'Cool Globes' exhibit in Battery Park (July 2016)

Last July we took a trip to New York City to climb the stairs of the Statue of Liberty. While in Battery Park we spotted a number of large globes and stopped for a few moments to admire the artwork. I'd previously seen photos of them online streamed on a social media site, but I had no idea where they were in New York or what the significance of the globes were. I certainly had no idea we'd literally bump into them on our way to the boats.

I turned to my friend Google to inquire and found out it is a traveling exhibit called "Cool Globes" that is designed to bring awareness to climate change. The exhibit was in New York for several months and then moved on in November. 

One row of globes. There were numerous ones, but I wasn't able to get them all in one shot

Another row of globes with One World Trade Center in the background.

Close-up shot of one of the globes

Taken from another angle

Making friends with a brown furry spider

Last May I spotted this spider and watched it for a bit, fascinating stuff. I'll be honest, I have absolutely no idea what it is.

I tried to Google image search it, but I wasn't able to identify. The photo that looked closest to mine was titled, "brown furry spider" (and it did have a scientific name attached, but since I wasn't sure, I didn't include it in my title). I'm going to go with "brown furry spider" as the title for my photos.

Hello little ladybug(s)!

Ladybugs are one little critter that is kind of elusive to me. My photos of them typically come out too blurry (I don't photograph movement very well and these buggers can be pretty quick once they are on the move). Every so often, however, I do get a somewhat decent shot.

I'm not even sure where I took this one, it was sometime during 2016. She almost seemed like she was posing for the pic.

I call this one peek-a-boo ladybug. On the move and I seemed to get more detail of the grass blades and water drops than I did of the ladybug, but I'll take it!

This photo was taken on a sidewalk somewhere

Climbing the stairs of Lady Liberty

Last July we went with a group of friends and climbed the Statue of Liberty up into the crown. Despite having lived in the State of New York for many years, this was one thing I'd never done while visiting the island. It was a great experience - while I wouldn't recommend doing it in the middle of July - it was totally worth it. We had booked early morning tickets, so the heat wasn't too bad at this point. Here are a few photos from that trip:

Approaching Liberty Island

Going up! The stairs were quite narrow, but are designed in such a way where those going up and those going down are not on the same stairway.

The crown windows. When we reached the crown, there was only a limited number of people allowed up at any given time. It is much smaller than you'd imagine (I'd envisioned the ability to circle the crown, but it is not designed that way).

The original torch is on display in the base of the Statue.

Taken while moving on to Ellis Island

The wonderful world of bugs

I always find it fascinating to watch insects as they go about their daily routines. (Unless they are in my house of course then, depending on the bug, all bets are off!). When we are outside, bugs typically catch my eye and sometimes I like to follow them around a bit to see what they'll do next. These are some shots from warmer days gone by.

This (wasp?) was busy in my wildflower garden last summer and seemed particularly interested in my black-eyed Susans

I followed this ant for quite a while when walking along a path in the Manassas Battlefield last year. The ant is a little harder to see in the photo because it is dragging such a large carcass of another insect. The strength ants possess is pretty amazing!

Spotted this one a few minutes after seeing the ant. I don't know if it was my eyes playing tricks on me or not, but this one seemed to change color every time it flew and landed. Mostly bright greens and blues (which you can kind of see in the photo a two-tone appearance), but I swear I saw a greyish color too.

Milkweed bug party at Leigh's yard! Taken last summer.

 

Mushrooms in the woods (Magnolia Plantation, Charleston, SC)

In November we went on a long weekend trip to Charleston, South Carolina. On our visit to Magnolia Plantation, we took the swamp tour and decided to take a path through the woods back to the parking area. 

Along the path was a trove of different kinds of mushrooms! We spent a few minutes hunting down to see how many kinds we could find. Unfortunately, I do not know the names of my mushrooms! But here are some of what we found: