Laos

Hmmm... I've seem to have lost my photos in this section


Lush in nature, rich in resources and relatively new to tourism, Laos is a must on the South East Asia route.

The Lone Snowflake

Look at this snowflake Gino captured with his Canon 40D. Incredible, eh?? Speaking of snow, which it's not here, wedding plans are m-o-v-i-n-g. We lucked out with a very relaxed--and might I say handsome for an older man-- monk. The shrine where our shinto ceremony will be is on a mountain side. One must climb five minutes straight up narrow natural stone steps to reach the offering place. It's 11 a.m. Feb 24. Then we will go to the sea side for some pictures, then change out of the formal garb into play clothes and play seaside with our closest friends and BBQ oysters. At night we'll get dressed up again and go for the reception. The count down to the gala of the year (totally exaggerated) is on.

Get Up There!

Gino's Photograph of Today

Nothing great, just an update!

Pictured above is a statue of "Buddha reaching Nirvana," naturally, taken by Gino. He also got this meticulous shot:



















Our friend from Australia, Andy is visiting.
Gino, Andy and I saw the nirvanic Buddha on a weekend road trip to see our friend, Sachi. Andy used to teach in Japan and was one of my first friends here. Andy stayed for two weeks, so it was a good time to get out and about and catch up with friends.

An update...

(click pic to enlarge)

Summer has begun. AKA rainy season is over. Accompanying the inception of the sunshine are schools' summer vacations. For me, this means my teaching will be halved and the void will be filled with lots of playing.

We found a magnificent waterfall about a 12 minute drive from our house. Here, the spiders were plentiful.

By the way, here was the "artificial crab meat / squid / hard noodle surprise" of a couple entries ago (click to enlarge).

A Bike Ride in the Country

Poor Duncan...

Dunc doesn't realize that he has a broken leg, but I can tell he is a little down in spirits. He is blue.

Sakura Molding to the Clouds

Gino's Artful Eye:

Yume-chan

Picture of the Week

Gino put up new pictures. As shown above, Yume thought they were nose-picking good!

Gino's Photos

This Weekend's Picture

Who's the Geek?

Cosmos (all pics by Gino)

To get a preview of the fun to come, click

my Cosmos video

In Japan, a certain flower contributes to the autumn bliss and attracts hordes of weekend driving hobbyists. Not as popular as the springtime cherry blossom, no one needs a reason to stop and smell the flowers. All they need is the flower.

The Cosmos.

A few weeks ago, Gino and I were stunned to see the number of people viewing the cosmos on a weekday. There were passersby, picnickers, all with ice cream in hand. And we were no different.

After looking into it a little more, I found that Cosmos, as Japanese as it sounds--which it doesn't at all--can be found in many different areas of the world. It's the widespread speading flower.

It can be found elsewhere in meadow areas in Mexico, the southern United States (Arizona, Florida), Central America and northern South America extending to Paraguay.

The bulk of the population, however, resides in its originating country of Mexico, where Spanish priests grew the flowers in their mission gardens. The evenly placed petals led them to christen the flower "Cosmos," the Greek word for harmony or ordered universe.



For those not-so-green thumbs scrolling down right now, you will be happy to know that these flowers are easy to grow in the worse conditions spring and summer have to offer. They can be seeded in the spring for early summer bloom or in mid-summer or late summer for Fall-until-winter frost bloom.

Do you have any Cosmos near you?