Monday, June 30, 2014 at 9:45AM 
Entrance to the National Kandawgyi Botanical Garden in Pyin Oo Lwin. First established in 1915, it is said to have been modelled after the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. I think we (NYBG) are also said to have been modelled after Kew. We certainly don't have "New York" written in flowers in front of a reflecting pool.
Friday, June 27, 2014 at 11:34AM 
Thursday, June 26, 2014 at 9:54AM 
Tuesday, June 24, 2014 at 9:16AM Beautiful video from The New York Times about how a little town on the Louisiana coast confronts a future threatened by sinking shorelines and rising seas. Touching. Strikes me as more about the "sense of place" of these folks than climate change, but you decide.
Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana, climate change in Art, Dharma, Other, Science | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article Monday, June 23, 2014 at 11:32AM 
Interesting thing about a monk walking. Is his mind on the destination? Thoughts of what will transpire when he arrives? Or, is he reflecting on what he just left, the morning's tak bat (see Morning Alms), or the chores that remain to be done? Or, is he simply feeling the cool bricks and the occasional flower petal on his bare feet and listening to the bird songs coming from behind the white wall? [NOTE: Image from Luang Prabang].
Friday, June 20, 2014 at 9:45AM A Winged Victory for the Sullen perform "Steep Hills of Vicodan Tears" with the Sinfonietta Cracovia at the Tempel Synagogue in Kraków. Add some beauty to your Friday. [NOTE: A Winged Victory for the Sullen is a collaboration of Dustin O'Halloran and Adam Wiltzie. Their self-titled debut album (AWVFTS), featuring Icelandic cellist Hildur Gudnadottir (see Leyfdu Ljosinu) and violinist Peter Broderick, is sublime. This is the future of the late night record you have always dreamed of].
[NOTE: As you may have noticed, I have changed the header image-again. This one is a crop of a photo by Kyaw Zay Ya (thx) in the forest outside of Nam Sabi in Sagaing Region, Myanmar. The guys are putting a dendrometer band around a ka nyin tree (Dipterocarpus sp.)].
AWVFTS, Adam Wiltzie, Dustin O'Halloran, new header in Art | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article Thursday, June 19, 2014 at 11:09AM
It's the weekend, and the monks from the Homalin monastery are out working on the road in front of their temple. The Chindwin River (shown to the left) is eating away the bank and parts of the road have already started to collapse. The monks appear to be both widening the road and trying to stabilize the bank.
The Chindwin River is the third largest river in Myanmar, and it has been wandering all over the landscapes of Sagaing Region for thousands of years. Not sure how a shovel is going to stop this. Good thing these are monks [NOTE: I was staying at a hotel on the other side of this street and remember noticing the steep drop from the street to the river as we walked to dinner. And then, the next morning, saffron robes with shovels].
Wednesday, June 18, 2014 at 8:24AM 
So, here we are, sitting in the little patio space under one of the houses (on stilts) at Nam Sabi with plant specimens scattered all over the orange tarp laying little clippings of plants on a sheet of newspaper and pressing them. Some of us are working harder than others. Clockwise, starting with Yinhtan Syan Bay (in yellow t-shirt; selecting which cuttings to press), villager (watching), U Saw Htun (dozing?), two villagers (watching), Kate Armstrong (arranging a specimen on the newspaper), Myint Thein (reading the newspaper), and Kyaw Zin Aung (helping Kate arrange the specimen). That's my yellow duffel at the bottom left of the image. I had just gotten up from laying against it while taking a short nap when I took this picture. Go here for another look at plant pressing in northern Myanmar.
Myanmar, Nam Sabi, plant collecting in Science | Share Article | Email Article | Print Article 
