SEEN BETTER DAYS

Sorta like yours truly!

DAHLIAS AND ROSES AND BEGONIAS, OH MY!

And a few others I couldn't pass up...found in the Botanical Gardens at Shore Acres State Park, Oregon on a sunny, windless day.

 The Dahlias

 

 

 Not a Dahlia, but with flowers like an Orchid, leaves like a Day Lilly, exquisitely painted by Mother Nature

Another "Not a Dahlia!"

 

 The Rose Garden scented the air with heady perfume

 

The Begonia Greenhouse displayed a distinct collection.  Someone had been having a great time developing unique varieties -- a few looked like they had been crossed with Petunias! 

Or an egg, over easy!

 

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Well, actually nothing is wrong with the picture, in that it depicts Todd Akin's true beliefs no matter how he twists and turns in the wind about words and semantics!  

The thing that's actually morally "wrong" with it is that the hypocritical Grand Old Party is using Mr. Akin as a scapegoat.  Why all the uproar when Atkin is just echoing the party line? The R&R's have similar views; they just don't want you to know it!  

The record is well documented, for example, that Mr. Ryan co-sponsored a bill with Mr. Akin to redefine rape in order to distinguish "forcible rape"  (and what, "invited rape" maybe?) so that federal funding on abortions for rape victims would be limited.   In addition, Mr. Ryan supported a bill that allowed anti abortion hospitals to refuse emergency abortions.

You can run, and attempt to label these critical women's issues as "distractions," and you can refuse to answer whether you believe rape victims need to be protected, but you can't hide, Mr. Ryan.  You and Todd Atkin are joined at the hip.

SENDING YOU SOME COOL..

...AND SERENE, FROM OREGON

Alsea Bay Bridge, Waldport

 Yachats 

Cape Perpetua

Heceta Head Lighthouse (being renovated)

 Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

 Umpqua Lighthouse, Reedsport

 Cape Arago Lighthouse, Charleston

 Sunset Bay State Park, Coos Bay

 Shore Acres State Park, Coos Bay

CREAMY POMPOM-ON-A-STICK

Of course you were all just dying to know the true name for "Creamy Pompom-on-a-Stick," right?

And I'm sure some of you already knew it's really called "Seacoast Angelica," right?

OK, but did you know that Seacoast Angelica is in the carrot family, grows on coastal bluffs right where I found it, and is so named because Angelica ("angel") refers to the medicinal and angelic protection against evil properties as revealed to mankind by an archangel?  Well, that's what the book says.  Also, seeds of a European species were used to make gin and absinthe.

I hope some day you get to see some with your very own eyes.  And save the seeds!

OMG!?!!

So THAT'S what happened to my bra!!

YAQUINA HEAD OUTSTANDING NATURAL AREA, NEWPORT, OREGON - Part III

THE TIDE POOLS

Yuuummm, pickled sea pea salad!

You can see now why tide pools are like undersea gardens.

Strawberry Anemones live in colonies.  Do these tiny, sweet sea creatures look like a carnivores to you?  Not only are they vicious meat eaters, they can clone themselves!  (Clicking to enlarge gives a better view of their delicate, hairy tentacles.)

This Anemone's ghostly appearing tentacles are soft as a rose petal.  If you glide your fingers across them, you hardly feel anything at all.  But if you let your fingers linger, it grabs you ever so softly with tiny suction cups embedded in its many "hands."  Good thing human fingers weren't on the menu that day! 

Its pebbly pedal disc or basal column (upper left) looks like chain mail.

Whomever the scientist naming this creature was, he named it  because of its resemblance to the terrestrial garden variety!  Eye of the beholder and all that...!  This is its mouth.

No longer called "Starfish," because they aren't a "fish"; they are an invertebrate echinoderm (related to sand dollars and sea urchins), now called Sea Stars.  Makes sense to me.

Some species have been known to live for up to 34 years.

Yes, I left my polarizing filter in the car -- s'cuse the murky shots of the submerged creatures!  And, in some cases the water was moving.  That's my story, and I'm sticking to it!