Phoenix Botanical Garden
Oct. 26th, 2012 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guppiecatWhile I don't like it as much as the Arizon Sonora Desert Museum, I do like the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. Check out their map to see how neat it is. The "Plants & People of the Sonoran Desert" is particularly interesting. I first found this place when I was in Scottsdale for the conference and this place was open for a couple hours after class ended. It was nice to get away from the people and go out to it.
I didn't have much time there when I was with my family, so there aren't a whole lot of photos, but the set is here.
Here is my favorite:
I like how you can just see the spots on the wing, and how the extreme contrast and back/side lighting shows the texture on the cactus.
This is a very common sight in the Sonora desert, so it's a pretty easy shot to get. I just happen to like how this one turned out.
Sure does suck to be stuck between a rock and a thorny problem.
There was a particularly haunting episode of Earth Final Conflict in Season 1, back when it had potential, before it turned into whatever the hell it was in Season 5, where an alien probe landed near an Amish village and replicated monarch butterflies to serve as more mobile probes. These robot butterflies crawled inside of people and drove them to commit suicide in different ways so the aliens could find out the physical tolerances of the human bodies. It was an absolutely brilliant idea and the effects were pretty good for the time.
This butterfly did not, however, try to take over my body and was seemingly more interested in red flowers.
Note how the bird has managed to block out the sun by putting it's eye into a shadow. This is interesting because when you so that, your peripheral vision becomes more sensitive to shade change. I suspect that this makes it easier to detect birds of prey.
Cacti don't only rely on their spines for protection. Sometimes they hide behind and under other plants. No, really.
Some are fuzzy!
Do not touch the fuzzy.
The fuzzy is made of little spines that stick in your hand and don't come out for weeks, 'cause cacti are evil creatures that look calm and placid, but really spend their time thinking up ways to torture you... but now I'm being snarky.
Sometimes, though, snarks really are boojums. No, really
It's just a step to the (stage) left.
Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills
I didn't have much time there when I was with my family, so there aren't a whole lot of photos, but the set is here.
Here is my favorite:
I like how you can just see the spots on the wing, and how the extreme contrast and back/side lighting shows the texture on the cactus.
This is a very common sight in the Sonora desert, so it's a pretty easy shot to get. I just happen to like how this one turned out.
Sure does suck to be stuck between a rock and a thorny problem.
There was a particularly haunting episode of Earth Final Conflict in Season 1, back when it had potential, before it turned into whatever the hell it was in Season 5, where an alien probe landed near an Amish village and replicated monarch butterflies to serve as more mobile probes. These robot butterflies crawled inside of people and drove them to commit suicide in different ways so the aliens could find out the physical tolerances of the human bodies. It was an absolutely brilliant idea and the effects were pretty good for the time.
This butterfly did not, however, try to take over my body and was seemingly more interested in red flowers.
Note how the bird has managed to block out the sun by putting it's eye into a shadow. This is interesting because when you so that, your peripheral vision becomes more sensitive to shade change. I suspect that this makes it easier to detect birds of prey.
Cacti don't only rely on their spines for protection. Sometimes they hide behind and under other plants. No, really.
Some are fuzzy!
Do not touch the fuzzy.
The fuzzy is made of little spines that stick in your hand and don't come out for weeks, 'cause cacti are evil creatures that look calm and placid, but really spend their time thinking up ways to torture you... but now I'm being snarky.
Sometimes, though, snarks really are boojums. No, really
It's just a step to the (stage) left.
Fight a Triffid that spits poison and kills
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 05:14 pm (UTC)If finances allow, I may try for a short trip in Feb.
Bear in mind that I can spend all day at the Botanical Center and 2-3 days at the Desert Museum. How long would I need at the Arboretum?
no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 05:44 pm (UTC)The "larger portion of your day" was meant to refer to additional travel time, as it's roughly an hour east of the Phoenix/Tempe area.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 06:06 pm (UTC)They aren't called "jumping cholla" fer nuthin'.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-26 06:35 pm (UTC)No, you are being wise. Do not touch the fuzzy. :-)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-29 03:11 pm (UTC)K.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-29 03:16 pm (UTC)Could it be that you had a Red-bellied Woodpecker or Northern Flicker?
(Not that any of this matters, as a woodpecker on your house is a woodpecker on your house.)