Portals of Discovery

"Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions.
All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better."
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy
and we're gonna make mistakes. ~Mel Brooks

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include
the freedom to make mistakes. ~Mahatma Gandhi

It was when I found out I could make mistakes
that I knew I was on to something. ~Ornette Coleman

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." ~James Joyce

Ruby Tuesday - Little Things

I have little bits of the color red to share from the butterfly exhibit at Tucson Botanical Gardens. Both local and tropical plants and butterflies live inside the warm greenhouse.

"The butterfly is a flying flower,
The flower a tethered butterfly."
~Ponce Denis Écouchard Lebrun


"Just living is not enough," said the butterfly,
"one must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
~Hans Christian Anderson

"This magnificent butterfly finds a little heap of dirt and sits still on it;
but man will never on his heap of mud keep still." ~Joseph Conrad

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough." ~Rabindranath Tagore

"Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine." ~Jeffrey Glassberg

Ruby Tuesday is a fun photography meme where participants post pictures featuring a little or a lot of the color red. To see more posts from around the world, visit Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet hosted by Mary T.

Seeing Red - at the gardens

Little bits of red here and there at Tucson Botanical Gardens:

Pomegranate

Pentas

Broad-billed hummingbird

Baja Fairy Duster

Mystery flower, Bottlebrush,
Shrimp plant, Pyracantha

To see more red Ruby Tuesday posts, visit maryt/theteach at Work of the Poet.

Yellow in the Cactus Garden

“Silence is not always golden; sometimes it is yellow”

Find more Cactus Monday posts, at Teri's Painted Daisies.
For yellow posts see Drowsy Monkey at Mellow Yellow Monday.

Shadow Shots - at the gardens

Though it's autumn in Tucson, the days are still very bright and sunny, even in the mornings. Here in this part of the Sonoran Desert we enjoy about 300 days of sunshine per year.

I liked the striped shadows of the many ramadas at Tucson Botanical Gardens. But the lighting was rather harsh for taking pictures of flowers, so I might visit the gardens again on one of Tucson's rare overcast days.



I did find the lighting to be a little more subtle inside the greenhouse with the butterfly exhibit. But I'll save those pictures for another post as this was the only butterfly shadow I caught.

To see more shadow pictures, click on the Shadow Shot Sunday logo below:

Weekend Reflections - Outside the Gallery

This window caught my eye near the entrance to Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Besides the shiny glass of the windows, the shutters also interested me because they are made with ribs from saguaro cacti.




Stepping a little closer to the window, I could glimpse paintings hanging inside the art gallery. I liked the montage effect of tree and shrub foliage outdoors superimposed on the artwork inside.

The paintings of David Conklin are currently on display in the Gallery at the Gardens until January 3, 2010. His work reflects southwestern scenes and wildlife. Here's a peek at some of the paintings inside:

To see more Weekend Reflection posts or to participate in this beautiful meme, visit James at Newtown Area Photo.

Skywatch - at the gardens

under autumn sky
hunting for sunny colors
the bee and i

To enjoy skies from around the world visit Skywatch Friday.
Thanks to the Skywatch Team: Klaus, Sandy, Wren, Fishing Guy, Louise and Sylvia

Scarecrows

These scarecrows are part of the Fall Festival at Tucson Botanical Gardens.

Traditionally, scarecrows are human figures placed in fields to discourage birds from feeding on crops. But these days they are more often used to celebrate autumn.

Some alternate names for scarecrows are: Mommet, Hodmedod, Tattie bogle, Flay-crow, Mawpin, Bird-scarer, Moggy, Shay and Bogeyman.

Madame Monarch

Paper Dancer

Paper Dancer unwinding

“The first and great commandment is: Don’t let them scare you.” ~Elmer Davis