This is the Japanese garden stream at the University of Hawaii Manoa.
Posts Tagged ‘travel’
What am I seeing?
August 27, 2015
These lovely clouds were spotted outside my (airplane) window over Hawai’i. On my way to a meeting, so spotty blogging will ensue. Mahalo.
What am I celebrating?
August 16, 2015
On August 16, the third annual BACON Festival takes place in Reykjavik Iceland.
This year’s event marks the third annual Reykjavik Bacon Festival, an exciting day in Reykjavik that bacon-lovers cannot resist. People from all over the world flock to the streets of Reykjavik to enjoy country music and the greasy, delectable taste of anything and everything bacon. At the festival, an array of chefs cook up a feast of bacon-inspired treats for everyone to try, including bacon sushi and bacon-flavored popcorn. At this family-friendly event, anyone can participate in various bacon-themed events and collect any recipes that entice them. This day is one for the books and one you should not miss. If you needed an excuse to get away to Reykjavik this summer, the Bacon Festival is certainly a worthwhile reason!
Here is a photo from last year’s event.
What am I sappy spider blogging?
August 14, 2015This little spider puts his heart into his dancing – all for the benefit of the little brown female seen at the end of the video. The colorful fellow is M. personatus, or Blueface peacock spider. Jurgen Otto is a spider and mite biologist from Australia who is interested in creatures such as the peacock spider, from a scientific perspective as well as for its entertaining dancing.
John Travolta, eat your heart out. “Unh, unh, unh, unh . . . ”
What am I building?
August 5, 2015We drove by Stan Hewett Hall a couple of weeks ago and saw this amazing reconstruction of the 2200 linear foot long dry stone wall surrounding the property.
Stan Hewett Hall and Gardens is the former home of industrialist, Frank Seiberling, who founded Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. Finished in 1915, the estate, now a museum and garden, is celebrating its 100th year.
The stone wall reconstruction is just one of the restoration projects going on at the mansion.
What am I sappy polar bear blogging?
July 24, 2015
Kaktovik, Alaska
These adorable Polar Bear cubs were staying close to their mother, and stood up to monitor another pair of cubs.
Photograph and caption by Laura Keene
Where am I living?
July 23, 2015
Tree house architect, Takashi Kobayashi, created this marvelous tree house for Risonare resort in Atami, Japan.
The rambling structure is built around a 300 year-old camphor tree. It was . . .
Completed in March of 2014, Kusukusu (it borrows its name from kusu-no-ki, Japanese for camphor tree) is a marvelous feat of architecture, engineering and technology. Working with Hiroshi Nakamura of NAP Architects, the team came in and 3D-scanned hundreds of points on the tree. Based on that 3D data they then created a steel trellis that threaded through the tree, interlocking perfectly and acting as an architecturally weight-bearing yet visually stunning support system. What’s amazing is that the treehouse in its entirety, never touches the tree. It’s completely self-standing so as to not harm the tree.
READ MORE at Spoon and Tomago by clicking here.
What do I think is pretty awesome?
June 18, 2015Volcano Calbuco erupted on April 22, 2015, for the first time in four decades. Located close to the cities of Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt in southern Chile. We (Jonas Dengler and Martin Heck) spend the prior couple of days on the neighboring volcano Osorno (~20km linear distance) shooting timelapses. After an amazing night under the nightsky we took the cable car downwards after a delay caused by repairs. Already late we headed south to catch the ferry on Routa 7 down to Patagonia. After 10min on the ferry we noticed a massive, almost nuclear looking cloud boiling upwards just were we left a few hours ago. Frenetically looking for a good outlook we then rushed to the only non-forested place to get a decent view of the show. We quickly put every bit of camera-equipment we could find on the constantly growing mushroom-cloud. We shot timelapses in 8K and 4K with a Pentax 645Z and Canon 6D. On the A7s we shot 4K video to the Shogun using Kingston HyperX SSDs. We filled almost all of our memory cards in the prior night so I had to do backups while shooting all this stuff.
This was for sure the most incredible show I’ve ever seen. I think this is a once in a lifetime event and I am so happy that we were able to capture it in all its glory.
WEBSITE: http://www.timestormfilms.com/
What celebration did I miss?
June 9, 2015This first Friday in June is doughnut day. I hope you did not miss it. We celebrated by taking a small road trip to the town of Wooster. Wooster is a small college town in Ohio. It has lots of trees, fine old buildings, good restaurants, two great bookstores, and donuts!
The key to this post is that Lerch’s donuts is located just a little north of town. Lerch’s donuts are unlike any other.
They are made on site. They melt in your mouth. They come in three flavors – plain, sugared, or cinnamon.
The donuts are made in a little food truck parked in a defunct shopping plaza (and at select locations around the area.)
Their website says:
Lerch’s Donuts was founded in 1933 by John Lerch, Sr., when he developed a method of frying soft cake donuts that are not greasy at his downtown Wooster bakery.
In 1934, he began producing Lerch’s Donuts at the Wayne County fair, soon becoming the #1 food vendor at the fair. Many things have changed since the 1930s; the bakery has closed, but not the recipe or popularity of Lerch’s Donuts.
Mobile concession trailers are located at the former Hawkins Market (Portage Square Plaza, Wooster, Ohio) and other various locations in season (spring – fall).
Wooster – come for the books, stay for the donuts.
Remember:
Where am I living?
May 30, 2015
If you have a hankering to live off the grid in a self-contained pod, “the compact Ecocapsule fits all the home necessities within an egg-shaped space measuring 4.5 meters (14.6 feet) in length, 2.4 meters (7.9 feet) in width, and 2.5 meters in height (8.2 feet).”
The Ecocapsule is described as a portable, low-energy, green dwelling that will comfortable house two adults.
While portable, you have to transport the 1500 kilogram pod to your location. They are said to fit in a shipping container.
They do have the ability to generate power from the wind turbine and solar cells, and can collect and filter rainwater.
The pods are currently in the design phase, although delivery of actual capsules is anticipated in 2016.
I don’t know about long-term living, but they look like they are a huge step up from tent camping.
Gunsmoke and Knitting 