A visual feast at Macy’s Painted Garden

Screen Shot 2013-03-28 at 9.41.47 AMThis year’s Macy’s Flower Show is a definite stunner to the senses. The theme is The Painted Garden and is inspired by the colorful, brilliant flowers, jewels and market hues of India and Southern Asia. For most Minnesotans like myself, who are literally starved of color right now, the rainbow hues of the Painted Garden offer a visual feast to our hungry eyes.

As you walk through the room, all at once you are at peace as you smell the fragrance of a thousand flowers. Gentle background music lightly hums in your ears, and the room is an elaborate display of colors ranging from a magnificent variety of tropical flowers to the brightly colored hanging umbrellas and gorgeous paintings along the walls.

I still can’t decide what my favorite flower or work of art is at the Painted Garden. But I’d have to vote either for the centerpiece of the show, the elaborate, exotic elephant sculpture which proudly wears a blanket made of 20 different species of dried and fresh plant material or the insanely surreal Phalaenopsis Blue Orchids which are out of this world.

Come, take a look for yourself at some of the gorgeous flowers that paint the 8th floor of Macy’s department store in downtown Minneapolis. You will not leave this post disappointed!

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Eye candy: A glimpse into the Painted Garden

Today I decided that I’d had it with winter. I picked my daughter Sophia up from Kindergarten and we headed to downtown Minneapolis for the Macy’s Painted Garden Orchid Show. It was exactly what the doctor had in order.

We stepped inside this tropical paradise on the 8th floor of the Macy’s department store and were transported into a tropical garden more likely found in India or Thailand. Of course, given how much I adore flowers I snapped away like mad and then we walked around the show another time so 6-year-old Sophia could take some shots.

Here is just a teaser of some of the gorgeous flowers we saw. Once I have a chance to process all the photos, I will for sure give you a full report filled with color….a post not to be missed.

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In honor of WordPress’ iPhonography month, all these photos were taken with my tiny iPhone and processed on Instagram. Hope you enjoyed them! 

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The Bays of Roatan

Author’s note: This post is part of my series on my recent trip to Honduras. To read past posts on Honduras, click here.

Jakesprinter’s Sunday post theme is “Bay“. I realized that most of my travels are to mountains or other locales that do not typically include bays. Then as I glanced over at my copy of Lonely Planet: Honduras, I realized the cover said “Honduras and The Bay Islands“. Silly me, Roatan could be included in this challenge and I spent an entire morning touring her lovely bays and remote villages, way off the beaten tourist path.

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The Joy of Spring Flowers

“That though the radiance which was once so bright be now forever taken from my sight. Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendor in the grass, glory in the flower. We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind”. – William Wordsworth

Spring time is still a ways off here in Minnesota where the landscape is still blanketed in snow. Depending on the year Spring can begin anywhere in early to mid April and usually is a confusing time of year when we can see literally four seasons in a week. It can one moment snow and a couple days later be shorts and t-shirt weather.

Minnesotans are hearty people, me included. You have to be in order to live in this kind of climate. You must embrace the bitter cold days of winter and cherish the hot and sticky dog days of summer. Otherwise it would be best to pack up your bags and leave now.

In honor of Jakesprinter’s Sunday Theme: Arrangement, I thought I’d bring you a sneak preview of spring flowers. In all their delicacy, beauty and vivid colors, they are bound to bring a smile on a cold winter day. Also in celebration of this month’s focus on phoneography, all these photos below were taken with my iPhone in Colonial Williamsburg last April. I do of course have many pictures of spring flowers in Minnesota but for some reason these photos are special to me as they were the first flowers of Spring I captured last year. Spring comes quite a bit earlier in Virginia! Enjoy!

“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world”. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

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What could be more beautiful than spring flowers? Spring….I can hardly wait! 

To see more interpretations of the theme “Arrangement” click here

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Lost in the details on a street in Antigua

One of my all time favorite cities in the world is Antigua, Guatemala. I could spend days walking its picturesque cobblestone streets colored in rainbow hues and loaded with history. Every building has a story to tell which can be found by looking into the details of the layers of paint and crumbled buildings sprouting with plants.

Follow me along and look carefully at the details of a street in lovely Antigua….

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In the mountains

This weekend I just so happen to be among one of my favorite things: Mountains. I love to see them, climb them and ski them racing like wildfire down the terrain. There is something so magical about mountains. I will always find them mesmerizing.

Here are some photos from my first day skiing at Copper Mountain in Colorado. You will see that it was a magnificent day with brilliant sun and perfect powdery snow. I embraced every minute of it and let the exhilaration saturate my soul.

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This post was written in response to Where’s my Backpack’s travel theme: Mountains. To. See more posts click here.

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The flowers of Roatan

Author’s note: This is the third post in my series on my recent trip to Honduras. To read more, click here.

“Flowers… are a proud assertion that a ray of beauty outvalues all the utilities of the world”.  -Ralph Waldo Emerson 

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One of the most delightful things I saw in Roatan was the large variety of tropical flowers. Those who follow my blog know I have an obsession with photographing flowers. Flowers bring an immense level of joy to people. They are so delicate, so fragrant and so colorfully beautiful. I just love flowers as they always make me happy.

The tropical landscape of Honduras makes it an ideal place for flowers. In fact, there are over 5,000 plant species inhabiting its four diverse forest ecosystems: Pine forests, cloud forests, rainforest and mangroves.

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The Magic of Hidden Places

Often when I travel, I am drawn to the unexpected surprises of places hidden beneath the non-attentive eye. From the mysterious hutongs of Beijing to the labyrinthine of a souq in Morocco, there is always a surprising hidden place to explore.

Perhaps these hidden places open a window into the unknown about the foreign culture you are visiting. Yet they always seem to leave me questioning, thinking and guessing about what it is really like behind these hidden windows of life.

The secret paths within a souq. Rabat, Morocco.

The whitewashed and baby blue walls in a Moroccan kasbah.

Inside the deep alleyways of the traditional Chinese hutongs. Beijing, China.

Another look at a Chinese Hutong.

Peering deep inside a hutong and wondering who lives there? How many homes are tucked away inside?

A hutong without a name or address.

Inside an ancient Chinese Water Village with numerous mysterious alleyways.

Many Chinese Water villages are threaded in waterways like this one that wind around the village and flow out to sea.

The open-air entryway of a home or cafe in Uruguay.

An open-air room of women making fresh torillas out of a building in Guatemala.

An alleyway in Guatemala where a Mayan women hones her craft.

Peeking inside the reddish brown wooden doors of a teahouse kitchen in rural Nepal.

Looking outside a “hotel” window in Himalayan Nepal at the donkey train passageway where modern day trucking is at its best.

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Into the Mystic of Iceland

“We were born before the wind
Also younger than the sun
Ere the bonnie boat was won as we sailed into the mystic
Hark, now hear the sailors cry
Smell the sea and feel the sky
Let your soul and spirit fly into the mystic”   –

 Lyrics to one of my favorite Van Morrison songs, “Into the Mystic”

I just couldn’t resist including it with the post…listen along and view my photos into the mystic….

There is no place more mystical than Iceland. Come take a look for yourself and let me know if you agree that there is no place quite like it.  The mystical land of fire and ice.

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The green of Guatemala

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”

-Pedro Calderon de la Barca

It is hard to visit Guatemala and not become completely entranced by her greenery. The color green can be found in every place you look- from the verdant terraced farmlands, to the lush fertile peaks of the volcanoes. After a long, cold colorless winter arriving in Green Guatemala almost hurts your eyes and reminds me of the constant rebirth and cycle of life.

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