This is my little Veiled Chameleon, Pasquale. He is a wonderful pet, I love him so much. Right now he is only about 3 months old and only 5 inches long, but he will grow to be 17-24 inches long and will live about 8 years. The older he gets, the more colors he learns how to turn.
This picture was taken about 3 years ago at the Baltimore aquarium. these Jellyfish are called Northern Sea Nettles. Sea Nettles are some of the stinging species and from experience, I can tell you, their stings are not at all pleasant. When stung by a sea nettle, you are left with a massive rash wherever their tentacles touched your skin. A little known fact about jellyfish is that they can not sting the palms of your hands or the soles of your feet. The reason they cannot sting you there is because there are no hair follicles on those parts of your body. What fascinates me most about jellyfish is that they are considered to be immortal because they are able to revert back to their polyp (immature) stage and then back to their medusa (mature) stage. The only way that jellyfish will die is if they are torn a[part or stuck on the shore.
This picture was taken in a canyon between Walden, Colorado and Laramie, Wyoming. My Mom and I had just spent the night in Saratoga, Wyoming and we wanted to go home a different way than we came, so we did. The way we took made us cross into Colorado then back into Wyoming. It was an absolutely stunning drive. We were looking ahead of us when we decided to take a glance behind us and this is what we saw through our rear view mirror. This was absolutely breath taking so we just HAD to get out of the car and get a picture.
Here’s another shot from my microscope.You are looking at a Nymphaea of Aqustio stem. A Nymphaea is a blue water lily. I like this one so much because of its colors and design.
This is another shot through my microscope. This slide holds a tissue sample from a coprinus mushroom. One species of a coprinus mushroom is a Coprinus comatus. The Coprinus comatus looks a little like something from Dr. Seuss but not as colorful, just white-ish grey. I like this slide because of the pattern; if you tilt your head to the right it looks like a little creature with two eyes, a nose, and no mouth.
This skull is my most prized possession. The reason it means so much to me is because I skinned it and cleaned the bones myself. This skull is that of a jackrabbit and more specifically, it is a white-tailed jackrabbit. I did not kill the jackrabbit, (I do not believe in killing anything) but my animal biology professor gave the body to me as a birthday present. (odd, I know) The next day, my other animal biology professor taught me the art of skinning and how to properly clean bones. This rabbit was the start of a new found hobby. Since I obtained the rabbit, I have gone “roadkill hunting” every chance I have gotten. I am now even working with a museum on campus preparing specimen for the cases. I have always loved bones and collecting them, but thanks to this rabbit (who I call Liza), I have found a hobby that I love doing more than anything. And of course I couldn’t have found this calling if it weren’t for my two professors: Dr. Carlos Martinez Del Rio and Dr. Liz Flaherty. One of which is my employer at the museum and the other I still take classes from whenever I get the chance.
This picture was taken in Epcot in Disney World. Epcot is a part of Disney where they have many different areas built to resemble different countries. In the land of Epcot there is: Canada, England, America, Morocco, Japan, China, Germany, Norway, France, and Mexico. This is part of Canada.
If you look in the far left hand corner, there is a large pile of rocks. On the other side, there is a large waterfall. The only reason they built a waterfall was because there is a large generator that makes a lot of noise. Walt Disney didn’t want the loud noises taking away from the authenticity, so they built something bigger and louder to drown out the sound of the generator; and what is better than a waterfall?
Canada also has a large butterfly garden where they raise larvae that then morph into butterflies and instead of flying somewhere new, they stay in the beautiful garden that was built especially to attract butterflies.
This picture was taken on the ride Space Mountain in Disney World. The first time I went on this ride I wasn’t able to get a picture quick enough, but the second time I went on it, I was ready to shoot some pictures. I took continuous pictures and only one out of fifteen pictures turned out well.
This ride is so much fun! You feel like you are flying through space. The entire ride is dark and there are tiny lights that look like stars all over the entire ride. The roller coaster is also entirely indoors. Throughout the entire ride, I was terrified to put my arms up because I could vaguely make out support beams and I was convinced if I put my arms up, they would be taken off. Even though it looked like my arms would be lopped off, it is not a likely event.
I would go on this ride over and over again because this is the closest I will ever get to being in space. My biggest dream is to travel through space, but I know that it is an impossible dream for me, so whenever I get the chance to go through a simulation of space travel, I will take it up, no questions asked.
This flower called a Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea). The foxglove is found in woodland, moores, mountains, and sea cliffs of Ireland. This flower thrives in acidic soil and usually turns up in freshly cleared ground. They can grow to be about 1.5 meters (5 feet) and can grow up to 75 blooms on one single stem. When I first saw this flower, I thought it was the prettiest plant I had ever seen.
