It's been building up...

Okay, so first off, I know I haven't posted in awhile. I really meant to get this done sooner, but time has slipped past me once again. This time I'm not letting it! I'll warn you, this is going to be quite a lengthy post of pictures and descriptions! So here goes.

First off, we start with a trip to River Legacy Park... it was a completely spontaneous decision, seeing as I had to be out of the house for 5 hours that day due to an open house going on at my dad's (where I had been forced to move into and stay until the semester ended, originally because of an issue with my apartment complex). I found this quiet little wetlands field to explore. Little did I know that I would later get caught in a huge thunderstorm and get soaking wet as I tried to make my way back to my car, whilst trying not to slip in the mud. I had just cleaned the inside of my car so I was attempting to keep it that way!



So here's the "entrance" to the wetlands field. It was so quiet and peaceful and full of interesting photo opps.



And here's a closeup of one of the beautiful pink flowers that I found all throughout the field.. there were clusters of them everywhere!



One of the clusters I was talking about. The "sparkles" are actually tiny drops of water..



A closeup of one of the trees.. I liked how they looked against the sky.



Looking back at what used to be the entrance to the fields, which is no longer able to be seen.



So I really liked those clusters...



Proof that I really was there! =P You can see the little speckles of raindrops on my shirt if you look close enough.



And yet more proof, this time with the pink flowers behind me..



This is the entrance to the park.. taken as I was leaving.


__________________________________________


A week later, I came back to this same wetlands, only this time I brought one of my bestest friends, Jacques, who had come into town to visit. Here's some photos from our experience there.



Making our way to the field.



Stopping to take a picture towards the middle of the field.



Pretty butterfly that took forever to capture a photo of!



A dragonfly that was resting on the path... The thumbnail doesn't do this one justice!



This beautiful butterfly was just sitting there turning around and around for us.. looked like he was putting on a show!



I call this the "Hall of Trees." =P



I thought the twisting of the wiring would make an interesting photo.



Kinda rare white flowers just like the pink ones.. but I didn't see much of these... at least not as many as the pink ones.



A bee I caught inside one of the pink flowers.. I didn't expect the photo to turn out so good, considering how much my hands were shaking...



I can't take credit for this beautiful photo... this was all Jacques and his awesome little camera, that was the same size as mine and had better zoom, I might add...



Just another photo of Jacques and me.



And another one!

We had an awesome visit while he was here and I've never had so much fun!


__________________________________________



Alright.. now that leaves the pictures that I've taken recently of some flowers in my mom's backyard. Starting with the traditional golden day-lilies that I always take when I am here:



I just really like this one.



Side view... which I really like as well.



I really have no idea what this one was. I found it all by itself on a huge bush towards the back corner of the yard. But I thought it was interesting all the same.



And I was told this one was a weed... but I think it's still pretty. *shrugs*



Beautiful single rose that was almost falling apart.



I still have no idea what kind of flower this is. I thought they were about to bloom or something, but my mom insists that they are supposed to droop like that. I tried to look it up and found bluebells, which are kinda similar, yet they are incredibly more frilly and curly at the bottom. Plus the color was off. So I still am not sure..



And this is a closeup of the previous flower. I was trying to get underneath it to see what the petals possibly looked like if it blooms.



And finally.. I caught a spider! This was using my camera's zoom feature, so don't worry, I wasn't really that close to it.

Fun at the Zoo

Back in February, my dad and I took a trip to the Fort Worth Zoo. In addition to having a father-daughter day to ourselves, it also served as a chance for me to get to know my new camera that he had given me for Christmas. So here are the results of that outing. I was quite pleased with the outcome.



We started out with this little fella doing some morning stretches...



And on the other side there was this cheetah, who seems distracted...



I don't remember exactly what kind this was but he sure is colorful.



An orangutan just hanging out and posing for everyone.



The only decent picture I could catch of this too-cute meerkat! He was so fast.



A happy (asian) elephant playing around.

These next few photos are a series of sorts, with these adorable young tigers who were annoying the crap out of each other. I could have sat there and took pictures of them all day!













Then there was this beautiful white tiger just sitting on this cliff overlooking the younger ones.. I could almost imagine him just shaking his head at their silliness. =P



A male lion that I caught right before he started hiding.



