On a recent trip to Edmonton I was fortunate enough to get a few good aerial photos of Vancouver. The city looks so different when you view if from above!

Stanley Park is a beautiful oasis right next to the downtown. Vancouver has amazing green spaces but also suffers from urban-concrete sprawl like most large cities!

Kitsilano and the westside of Vancouver have beautiful sandy beaches. Here many people still enjoy an urban laid-back lifestyle that made it so popular in the 1970’s. Unfortunately the real estate has skyrocketed making owning a home in this area a challenge.

Frogs have always interested me! I use to keep them as pets until they started to escape and end up all over the house I am very concerned about this chytrid fungus that is killing many of the frogs on our planet. This fungus occurs naturally but because of habitat loss and the use of leopard frogs in pregnancy tests, frog survival is very much at risk! There is a bacteria that has been used to treat infected frogs but the task is monumental when it comes to the number of infections and how quickly frogs can die when infected!

The following articles go into much more frog detail and are very interesting:

FROG MATTERS

FROGBLOG1: Chytridiomycosis and global amphibian decline

FROGBLOG2:Origin and spread of the frog chytrid

I find a lily in my garden that inspires me to do some digital art

Nora

Happy Summer Solstice to all of you who are in the Northern Hemisphere! Those of you in the South will be enjoying Winter Solstice with lots of stars! It is that time of year to reflect on the ancient traditions of our ancestors…enjoy the energy!

Nora

photo courtesy dailymail.co.uk

Earlier this month three British divers took refuge on an Indonesian island after being swept away by currents in the ocean. Amazingly, while stranded on the remote island, they fought off an attack by a Komodo Dragon who was far from friendly!
Here is an excerpt from Dailymail author Alastair Fothergill :

“There is no question that Komodo dragons can be brutal killers: they can act in concert, they move at 15 miles an hour and can scent their prey from miles away.

They have also been known to kill humans. Last year, an eight-year-old boy was bitten in the waist and tossed viciously from side to side, according to a Komodo National Park spokesman. Half an hour later, he died of massive blood loss.

But the truth is that Komodos rarely kill people. The boy was the first recorded human fatality for 33 years and the people of the remote Komodo islands have existed side by side with these living Godzillas for centuries.”

more of the above article here:

dailymail.co.uk

Bees have been very symbolic to me this past week! I love the way they work tirelessly to gather pollen for honey production! I found an interesting article on bee symbolism on Andrew Gough’s Arcadia website :

http://www.andrewgough.co.uk/bee1_1.html

The bees are back! I can always monitor the bee population around here by how many come back to the rockspray. I was lucky enough to catch this one bee for a photo shoot…they move so quickly!

Nora

Photo Courtesy S. Hamilton, OGS

CBC NEWS IN DEPTH: May 21, 2008

By Elle Andra-Warner

It is a strange phenomenon: thousands of large, perfectly round “forest rings” dot the boreal landscape of northern Ontario.

From the air, these mysterious light-coloured rings of stunted tree growth are clearly visible, but on the ground, you could walk right through them without noticing them. They range in diameter from 30 metres to 2 kilometres, with the average ring measuring about 91 metres across. Over 2,000 of these forest rings have been documented, but scientists estimate the actual number is more than 8,000.

What causes these near-perfect circles in the forest?

Since they were discovered on aerial photos about 50 years ago, the rings have baffled biologists, geologists and foresters. Some explanations put a UFO or extraterrestrial spin on the phenomenon. Astronomers suggest the rings might be the result of meteor strikes. Prospectors wonder whether the formations signal diamond-bearing kimberlites, a type of igneous rock.

read more here:

CBC NEWS IN DEPTH - CLICK HERE

ELPHINSTUDIO CLICK HERE!

take the time to enjoy the spring flowers!

Nora