These are all pictures of the beautiful Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is located just outside of Mancos, Colorado. I was visiting Mesa Verde a few years ago for the first time and before I got there, I thought that it was going to be a boring trip, and I wasn’t going to see much that I was interested in. But once we had driven far into the park, I realized I had been completely wrong. The entire park was full of beautiful sights. The most amazing sights to see were the towns of the Anasazi Indians. Anasazi translates roughly into “The Ancient Ones” The Anasazi’s were given their name by the Navajos who later came to find the villages of the Anasazi’s abandoned, with no trace of why they had left. To this day, it is unsure as to why exactly the Anasazi’s left this rock fortress, what is known, is that they moved south. Some think it was due to droughts. All of these buildings you see are 100% hand carved from the canyon side. Each village rests about 100 feet above the canyon floor. The Anasazi’s would carve hidden notches into the side of the canyon wall and up into their village so they could climb in and out of their village for hunting and farming purposes.
It’s hard to imagine how the Anasazi’s lived, but it sure is impressive, however they managed it. All of this proves that we don’t need fancy houses or grocery stores to live a successful life. I believe that the Anasazi’s were much more successful than the average human nowadays all because of the hard work and craftsmanship put into these villages….you don’t see anything like this anywhere anymore and I find that sad.
This beautiful sight can be found in between the towns of Ouray, Colorado and Silverton, Colorado. Silverton is a cute city located on the million dollar highway. Silverton is full of small town, privately owned shops, restaurants, and beautiful sights.
When my Mom and I drove through Siverton, we found out there was an abandoned town just outside of the town of Silverton. Being a lover of entropy, ghost towns are just the place for me. My mom and I decided to drive out to the Ghost town called Animas Forks. Standing at 11,160 feet, Animas Forks was founded during the time of gold mining. Animas Forks was littered with gold back in the day, so people traveled into town to take advantage of the findings. Soon after being established as a mining town, the new residents found that the harsh winters in the secluded town of Animas Forks was just too difficult to survive.
When my Mom and I were driving out to Animas Forks, we found ourselves in quite the dilemma. Half-way to the town of Animas Forks, we found that the dirt road had become much too narrow for us to continue driving, and the steep drop off on the left side of the road just wasn’t worth the risk. I still want to see Animas Forks one day, but maybe next time I’ll go in July or August, and have a smaller vehicle…maybe travel by horseback :)
This skull belongs to a Big Horned sheep. This skull was the welcoming committee or the motel my Mom and I stayed in in Mancos, Colorado. We stopped in Mancos to stay the night so the next morning, we could go to Mesa Verde National Park. Mancos is a small town with not a whole ton in it, but one thing my Mom and I found to do was a trail ride. We took a trail ride with the Company Rimrock Outfitters and it was by far the best trail ride I have ever been in. There was beautiful scenery of all different types, and the guide was absolutely amazing. Rimrock Outfitters is run by a husband and wife team, they raise and ride horses for a living, and love doing it. If you’re ever near Mesa Verde National Park, I urge you to take some time and go visit Rimrock Outfitters and take a beautiful ride through the mountains on horseback.
I’m going to be honest, I really don’t know what kind of flower this is. I did a bit of research about the flowers that are native to the area I found this plant in and came to the conclusion that it is a pasque flower, more specifically, it is the pulsatilla patens. I found this flower while taking a beautiful hike to box canyon falls in Ouray, Colorado. I don’t know anything about this flower other than that it is found in Colorado.
This flower caught my eye because of its beautiful colors and the fact that it stood out like a sore thumb in its surroundings. The hike I was taking was full of rocky terrain, and there was nothing but dirt, rocks, and trees everywhere I looked. I wandered across a patch of these flowers, some had bloomed and some hadn’t, but I thought they were beautiful in both states.
This beautiful Aspen grove is found in Telluride, Colorado, but you can find aspen groves all over the world. There are many different types of aspen trees: Japanese, Chinese, Bigtooth, Quaking, and Eurasian. This particular aspen is called the quaking aspen(Populus tremuloides). The quaking aspen is found in North and Northwestern America. The quaking aspen is a deciduous tree with beautiful, smooth white bark and black knots. The leaves of a quaking aspen are a beautiful green, but in the winter they turn an unbelievable golden yellow color. My favorite part about quaking aspens is when the wind blows, their leaves look like they are dancing. Aspen trees are the happiest trees in my opinion because of the way the move in the wind and their amazing colors. Aspen trees also remind me of my big sister (whose middle name is Aspen).
I have a few aspen trees in my backyard where I live now and I love looking out the window everyday to see these beautiful trees in my garden. It’s the little things like having aspen trees growing in my backyard that make me thankful to be living.
Have you ever seen “Into the Wild”? That is one of my favorite movies. This bus reminds me of Into the Wild because of the bus the main character lives in for the whole story. This looks like what that bus would probably look like now (if it’s still out there).
I think broken down, decrepit objects are absolutely beautiful because something this worn down and broken shows the theory of entropy. I think entropy is absolutely fascinating because if you leave something alone and let it sit and do nothing, the universe will slowly take matters into its own hands and simply destroy what was once standing tall. Entropy will even happen to us humans one day. When our bodies are laying still in the ground, the universe will take over and break down our matter to feed the rest of the universe.
