Xijiang mosaic

Floor mosaic in the main plaza at Xijiang village in Guizhou, China. Hard to imagine how long it took to design and layout all the little stones that went into making this floor.  And it's swept clean at least once a day. There is not one scrap of garbage [NOTE: The plaza, as well as the mosaic, is about 40 x 60 meters in size.  That's a lot of stones].  

Rush Hour

This is what morning rush hour traffic looks like in Hanoi. A veritable river of bicycles and motorcycles. Packed together, the handlebars only inches apart, but miraculously never touching.  It's like there is a thin forcefield around each vehicle that repels foreign objects.  See Going to Dinner in Hanoi for a view of nighttime traffic from the back of a motorcycle. 

Jeepney

This delightful Filipino jeepney was used to carry us around in the Kalahan Reserve in Nueva Vizcaya.  I was there to look at a community forestry project being conducted by the Ikalahan tribe to promote the sustainable exploitation of several fruit species. Further information about the project can be found here. [NOTE: Those with sharp eyes and good memories may notice that this photo was taken only a few steps from where the jeepney is parked].

Spring Planting

There's spring planting, and then there's SPRING PLANTING. Here, the grounds crew at The New York Botanical Garden lowers a large, fragrant snowbell tree (Styrax obassia Siebold & Zucc) into place. One more gorgeous flowering tree to add to the already spectacular collection.

Biking to Work

Beautiful spring day in New York.  Perfect for riding your bike to work.  In my case, a 22 year old Bridgestone CB-1 (shown above) which was purchased in Honolulu and subsequently boxed up and shipped back to the mainland.  It sat upright in a storage locker for 5 years when I was in West Kalimantan (see Bapaks from Bagak and numerous other posts).  Although it's very heavy (30.5 lbs) and you can't get parts because Bridgestone stopped selling bicycles in the US in 1994, this old bike is unquestionably the best way to get to work on a warm spring morning.  [NOTE: The herbarium cabinets in the background are full of Mike Balick's palm collections].

Picking Tea in Kotagiri

Manicured tea estates outside of Kotagiri (see Kotagiri Tea Estates and Kotagiri Landscape) in Tamil Nadu, India being harvested by teams of local women. Their yellow bags are full of hundreds and hundreds of Camellia sinensis assamica terminal leaf pairs and associated leaf buds. Click here for a nice video clip of women picking tea in Assam, India.

Pause to Reflect

A Burmese monk pauses in front of one of the thousands of statues of Buddha at Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon (see Sunday at Shwedagon) to reflect on The Four Noble Truths.