Just as I thought the long awaited spring is here to stay, and it’s time to fire up the grill and hang out on my deck, then this happened.
My expectation was buried, and it buried the sprouting bulb flowers too.
But no wintry storm can totally quash our spirits, for underneath that snow, I know, hope springs eternal.
(*photos taken this weekend)
(topiary |ˈtōpēˌerē|: the art or practice of clipping shrubs or trees into ornamental shapes.)
It’s officially spring time here, and its time once again to tend the yard and the garden. I have posted before that my wife love topiaries and we have them both inside and outside of our home (see previous post here).
However in our backyard is a line of evergreens that looked like hideously clipped topiaries. Don’t we have the artistic skill to trim them?
However, we are not the one who trim these disfigured shrubs. We’re not thinking our neighbors are vandalizing our plants either, causing this unusual design. In fact, these evergreens are not even intended to be topiaries at all.
Who’s responsible for this art work then? A drunk Edward Scissorhands?
No, it’s the pesky deer!
During winter, when the grass and food is scarce, these evergreen could be a gourmet meal for them. They nibble on what they can reach, leaving the top untouched.
Good thing we don’t have roaming giraffes!
(*photos taken with an iPhone)
(*photo credit: my wife; taken in Northern Iowa)
Last time I posted about sun dogs (see earlier post this month), I just borrowed a photo taken by a friend, for I did not witnessed it personally.
Sun dogs are atmospheric phenomenon that consists of a pair of bright spots on either horizontal side of the sun. Most of the time it is part of a luminous ring around the sun known as a 22° halo. These beautiful glowing spots are created by the sunlight refracting off the plate-like ice crystals in the cirrus clouds.
Since it needs ice crystals in the clouds, sun dogs occur when it is harshly cold. My take on this is, even in unpleasant situations, beauty can exist. We just have to open our eyes for it. As in most life’s circumstances.
We are experiencing nice weather in Iowa this weekend, but last week our temperature was below zero Fahrenheit. To make up for the extreme cold, we were delighted with the appearance of sun dogs during one particularly frigid day. That time, I saw them with my own eyes and even able to capture photos of them.
Below are photos of the sun dogs that my wife and I took.
(*my wife and I traveled on separate errands that day, me – an hour and a half drive south, she – two hours north, so we were able to capture sun dogs in different times and locations)
I thought deer usually roam all their life, like pilgrims or wayfarers that don’t stay in one place. But that is not the case. They can stay in one area for an extended period of time, as long as they have food and they deemed that the area they are in is safe. And I have photos that chronicles this.
It started one morning last summer, when I opened the garage door as I was about to go to work, I saw this deer standing in my lawn near our driveway basketball hoop. She just stood there as our eyes met, as if she’s saying “hello there!” Or maybe it was that deer-in-the-headlight look.
I tried not to scare her, though she ran away as soon as my car pulled out of the driveway. However few days later, I saw her again and this time she brought her family along. There’s three of them.
Since then, like a regular visitor, she comes and greets me.
Her fawn also plays fearlessly in our front lawn.
All summer I spotted them in my yard, all three of them. They are a regular fixture at my place.
Summer turned into fall, but they remained. I even saw them resting comfortably in my yard. You may even think they are decorative statues in the lawn.
Then the cold air came, the leaves have all fallen to the ground, and the grass have turned brown. My sightings of them became few and far between. But they hang around, all three of them.
Finally winter arrived, the arctic wind blew, and the snow fell. For a long time I have not seen them. Days passed. Weeks passed. Two months passed. And there’s no sign of them.
Maybe I was just not going out of the house that much anymore as it is too cold, so I have not spotted them. Though I see tracks in the snow. Or maybe they really have moved away to find food and relocated to a safer haven for this harsh winter. Did they give their final goodbye?
But this morning, they came!
All three of them still. Perhaps telling me, that they’re here to stay. At least for now.
(*all photos taken with an iPhone)
Here’s my entry to the WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge.
Transformation (transfərˈmāSH(ə)n): a thorough or dramatic change in form or appearance.
Everyday we are witnesses to different transformations. Whether it be night turning into day, or day into night. Enemies into friends, or friends into enemies. Failure into success, or success into failure. But we can do something about how we want it written.
And the photo above? I transformed it. I posted it upside down! I’m not sure if many of you even noticed.
Here’s the original photo.
(*photo taken during my morning run)
Gone were the summer flowers, and all our lush annual plants. And after our fall clean-up, all that were left of them were memories, and these yard waste bags.
All in this life, is temporary.
(*this post is an entry to WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge: Temporary)
Cows.
Here’s the story behind the above photo:
During our last trip to New York City, we planned a side trip to upstate New York to see the autumn foliage. However we were disappointed as the color of the leaves were not that colorful or have not peaked yet. It’s delayed this year for some reason. So out of a whim, from the suggestion of our friend from New York, we drove to Vermont to see a “better” fall foliage.
And we were not disappointed. Vermont’s fall foliage was much colorful!
With hasty plans we headed to Stowe, Vermont which was 6 hours drive from New York City. Well, 1 hour was just trying to get out of the city’s traffic. We found a place in the mountains called the Trapp Family Lodge. If you are familiar with the Von Trapp family, from which the movie “The Sound of Music” was based on, this is their property.
After the Von Trapp family left Austria, they settled in Stowe, Vermont in the 1940’s. They built a home on an enchanted farm surrounded with beautiful mountains reminiscent of their beloved Austria. Later on they opened a lodge for visitors for some Austrian-inspired hospitality.
