Ron Hanko's photostream  

This shot was taken last spring and it won't be that long before the tulips are blooming again, but at about this time of the year, I become so starved for some color that I thought I would post an old photo. This is one of the fields of Roozengaarde, a Skagit Valley bulb grower.

While my brother was here a few weeks ago we got out one afternoon for a little while in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in the area of Nooksack Falls. It was a miserable day, raining and snowing in turn, but we did manage some pictures of the falls and of the river. This was a time exposure of the river above the falls.

This is an unopened bud of an orchid I have not grown or flowered before. Angraecum breve is from Madagascar, and in that way also is a bit unusual for me, since the majority of orchids I grow are from the new world.

I am totally charmed by this plant, however, both for its size, for its white flowers and for the spur which gradually uncurls as the flower opens. It will be completely open in a few days and I'll post another picture then.

Most Angraecums are large plants and some are huge. This plant is a little fan 4 cm (1.5 in.) across, the flower is 3 cm (1 in. plus) in size and the spur is over 10 cm long (approx. 4.5 in.) when the flower opens and it is fully uncurled.

It was an Angraecum, a different species and a much larger plant, with flowers carrying a 12 inch spur, that Darwin used to predict the existence of a moth with a 12 inch tongue. This flower is probably also moth pollinated.

I do not know yet if the flower is fragrant, but suspect it will be, since many white flowers and especially flowers like this are pollinated by night-flying insects who are attracted by the fragrance and who use the nectar for food.

The photo was taken in a tropical fish store in Edmonton and Fizgig has identified it as a juvenile Koran Angelfish (Pomacanthus semicirculatus). I had no idea what it was and, in fact, I do not even know if the fish is a lady. The quote is from Andrew Marvell.

Taken on a walk with my wife in the City Park near us on a frosty morning. The botanical name for this shrub is Symphoricarpos albus, and it is native to our area and to much of the northern United States and Canada. The berries persist long after the leaves are fallen and stand out on dull gray day.