excited to see the “Field of Light” that we got there an hour too early! As we walked in, the sun was calling it a day, leaving behind a clear and rather classic sunset. Sensorio’s landscape is vast. Picture this: rolling hills, bold tree silhouettes standing tall in the backdrop, and endless…
Read More
Traveling amidst a pandemic is certainly not easy, so it is more than a little ironic that this adventure might never have happened in more normal times. Antarctic expeditions normally book out one to two years—an impossible wait for a stranger to patience. Being able to embark on this journey that we booked just six…
Read More
After a pandemic-induced hiatus last year, Fleet Week was back in San Francisco. The last time I attended Fleet Week was all the way back in 2010, so I was really looking forward to seeing the Blue Angels again. In past years, I’d always watched the Blue Angels from Pier 39. This year, I was…
Read More
If you ever wanted to trek along a true road to nowhere, try it in Elko county, Nevada—or don’t! On our recent road trip to Salt Lake City, we decided to find the abandoned ghost town of Metropolis. Some brief research on the internet led us to believe that Google Maps directions generally work. Little…
Read More
The Dahlia has been the official flower of San Francisco since 1926, and a whole garden is dedicated to this leafy tuber at Golden Gate Park. The flowers reach full bloom in late summer—the perfect time for seeing thousands of these colorful flowers together in one plot. WHEREAS, in its versatility, its beauty, its infinite variety of color and…
Read More
Dársenas Square is a quiet waterfront park in Old San Juan. After a rainy morning of walking through cobblestone streets, we found this little plaza on the southwestern shore of the old city. Some street vendors and food trucks set up here, but the morning was mostly quiet, and we had the views of San…
Read More
The rain seemed torrential, and the windows of the cab were all fogged up as it pulled into San Juan. We tried our best to get a glimpse of the cobblestone streets on which we were gliding through. Before long, we were at our hotel—the El Convento. We found it as a blind booking on Hotwire,…
Read More
As the tour bus pulled up to George Square to gather the final few of the traveling group, we had just finished a traditional Scottish breakfast at a nearby café. Haggis certainly tastes better than it sounds; perhaps it should be considered alongside laws and sausages—it is better not to see them being made. It would be…
Read More
I don’t know why I love county fairs so much, but I always have. Perhaps it’s the reawakening of 50s and 60s Americana. Maybe it’s the colorful neon lights brightening an otherwise monotonous, uneventful night. Or could it really be the smell of cotton candy and caramel apples staring through that scratchy glass? But despite…
Read More
This is by far my most ambitious furniture project yet, and one I’m most excited about because I get to try some woodworking techniques totally new to me. I have long wanted to store my photography equipment in my home office, so I have been on the lookout for cabinets with drawers that can hold…
Read More
In preparation for our upcoming trip to the Antarctic, I wanted to test out my new FE 100-400mm GM lens on some real wildlife. As I needed a dependable source of subjects, we headed to the San Francisco Zoo and spent a few hours visiting most of the exhibits. The FE 100-400mm GM was mounted…
Read More
Our narrow sideyard gets partial sun, and is a perfect spot for succulents that prefer some shade. Putting some shelves here has been a long-awaited project, but I was ambivalent about what to buy or what to build. I didn’t want anything too bulky or rectangular; and since the sideyard is narrow, I wanted something…
Read More
One project for the front-yard that I’ve been wanting to get to for years is a rectangular planter box for housing some succulents needing more shade. With shelter-in-place, I finally got the chance to pop this off the queue and scrounge up some leftover pieces of 2 × 6 to make this all happen. The…
Read More
The wait has been long and insufferable at times, but after a full four years, the Stretlizia nicolai in the backyard is finally flowering. The flowers are admittedly much less colorful than those of Strelitzia reginae, but I was still super stoked when the first bracts emerged. Strelitzia nicolai, also known as the Giant White Bird of Paradise, is…
Read More
A few years ago, I came across―to my great dismay―a vast collection of neon-colored, spray-painted Gasteraloe plants in the garden center of a home improvement store. They are marketed as Kosmik Kaktus; the product label describes them as part of “a new lineup of cacti with out-of-this-world color.” The plants came in every imaginable (and unimaginable) outlandish hue,…
Read More
Siraitia grosvenorii is a perennial, deciduous, fruit-bearing vine endemic to southeast Asia, from the mountains of Guilin, China to northern Thailand. It belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, of which the squash, pumpkin, zucchini, watermelon, and cucumber are also members. The plant’s fruit, commonly known as “Buddha Fruit,” is edible and often cultivated for its natural, low-calorie…
Read More
This species is endemic to the Tororo district in eastern Uganda, from which it derives its name. It was first discovered there on bare rock surfaces by Henry C. Dawkins, a British botanist who spent many years in Uganda as a forest ecologist. Subsequently, Swiss botanist Peter R. O. Bally collected more samples, from which Reynolds gathered enough information to first publish it in 1953.
Read More
Aloe calcairophila is a cute miniature Aloe from an area south of Ambatofinandrahana in the Fianarantsoa Province in Madagascar. The region is part of the Central Highlands at an altitude of about 1400 m.
Read More