Those massive antlers are what caught my eye in this one. I don't remember what exactly the animal is though...

Here's another series, this time with parrots, in the area of the zoo called "Parrot Paradise."











An eagle that I caught staring intently at something...



This reminded me of a ballerina... just looks so graceful and poised. (Actually, this was the moment just before tucking its leg in to go to sleep)



A colorful macaw grooming itself.



This macaw wasn't shy at all.

Missing...

Wow, so first off, I want to apologize for never really posting in here. My life gets so hectic sometimes and it feels like I never have time for any of the things I used to have time for. My classes this semester have been taking up ALOT of my time, which means I haven't been able to take any photos at all. Plus there have been a few issues that I've needed to work out.

Second...my camera's gone missing. So that's the other major reason there haven't been any posts here in about 6 months. I've completely torn up my apartment in hopes of randomly finding it, thinking I've just misplaced it or something. But I'm having no luck in that department whatsoever. It's really a mystery to me because I have no idea where it could have gone. And there are no signs of anyone breaking in to steal it (although I'm not sure why they'd take the camera and not the battery charger or USB cords). It's driving me crazy. I think I might have some idea of how it went missing, but I'm hoping that that doesn't end up being true. Anyway.. just wanted to write a quick update for whoever happens to still check this blog! =)

Flooooora!

It's been awhile since I've posted... mainly because I'm just too lazy. =P But I've finally managed to get myself to post some of the pictures that I took on my latest trip to OKC, where I happened to catch photos of my mom's flowers in her backyard, right after a rainfall. I'm not sure I know all of the official names of all the flowers, so I'm not even gonna attempt to get them right. Heh.

I really have no idea what this was, but it caught my eye because of its unique shape:





Just an interesting "mini-tree":



I played around with the colors (in Photoshop) a bit on this one in an attempt to make it look more...artsy:

The last photos are from after the rainfall, and the first few ones were before, if you couldn't already tell that from the absence of raindrops on the leaves. =)

Geology field trip

So yesterday, I went with fellow classmates on a field trip to Oklahoma, around the Turner Falls area. Throughout all of the years that I lived in Oklahoma, I'd never been there. It was a fun trip, despite the constant raining and the bus driver insisting on keeping the bus as cold as a freezer! Anyway.. here are some random pictures that I took:

While walking to the Geo Science building to meet in the morning before loading onto the bus, I noticed this view and liked it.



Turner Falls, taken from an overlook high above the park.



The area along the falls...



Closeup of some of the rocks that made up the overlook...along with more of the falls area in the background.



Random stop we made along the highway to look at more rocks and their formation!



Random view of the sky on the way back to Arlington...really this was an attempt to get my mind off of how incredibly cold I was in the bus!



Another view of the sky that I captured...the reflections from the window kinda ruins it though. -.-

Flowers and an Old Mill

Well, it's been longer than I had hoped... I got my camera back awhile ago...just have been sorta lazy in getting the most recent pics on here. =P Sorry bout that. Anyway.. here goes.

These photos are from March 2007 when I traveled to Arkansas for some family birthday celebrations.

The first batch is from this place called Wye Mountain...where alot of beautiful yellow lilies pop up everywhere and it's just pretty. It was the first time I'd ever been there.

This is an overlook of all of the flowers across the hills...this was close to easter so there were a ton of people with their little kids all dressed up and sitting in the flowers with their parents taking Easter photos. It was so cute!





Just another angle I found while trying to capture the flowers...I was trying to get a shot where there were no people crowded in the photo.

The closeup!
__________________________________________________________

These next photos are of the old mill that is located near my aunt and uncle's house. I just thought it was neat. It is said to have been in one of the scenes from the movie, Gone With the Wind!

The mill. Pretty self-explanatory =P





The bridge a little ways down from the mill. I just thought it looked cool.

The view as you're walking over the bridge..would have looked alot better if that port-a-potty wasn't in the way! Hah.

just a little update

So after coming back from my trip to Arkansas to visit family, I'm driving back to Texas, passing Norman, Oklahoma, when I realize...I left my camera in my brother's car. It was too late for me to go back to OKC to try and recover it. So as of right now, it's sitting at my mom's house, waiting for me to come pick it up at the end of April when I am planning on making another trip to Oklahoma City.

So no photos from me for awhile. :P