Good Planets

...Are Hard To Find

From Yankee Transplant:



I took this picture in the Botanic Gardens in Montreal in 1998 when I was vacationing with my daughters.


From Liza Lee Miller:



Sometimes the smallest things are filled with beauty. These are the flowers on my glorious Maple Tree. Tiny and hidden but just last weekend, I found a tiny Maple tree seedling in my yard so I know they are filled with power.



From KerrdeLune:

I am attaching two images for Good Planet. The first image is of willow catkins in our woods in the Lanark Highlands,



...and the second is a red trillium from the same place.




From Pam in Tucson:



Here's my favourite pic of this week. I've already posted it on my blog, ( Tortoise Trail ) but I really wanted to share it with Good Planets. I don't know what kind of cactus this is. The plants are only about 3 feet tall and are growing in a front-yard planter in our neighbourhood. There were five of these enormous flowers on one plant and three on another. They were in bloom for only two days before they shrivelled up.


From C. Corax:

With encouragement from Robin, I'm submitting my photo of two fox kits. Good Planets tends to leave me in such stupefied awe of others' photo-taking abilities, I'm somewhat embarrassed by this, but it was the best I could do, and the critters are so danged cute! Kit #2 is directly below the obvious one.



I'm also attaching a photo of a lovesick wood frog (though not so lovesick that he didn't have time to check out my dog and me). I think it's been awhile since there's been a photo of an amphibian.




From Robin Andrea:



Here's my pic. It's not the clearest photo of a Great Blue Heron, but it captures the absolute grace of this beautiful bird. Funny how the photo looks like a black and white pic. It's not, but that's the pacific northwest for you, shades of black, white, and gray. (if you're here, you probably already know that Robin Andrea blogs at The Dharma Bums )


From Evan,

The Japanese cherry blossoms on the mall in DC.

From Susannah over at Wanderin' Weeta's

I don't know if you have a theme this time; I couldn't find any mention of one. So I am sending two "twisty" trunks.

The first one is at the Van Dusen Gardens, in Vancouver, BC. A strong, ancient vine that holds up the porch as much as it climbs on it.

The second, a dead pine, is on the hills above Chase, BC, in the dry interior. Laurie, especially, loved this pine; he photographed it over and over. In death, as in life, it is the centre of a thriving ecology. Every time we stopped, it was a-twitter with dozens of tiny birds, about the same size as the cones they were feeding on. Chipmunks make piles of seed coverings at the entrances to their holes. A hawk (Swainson's?) sits on a snag across the road, watching for stragglers. And of course there are beetles and ants up and down the trunk, and lichens starting to gain a toehold.

(I am having trouble deciding which dead pine photo to send you, so am sending two; take your pick.) *I picked both*


From Tara Crowley:

A glorious summer day in a garden, captured. As the
sun beat down and others were gathering flowers, I
walked with my camera and marveled at this tranquil,
bountiful space. The world in microcosim.

And that's the Good Planets Are Hard to Find post for this week. And what a luscious collection it is. Wonderful gorgeous photos all, and thank you for sending them. If you sent a pic and it's not posted, please send it again for inclusion in the May 24 posting. SBGypsy at Hotmail dot com

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*People have asked if there's a theme - I'm a no-holds-barred kind of person, so the basic rules apply: Show the beauty of our good planet, in all it's abundance and glory - try not to show people or houses, unless of the picturesque variety.

**as always, click on the pic for a larger view