Attack of the Plants

Looks like a scene from a B-movie. We shall call this movie "Attack of the Plants". We humans are doomed!

Our Pride and Joy

Our pride and joy from our garden to yours.

Nature Abuse

It is a sad, sad day when a sign is completely useless against such abuse!

"Something is wrong with that apple!"

"I'm telling you, Clyde. There's definitely something wrong with THAT apple!"

That's the expression that we got when we first saw this larger-than-life sculpture at the Huntington Gardens.

Furry plant

Anyone has any idea what kind of plant this is? We think it's a

desert plant or maybe a carnivorous plant (like the Venus flytrap).

Stairways to Heaven?

Theater Entrance

This is the roof of the entrance way to the AMC Theatres at Downtown Disney. Technically, Downtown Disney is located in Orange County, south of Los Angeles County.

Pink hangovers

The flowers runneth over.

Hanging flowers 2

Am out of town this week. Ming from NY Daily Photo will be updating the photos for me.

Under a red tree

We took a snapshot of what it would be like to lay back under this red tree. I think it's a Japanese Maple.

Alas, we only stayed under there for about a minute.

Movin' On Up

Yep, we're movin' on up and movin' into this 20,000-square-foot home in the Beverly Hills area...... in our dreams!!

Hanging flowers

Anyone has any ideas what kind of flowers these are?

Nature's piercing 2

Nature's Piercing

Candy Apples

There is no way anyone can resist NOT buying these from the store!

Cactus Corner

Another Only-In-LA scene , where different type of cacti are used to "beautify" a frontyard corner of a house.

Trees & Sky 2: The Slope

In the land of Hollywood, another sequel appears!

Trees & Sky

Reflections

You can see the graffiti on the glass interrupting the perfect reflection of a school auditorium

You have arrived!

We took this photo up in the hills of Bevely Hills after visiting one of our friends.

The Pineapple Family

The genus of this plant Bromeliaceae is the same genus as the sweet delicious pineapple! The pineapple (Ananas comosus) is the only bromeliad that is edible. Most other bromeliads are used as ornamental plants, like this Quesnelia arvensis in the photo.



Again, we did the research. Whew! Research is time-consuming!

Don't be such a Pansy!

We love pansies because they are always multi-colored.

Stone Carvings

This stone carving is shot at the front of the Huntington Library building.

Unfurling fern

We found an unfurling frond of a fern. Try saying that three times fast!

Rosy Path

This beautiful path lead to the Rose Garden at the Huntington Library Garden. There are different color and type of roses on both sides of the path.

View from Your Bedroom - Day View

Eric from ParisDailyPhoto gave us an idea: Take a day shot of the June Theme Day's Photo.

Hmmm.... well, here it is!

California Fan Palm

Close-up of the leaf of a California Fan Palm (scientific name: Washintonia filifera), a very popular shrub grown in backyards and frontyards of Los Angeles.

See, we did our homework this time; we can name the plant again this time!

Theme Photo: View From Your Bedroom

We completely forgot that it's Theme Photo Day. So we rushed out to the balcony, played around with the shutter-speed and came up with this. We didn't realized what we took until we started to put this together, but can you spot the 3 focal points of the photos?

Anyways, here's the list of sites that are participating in the Theme Day.
Seattle (WA), USA - Manila, Philippines - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Singapore, Singapore - Toruń, Poland - Baton Rouge (LA), USA - Seoul, Korea - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Vantaa, Finland - Madison (WI), USA - Saarbrücken, Germany - Cleveland (OH), USA - Chicago (IL), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Omaha (NE), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Stockholm, Sweden - Grenoble, France - Lubbock (TX), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Arradon, France - Hyde, UK - Joplin (MO), USA - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Kansas City (MO), USA - Naples (FL), USA - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Manila, Philippines - Sydney, Australia - Stavanger, Norway - Bucaramanga (Santander), Colombia - London, UK - Chandler (AZ), USA - Nelson, New Zealand - Singapore, Singapore - Hamburg, Germany - Sydney, Australia - Tenerife, Spain - Moscow, Russia - Lyon, France - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Villigen, Switzerland - Anderson (SC), USA - Oslo, Norway - Evry, France - Hayle, UK - Mumbai, India - Kitakami, Japan - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Los Angeles (CA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - La Antigua, Guatemala - Paderborn, Germany - San Diego (CA), USA - Ampang (Selangor), Malaysia - Madrid, Spain - Lyon, France - Selma (AL), USA - Shanghai, China - Baziège, France - Cologne (NRW), Germany - North Bay (ON), Canada - Rotterdam, Netherlands - Stayton (OR), USA - Sharon (CT), USA - Austin (TX), USA - Hong Kong, China - Trier, Germany - Joensuu, Finland - Paris, France - Greenville (SC), USA - Wailea (HI), USA - Budapest, Hungary - Cork, Ireland - Bastia, France - Vancouver, Canada - Brookville (OH), USA - Jakarta, Indonesia - Mainz, Germany - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Zurich, Switzerland - Torino, Italy - Montréal (QC), Canada

