A Look Behind and a Look Ahead

2015 looks to be an interesting year.  I've passed my exam and will be a docent at the Albuquerque Botanical Garden.  Besides hanging out in a beautiful garden, giving tours to interested visitors, and answering questions from my decades-old obsolete knowledge of botany, I'll be photo-sphering winter and spring.  That will eventually complete my Four Seasons project that I started in July.  Here are links to the late summer photo-sphere constellation and the fall garden tour as well.  

The folks at the Garden have already reached out and tagged me for their work with the U.S. National Phenology Network. The Bot. Gard. is part of the Rio Grande Phenology Trail.  This should be an interesting expansion of my observations of the box turtles in the back yard. 

In fact, now would be a good time to summarize last summer's weights.  This year Trudy was out and about by March 5 and I last saw her underground by the east gate on September 26. 

At any rate, this year looks to have lots of opportunities for blogging about our natural environment.  Stay tuned for a year in the Garden. 

The Japanese Garden

Today Caro, Ric and I made the journey out to the Japanese Garden.  I wanted to get a handful of photo spheres; Caro wanted to feed the Koi.  It was successful on both counts. 

The Bell and the Zen Garden

 

The First Pond Overlook

 The Pond Platform

with a riot of hungry Koi attracted by bread crumbs...

The Stream

 The Waterfall

Pre-Bugarium Preparations

The ABQ BioPark continues to work towards next year's opening of the Bugarium at the Botanic Garden.  As a docent-in-training, I got a tour of the arthropod rearing lab.

During lunch, I had a fun time with show-and-tell, sharing Glass and Cardboard with the instructor and most of the class.  After class, I wandered down to the pond and took a photo sphere.

The Conservatories

I'm gradually catching up with posting my photo spheres and sharing them on Google Maps - Views.  Tonight I'm uploading two interiors of the conservatories at the Botanic Garden.

The Mediterranean Garden

This glass house has a winding path that takes you up above a grotto with vistas of the entire space. 

The Desert Garden

This one is an early one from July 23 showing the collection of cacti, yuccas, agaves, euphorbs and such.  It came out well for being handheld and is quite effective when viewed with Cardboard. 

The Albuquerque Botanic Garden

I have a new project in mind now that I'm retired.  I'm going to make photo spheres of the Botanic Garden.  Not only are they fun to view in Google maps or via Google+, they can be visualized in 3D with Google Cardboard. 

My first effort was the Butterfly Pavilion, but it's a bit sloppy, so I'll redo that one.  After that, I did the two conservatories, the Mediterranean and Desert Houses.


Today, while at docent training, I took the time to create photo spheres of the Festival Garden,

the Spanish-Moorish Garden,

and the Italian Garden. 

I'll be posting them to Google Maps as Views so they can be accessed that way, too.

Ten-Ten

Yet another turtle has broken hibernation... #10 aka Ten-Ten has turned up in Trudy's abandoned burrow in the Hidden Garden.  12.15 oz. 

 Meanwhile, Trudy is burrowed in beneath my office window next to the Wisteria, heavy with buds.

Turtle Watch 2014

Trudy broke hibernation this week.  She moved from her burrow on the south side of the wall in the Hidden Garden to the hollow, fake rock that covers the sprinkler riser with its heat tape that keeps the pipes from freezing.  She happily ate an ounce or two of leftover roast salmon.  Later she was seen on the east side of the wall near the "rock."  Soil temps are near 62°. Her weight was 614 g or 21.54 oz., her best post-hibernation weight ever. 

Now she's dug in for the evening under my office window near the Wisteria.  This year Trudy is about 2 weeks ahead of last year and the year before.  It'll still be a couple more weeks before the boys break hibernation.

More soon...