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Friday - December 12, 2008

Full moon at its parigee

Much ado this evening. The moon is full and it's at its parigee (that is, at its closest approach to us in its orbit). Nasa estimated that tonight's full moon might appear to be 14% bigger and 30% brighter than other full moons this year. This is also the first time we've seen a full moon at its parigee in 15 years. Here's how it looked at about 7 this evening:

Very cool.

Posted by Joanna at 11:09 PM | Permalink

Odd yellow flowers

While I was visiting the folks in Silver City this summer, we took a trip to the Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument. Along the way, we spotted several bunches of some really weird yellow flowers. Well, the flowers aren't so weird...more like the stalks upon which they dwell. To wit:

And:

And, another:

I also spotted some wild-life:

Cool, eh? And, a bit weird? Yep.

PS: Happy birthday, Esther!

UPDATE. Mom to the rescue again! These bizarre plants are known as Great (or perhaps Common) Mullein; and, more formally, as verbascum thapsus.

Posted by Joanna at 12:07 AM | Permalink

Tuesday - December 9, 2008

SW of Reserve

Back to the photos from my summer trip. I was about 25 miles southwest of Reserve when I saw this and just had to stop:

What is that plant in the foreground?

UPDATE. Regina thought it might be a Camel Cactus since it looked like a camel to her. I've searched around: no such thing. A bit later, Mom wrote to say she thinks it's a Soaptree Yucca. That seems to be much more plausible. Thanks, Mom.

Posted by Joanna at 11:01 PM | Permalink

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