( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

A sedated Cyrus snoozes on my lap, minus some bits in which he once took pride. I'm taking a moment out of sorting Hawaii pictures to post some miscellany from the last few days, lest I forget and neglect them completely (which I do often - I really need to post pictures from six months ago, a year ago ( Read more... )

This museum is more like a warehouse, but it's full of valuable and beautiful treasures. Some of the shrines and buddhas were actually made of gold or completely covered in diamonds. (Sorry, no pictures.) There were elephant tusks that were about 6 feet long, which probably came from elephant graveyards rather than from living elephants. Don says ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Read more... )

I see the "strangler fig" tree in every park I visit in Australia. It doesn't grow from the ground up; rather, a seed dropped high in a host tree by an animal grows into a seedling that sends its roots down the host tree toward the soil. The roots wrap around the host tree as the strangler fig reaches higher, competing with the host for light and ( Read more... )