Pitcher Plants

More photos from the Huntington Botanical Garden:

This time it is the carnivous pitcher plant. We had seen many pictures and photos of the pitcher plant, but to see it up close with our own eyes is a completely different experience. It looks so harmless and beautiful, but so deadly to an insect!











The pitcher plant on the left is known as the speckled pitcher plant (of the Nepenthes or Old World genus) while the one on the right is known as North American pitcher plant (of the Sarracenia or New World genus). We didn't even know the difference until we did the research on this!

Bum or Palm?

Is this a bum (butt) or a palm fruit? You decide.

Lonely bench

There are numerous such secluded spots all over the Huntington Botanical Garden where you can sit and enjoy nature or the view.

Elmo Wanna-Be

We stumbled upon this "Elmo Wanna-be" hairy cactus on the side of the residential road next to the trash dumpster. It's interesting how the owner decided to use his old (we're assuming he doesn't want it anymore) glasses to dress up his cactus.





Ah, another Only-in-LA for sure!

Water Lily

Closeup of a water lily taken at the Huntington Library's Japanese Garden in San Marino, CA.

The Huntington Library, Art Collection and Botanical Gardens has one of the most extensive botanical collections in the world, with nearly 120 acres and 15,000 kinds of plants from all over the world.

Facade - City of San Gabriel series

This is how the front facade of the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium looks like.

... and this is the final in the City of San Gabriel series... we promise!

Bell Tower - City of San Gabriel series

This is taken in front the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium.

Ceiling - City of San Gabriel series

The ceiling of the grand entrance to the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium made us think of architectures in Istanbul (Seda, do you not agree?)

Fountain - City of San Gabriel series

This is taken in front of the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium.

Arches - City of San Gabriel series

These arches are the backside of the San Gabriel Civic Auditorium.

Organic Vegetables

After visiting the Tanaka Farms yesterday, we visited the organic store at the Farm and took photos of some of the variety of organic vegetables being grown there, too.

There're onions, carrots, purple cauliflowers, white cauliflowers and yellow/orange cauliflowers.

Strawberry Season!

We went strawberry picking today at the Tanaka Farms, an organic farm in Irvine, about an hour's drive south of Los Angeles (technically, it's Orange County, not Los Angeles County anymore). We took on the Strawberry Tour at the farm where two wagons filled with city slickers are pulled by a old Ford tractor for an hour around the 30-acre farm. Now, what's so extraordinary is that Irvine is technically still the city, not the suburbs or the rurals.

We were so busy eating the strawberries at the farm that we forgot to take photos of the rows of strawberries! The photos at the top are from before we embarked on the tractor tour (when we're waiting to board the tour!)

Stuffed

We saw a couple of kids playing with these three stuffed animals and stuffing them into the lanterns-home in the garden section of Kohl's and asked if we could take a photo of their "creations".

Hidden Garden

We were able to sneak into one of our neighbors' garden to snap this photo. We just love the way she puts all the different flowers together.

StormWatch LA!

There was a storm coming into LA a few weeks ago and the sky turns dark almost immediately. So, we can't resist taking this photo of the sky.

When we look closer at the photo, we discovered we also captured the silhouette of a plane coming through the dark clouds on the middle right of the photo (click on the photo on the left for the 2812x2112 pixels version to see if you can spot the plane).

New Newspaper Ads

We took this photo because we notice there was a different "ads" on the side of this newspaper stand (make sure to click on the photo so you can see the "ads" more clearly). It says: "CHARLENE Please call Mark" with a phone #.

Our minds started wondering if Charlene was the girlfriend of Mark, if there was a fight or quarrel, if Mark is trying to get Charlene back?

Or, is it a Hollywood movie-style of romance? Charlene and Mark had a great time around here. Mark never got Charlene's phone # (or lose her phone #) and he can't get her out of his mind, and out of desperation, this is the only way to see if he will be able to contact him again...

Or maybe this is just an ad for something else...

We'll never know...