Pretty shot, spanishliz!
Three trees, Gats? You're ambitious! Perhaps we might see it lit up at night in a later post? *hint, hint*
Paul, all those decorations are antiques now! Nice memories.

Today I spotted this pretty tree on my neighbour's front porch, down the road.


It is the custom here to put tulle garlands up and down the tree, rather than strands around it.

Yayyy, our dry season is finally here! It's been a long time since I saw a brilliant blue sky among the rain-filled greys or overcast lackluster quasi-blues. A lovely background for my 3m (9ft) high poinsettia. *does a little happy dance*


Even though we are (just) in the northern hemisphere, the dry season is called summer here, and lasts 5 months from December to April. The winter (May - Nov) is called the 'green season' by the tourist industry, but the 'wet season' by everyone else.

I love the tulle garlands on the Christmas tree, Mags.

Another photo from the Navy Week. One of the helicopters aboard IMS Vikrant.

Talking of Christmas tree decorations, I am still using some which are over 50 years old - will try and take a pic...

Great photos everyone! I particularly like the snow scene and the lovely blue sky with the poinsettia. Our supermarkets are full of small potted ones which always seem to die off before Christmas.

This squirrel, in the park this afternoon, seems to have literally bitten off more than he can chew with this conker!

You can see for miles in Barnet

The famous Clifton suspension bridge over the Avon gorge in Bristol. Designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, though he didn't live to see it completed.

Such great photos from everyone! I especially love the geography lessons I get everytime I log on here. It's so fun to see all these photos from around the world.

I take a lot of my photos from inside a moving vehicle. I was trying to capture the snow fall in Texas last week, but caught the drops on my window instead.

To ClaraSue, the drive-by shooter ( ), how curious that each drop has a dent in it - they look like slot screws.

LOL, Mags, I never noticed that before. I wonder if it's due to speed.

I'd say the drops act as lenses and have magnified, then reduced and inverted the lines in the view, so you are seeing the same image of whatever is a horizontal line outside in each drop.

I had my memory card repaired today and here was the proof when I tested it in the shop.

ClaraSue, I thought about if it might be due to speed, but the airstream would push them all sideways. The biggest drop has a little bit of sideways movement, but not much. I think sat's explanation makes more sense, as I see what could be a guardrail, or some dark object outside; although the 'slots' are not all parallel. Oh well... lol, interesting.

Congrats on getting your memory card repaired, sat.

The raindrops really got me interested after your comment, Mags, and I believe Sat is correct as well. In this photo, you can see that there is a car in the photo, but I believe the line in the drops is the tree line in the distance. Ha! I think mystery solved. Thanks, Dave.

My optician gave me a fascinating lesson in lenses when I needed my own at 14, and nowadays I also do a bit of (armchair) ufo investigation and get a number of very odd looking photos that need analysing. The best yet (which fooled our biggest newspaper, or not, but they thought the public would be) was a reflection of the car's speedometer in the window as they shot the Houses of Parliament at night. Unfortunately the ordinary explanations tend to win in most cases.

I think I may now delete most photos from the memory card to save time when uploading, they all get saved per visit so shouldn't really have left 1700 photos on it just because there was room. Having had it forced on me by circumstances and survived I'll keep it free in future, plus it leaves about 5 minutes for video if something interesting (like someone famous) turns up by chance.

For everyone who has just been introduced to winter--as I have--here is a section of beach in southern California.



These birds have the right idea, I think.

My black wooden cat was still in place from being a Halloween decoration, and seemed to naturally fall into the new role of Christmas card display cat...

That's a lovely beach scene, Gary, very inviting. Liz, your house is looking very festive, and the cat fits in perfectly.

Like ClaraSue, I sometimes shoot on the move. Here is a victim of my drive-by shooting, a doorway in San Jose. I love the bright colours of Costa Rica!

Love the squirrel shot, Lily and it's nice to see the Christmas decorations from all over.

This one was taken at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney this May.

This cool motorcycle was sitting outside the Victory Motorcycle shop in Tucson, Arizona. It's a newer model made to look antique; I think they did a great job as it's fooled many people.

Very cool bike, ClaraSue!

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Love the squirrel shot, Lily and it's nice to see the Christmas decorations from all over.

This one was taken at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney this May.

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Zorba_scank - Thanks, I love to watch them, but a lot of people think they are becoming a nuisance. They seem to be in gangs of twenty or so. (gangs of squirrels? Maybe not!)

As for the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, in May, we may or may not have walked past each other!

Typical huge tree in the park:

This hot air balloon flew near my house a couple of years ago. (Or should it be a hot hare balloon?)

Here's a nice modernist block of flats my father spotted in Kew

Nice one, Martin. Another rabbit balloon among others taken yesterday at the mall.

Woah, great bike, ClaraSue!
Lily, that's a perfect climbing tree for kids!
Hot hare balloon, hahaha.
Sat, I love that architecture, so sleek and crisp looking.

Sat's photo inspired me to post another example of architecture, this time Colonial.

I saw this restored Colonial building on a side street in Granada, Nicaragua and was impressed with its bold colour and crisp clean look.

Zorba, I missed your post while I was fiddling in Flickr. Perfect 'foil' for Martin's pic.

Versailles in Kodachrome, 1976.