This is a place where the hills are alive with the sound of music. And cows.
By the way, those cows are owned by the Von Trapp family. I wonder if there’s a cow named Moo-ria.
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(*photos taken with an iPhone)
If you have been reading my blogs, you probably already know that I once lived in New York City. I left New York seventeen years ago, though I came back once for a visit, and that’s seven years ago too.
But now it’s time to visit New York once more.
When you hear New York, you picture in your mind the big crowded city. But in reality, a large part of New York State is mountains and forested areas. And that’s where we started our visit.
Yes, the above photo is New York.
We did some not-so-serious hikes up the mountains, and the view there was breath-taking. Breath-taking, not just because we were panting after the climb.
It’s not all work though, for we did some relaxing as well. Lots of relaxing. Especially beside a lake. We even went for a calm boat ride.
Beautiful mountains, trees, a lake, and some quiet time. What could be better than that?
Well, this: to enjoy it with the love of my life.
While in upstate New York, we also visited the Culinary Institute of America. Besides touring the place, we also ate a sumptuous meal there (see previous post).
Another place we went to is the Walkway Over the Hudson, in Poughkeepsie, New York. This is the longest elevated pedestrian bridge in the world, spanning 1.28 miles over the Hudson River. It is actually an old railroad bridge that they converted into a pedestrian bridge.
After spending a couple of days in upstate New York, it was time to visit the city.
We decided to stay not actually in New York City, but across the Hudson River, in New Jersey. So we can sleep with a view like this (photo below). And going into the heart of New York City is just one ferry ride away.
Though we stayed a few days in the city, I’ll just chronicle here a one-day trek that we did through the city.
We started at the new improved Chelsea Market. It is an enclosed food hall, shopping mall and offices all rolled in one. It was built at the old Nabisco factory complex, where Oreo was invented and produced. They transformed the factory, but kept many of its original structures.
There were places that we visited that were not existent yet when we were still living in New York. Like the High Line Park, a long elevated linear park at the West Side of New York City, which opened in 2009. This is again an old elevated rail road track that was repurposed into a park and walkway.
Walking this park gives you a unique perspective of the city, as well as get interesting stories as you peered through buildings, neighborhood and people’s backyards.
And yes, we walked the whole 1.45 mile span of the High Line Park.
The photo below shows typical New York. That means construction never stops in this city.
Besides walking inside the city, we also rode the ferry to get a different “feel” of New York City. That is, to view it without the noise, the hustle and the bustle.
United Nations Headquarters (white building)
The Empire State building from afar
Midtown Manhattan
Brooklyn Bridge and Lower Manhattan
Statue of Liberty from a distance
We got off at the Brooklyn port from the ferry, and then we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge by foot back to Manhattan.
the city view from Brooklyn Bridge
As you can surmise from my account, we did a lot of walking that day. In fact, according to my phone app, we walked 7 miles or more than 18,000 steps that day.
After all that walking, I got hungry so I got something to eat. Iconic New York City’s street food, of course!
We ended our tour at the One World Trade Center, which has become the emblem of New York City’s tenacity and resolve. Photos below show the One World Trade Center and the Oculus NYC.
Finally I stopped at the 9/11 Memorial and spent some quiet moments besides the reflecting pool. I uttered a prayer and paid respect to the thousands of lives our nation lost there.
After visiting the 9/11 Memorial, we decided to call it a day.
On our way home, we rode the subway. Though for some reason, it was not crowded at all. Is this is the World Trade Center’s ghost subway train? Nah!
From New York,
Pinoy Transplant
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(*Photo credit: Pinoy Transplant and his unofficial photographers)
Yes, you read the title right. Take note of the “CIA” sign at the door, on the photo below.
But it is not Central Intelligence of America. It is rather the Culinary Institute of America.
CIA is a premier culinary school, and boast to be the best in the world. An institution specializing in culinary, baking and pastry arts. It’s main campus is located in Hyde Park in New York, which is the one we visited.
The school campus is nestled in a beautiful location near the Hudson River, with surrounding views that is conducive for learning and artistic inspiration.
Touring the CIA campus is a gratifying experience in itself as you see the beautiful and clean premises and also take a glimpse of the students honing their crafts.
Just watch out for crossing chefs.
But dining and tasting their food creation is another whole experience of its own. And that’s what we did.
The CIA New York Campus operates four public restaurants. If you don’t mind to be a “guinea pig” of these budding chefs, because in a sense their creation is part of their training and test, and your satisfaction could be a part of their grade. But I’m pretty sure these students are under the watchful eye of certified master chefs.
We dined at Bocuse Restaurant, which serves traditional French Restaurant. If there’s a restaurant there that serves traditional Filipino food, that’s where I’ll go, but there’s none.
I was not disappointed. From the ambience, the service, the presentation and the food were all excellent. The food I ate there, is one of the best food I ever tasted. I have been to fancy restaurants before, but the appetizer, entrée and desert I had in CIA was a league of its own. An absolute gastronomic delight!
Whoever prepared my food, he or she definitely passed with flying colors, in my humble opinion.
By the way, their wine list is exhaustive as well. But since I dont’ drink wine or any alcoholic drink for that matter, for personal and health reasons, so I did not have any.
One unique policy they have in their restaurants is that they don’t accept monetary tips from customers, as part of their student’s education is to provide outstanding service even without tips. To this I tip my hat.
From the CIA campus,
Pinoy Transplant
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(*I did not receive any commission for the above post. However if CIA would like to give me a free dinner next time I visit, I will definitely accept it.)
(**Photos taken with an iPhone)
