Tag Archives: Nature

Train Ride

View from our hotel
View from our hotel

This morning Mitch and I went for a short run and then had breakfast around our hotel. Afterwards, we went outside and I took a few pictures from the roof of the parking garage. In the image above, you can see the greenery and the mountains in the distance. Below, you can see the shanty town behind the hotel. I wonder where those people were living before the hotel was built? I wonder who they are, what they do, and why they live as they do? Blatant income inequality has always made me sad, and this is no exception.

Another view from our hotel
Another view from our hotel

After a bit of exploring Seremban, we decided to take the train into KL. I’ll spare you the details of our adventures because they weren’t that exciting, but we did find a really interesting botanical garden.

Pretty fountains
Pretty fountains
Pretty waterfall
Pretty waterfall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What made this park interesting is that everything looked (and probably was) manmade. The rocks didn’t look or feel real, the steps didn’t look or feel real, the trees were obviously not natural (because this was a botanical garden, after all), and there was an enclosure of mouse deer and some other non-North American species of deer. Yup, an enclosure. Who feeds those poor babies? We weren’t sure if the lake was manmade or natural, either.

The park was really pretty, though, once we got over the deer and the fake rock. There were a few really cool trees, including a Brazil nut tree – that was huge. Green spaces in the midst of cities are always pretty.

By the Water

My roommate’s family has a cottage on Cayuga Lake, one of the finger lakes here in upstate New York. Mitch and I spent July 4th there with Emily, her family, and her boyfriend, Tim. We had an awesome time and I can’t wait to go back! Wine tasting, kayaking, tubing, boating, eating, drinking, more eating . . . hard life, I know. Here are a couple pictures that I took at sunset. Cayuga Lake                                  Tree You’ll notice that the second picture is simply an isolated shot of the tree at the right of the first picture. The colors of the sky were stunning. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you already know that I am infatuated with water and sunsets. Mother Nature may be fickle, but she never ceases to amaze. Today I was back at work on the Sam Patch, a replica of an 1800s packet boat, on the Erie Canal. I did a lot of posting about the boats and my summer gig back when I was doing the 365 Photos project that started this blog. Click on the tags – you’ll see! It was a rather gorgeous day on the canal, too. Another picture of water . . .

From the Sam Patch

I grew up with the Erie Canal practically in my backyard, but it wasn’t until college that I really began to appreciate the natural beauty of upstate New York and everything our waterways have to offer.

 

Solitude

There’s a beautiful trellis behind my house. It sits up against the fence that separates our yard from the garage of the house next door. As a tenant in the front apartment, I spend my time on the porch rather than the back lawn. That’s in the lease, unfortunately. But when I get home from work in the afternoons, often before anyone else, and when the sun is shining, there’s no one to prevent me from spending a few moments with our secret garden.

Oasis IMG_0028 IMG_0029_2 IMG_0031_2