Wordless Wednesday: netted moon

 

Night and Day*

Much as I would like to visit distant planets more than just in my imagination, the pictures here were not taken in a galaxy far, far away...even as it might look like it. No, it's in a location familiar to you, my faithful readers: just our local Botanical Garden. But, a Garden transformed.

A couple of weeks ago I took one of my now frequent strolls around this wonderful place, making note of some special installations. Then, just a few nights ago, Henry and I got to appreciate the purposes of that hardware, as we attended a Lightscape tour of the place. I thought it would be fun to show you some of the sights from both perspectives. (My little camera doesn't do super-well in low light, but some of these shots turned out better than I had expected.)

Here's the Garden's lovely lake, a peaceful oasis with a nice walking trail around it, during regular business hours...

...and here it is, transformed by laser light...

This array of colorful strings was arresting enough in daylight...

...but with clever lights applied, it became quite magical...

I was curious about this display during my morning walk...

...never guessing what it would become after dark...

You can look down upon this area from a raised walkway, which I often like to do on my walks...

But the view was totally transformed by the Lightscape folks:

A quirky display that I was particularly taken with on my daylight walk was this collection of plastic waste made into art:

I didn't realize at the time that it was part of the Lightscape, too. But it would be eye-catching on its own, as you can see in this closeup:

isn't it clever?

But, yes, it does light up!

The glass-walled conservatories, which you can see in the background of some of my photos (and which I wrote about, 'way back in 2015!), are pretty impressive all the time, but with the shifting colors of light, they really look spectacular...

Perhaps our favorite display was one that I read in our paper was especially designed for our Lightscape show. I saw the setup during my morning walk, thought it looked impressive, and wondered how it would be transformed...

Wow! Was it ever transformed! A field of flickering bluebonnets! We stayed there quite a while, admiring the artistry, and this was my best photo:

Another big, spectacular display was this one, covering all of a large, grassy hill. Unfortunately, I don't have a daytime shot to compare it with, but it was an amazing light/music show, coordinated with color-morphing floodlights on the gazebo at the top of the hill:

The show's "finale" is the archway that appears in most of the ads for the experience. Here's the way it looks in the daylight:

And here it is, all lit up, from the side and from within:

It was a great way to really turbo-charge the holiday season for us. We hope yours is just as spectacular!

---

*Sorry for the Cole Porter earworm!

Wordless Wednesday: the ants go marching two by two...

 

Wordless Wednesday: run for your lives! it's the Protomolecule!

 

Wordless Wednesday: Happy Halloween!

 

Wordless Wednesday: Fridas have a new place!

 

Wordless Wednesday: if you've got to have a fiasco...

 

Stuff you just don't see around here

 

Now that I'm back home in semi-arid heat, the cool sea breezes and dense woods of Maine seem like they're on a different planet.

I've blogged before about the glorious fungi you can see on almost any woodland hike up there...downright amazing what kinds of stuff can, and do, grow when you get ample rainfall! And this visit's hikes didn't disappoint in that regard, either. The spectacular specimen you see above was spotted on our hike in Rines Forest, along with several other great examples of the breed:

ghost pipes!

I'd seen fungi growing out of dead trees before (these sights are wonderful "other things to see in a redwood forest") but I don't think I'd ever seen this much on one log before...WOW!

Another great hike took us to Robinson Woods Preserve...there are so many great hiking places within a short drive of Portland! These woods had great fungi on offer, too...

...as well as some lovely vernal pools—clear evidence of the abundance of moisture blessing this part of the world...

But there's another type of flora (although, however much they might resemble plants, I do know that fungi are a separate kingdom) that I was quite taken with on some of our other outings, particularly those that took us to the beaches. Seaweed! Lots of it was washed up on several of the coastlines I showed you in a previous post, and I just couldn't seem to stop snapping photos of it.

Closeups...

...panoramas...

And put the exotic, photogenic weeds next to the lovely Maine coastal rocks, and you just can't beat this for micro-scenery...

Here's a closeup of this scenic symbiosis:

Yessiree! Traveling to see things you can't see at home...I'm so lucky to get to do this!

Wordless Wednesday: well, have you?

 

Wordless Wednesday: tomato heaven!

 

Guarding the coast

I thought I'd vary my posts about the natural wonders of Maine this time and relate some interesting military history. Take a look at the state's geographical position, stuck 'way out into the Atlantic, and you can understand why some of its headlands make ideal guardposts if danger to the US is feared from points east.

The photo above was taken at Two Lights State Park (this is where we went to see the high surf that Hurricane Henri was displaying for us). In addition to its lighthouse (a single one now) it has a military history that explains the fortifications still visible to the curious tourist.  The intriguing passageway you see above is not open for exploration, but the battery still offers some opportunities for play by active grandchildren. Here is a demonstration of its "bunk beds":

This Wikipedia article notes that the entire park area was a military reservation during World War II. And although it was never armed with the large guns for which it was designed, there was German submarine activity in the area. Yikes!

A more extensive and accessible set of military structures is on offer at Fort Williams Park, specifically Battery Keyes. This installation is also a lot older, as you can learn from these links. The Fort was originally built in the 1870's, and this battery in 1906. It was manned during both World Wars, and was the headquarters of Portland's coastal defense during WWII. Since there was a lot of crucial shipbuilding going on in the area, it would have been a tempting target.

The most fun feature of the site, as far as our young companions was concerned, was the tunnel you can see the younger ones in our group sampling on the left. It's actually open all the way to the back where it makes two 90° turns before letting you out on the other side of the building. Such fun! Here is older Adorable Granddaughter (who's pretty adventurous) at the exit...after she convinced Gramma to join her for the whole length of the tunnel. It was...an experience!

Here are some more looks at the interesting structures at Battery Keyes...

one of the main rooms, open on the fourth side

I assume this is where one of the big guns was situated

the bunker

Here's the other side of the bunker, with attentive moms checking out the goings on inside...

...which was this kind of fun...

There is a nice beach, too, adjacent to all this stonework (at least it's nice when the tide is reasonably out). This makes the area a wonderful place for kids...

You can probably see on the far left of this photo a large pile of rocks just begging to be climbed by the granddaughter who was obviously a mountain goat in a previous life. Here she is at the top:

Isn't it great that these once rather imposing and threatening (at least to our enemies) structures are now just a great playground?