Big man on campus?

We came across this at the Nature Center. Very curious…

Any ideas?

Bursting out

Fall -- that time of year when many plants spread their seeds, which lie dormant over winter, then sprout to life in the spring.

Nature always awes and intrigues me…

A little extra

Amazing colors…

and something for lagniappe

Lunch break?

Seen on a picnic table at a playground.

Ripples of autumn

Big pink

Pink was one of my mother’s favorite colors.

Does anyone know what kind of flower this is?

The very pink of perfection.
-Oliver Goldsmith

In memory...

of my mother, Ruby.

Berries and blues

After doing a little research, I think this plant is Berberis darwinii or Darwin’s Barberry. This shrub is in a lot of yards around Boise. Apparently the berries are edible, but tart. Birds like them.

However, in New Zealand, this plant is considered an invasive species that is spreading quickly in forests and wreaking havoc with the native ecosystems.

What is harmonious in one place can be discordant in another.

Geraniums

Weekend's almost here. Time to sit back and enjoy…

It's been a looong day...

...and this says it all...

Cumulus rising

Remember lying on your back and watching cloud shapes as a kid? (Or as an adult…)

So, what does this cloud look like to you?

On the road?

Here’s a way to travel inside a fish that would make Jonah envious. And you can even bring your music with you. (In case it’s not obvious, the eye of the fish is over the front tire; the tail is spread off the back; CDs are the scales)

I think this is another creation of a local inventor/artist who lives in the n’hood. In the past, he’s made:

giant people

crocodile with moving jaws

reindeer that fly

a flying tie machine

Some, like the croc and the people, have been used in parades and rallies, and are worn or created around a bicycle.

It's interesting to go by his house; you never know what you'll see in the front yard.

A swing for the beat

Maybe someday we’ll meet
on blue dolphin street…

(Sorry --
I didn’t see any green dolphins,
so blue will have to do)

Seafood bisque, anyone?

After Katiefornia’s blog posts of crazy lobster postcards, I couldn’t resist posting this, which I came across during a walk in the n'hood.

Ruthless beauty

These are not honeysuckle, like I first thought, but creeping trumpet vine. Their scent is sweet like honeysuckle and they attract hummingbirds. They can also easily grow out of control.

According to Wikipedia: “Trumpet vine grows well on arbors, fences, telephone poles, and trees, although it may dismember them in the process. Ruthless pruning is recommended.”

Seems like good advice -- sometimes a little "ruthless pruning" is just what we need to do...

Peacock blues

While at a park, we saw this handsome guy. He wasn’t showing off his gorgeous fan; instead he was strolling about to see if any picnickers would, by chance, drop some food. As you can see, he’s eyeing us to see if there might be any tasty morsels. But we were having dessert (tiramisu and fudge brownie), so he had to go without.
Poor blue…

This sums it up…

We saw this as we were leaving the Curb Cup scene on Sunday. Maybe meditating on this will turn the rest of my week into ommmmmm instead of arrrggghhhh.

More Boise Curb Cup…

According to the Idaho Statesman, over 10,000 people attended the Curb Cup yesterday!
Here are a few more photos (as promised in yesterday's post). In the photo above, mimes taking pictures of people taking pictures. (Or maybe they were just miming all the photographers...)

These guys combined plastic cups, drums, and a table top (as well as many other things) to create fantastic rhythms.

Cool bluegrass/folk sounds.

A dance/comedy/burlesque/theater-of-the-absurd performance.

Hot hip hop.

I hope they do the Curb Cup again next year -- it was a creative blast!

Boise Curb Cup

We attended an extraordinary, new event downtown today called Curb Cup: The great street circus of creativity. It featured 130 street performers who did a wide variety of acts, including dance, magic tricks, different “flavors” of music, stand-up comedy, juggling, yo yo tricks, clown follies, live graffiti, jump rope drills, martial arts, hula hoops, and more.

Each spectator received three “voter tokens”, to put into the bucket of their favorite acts. At the end of the two-hour extravaganza, the tokens were counted and the performers with the most tokens won cash prizes. The grand winner got not only cash, but the Curb Cup trophy, which was created by a local artist. (I'll have to give you results tomorrow).



More people came out than expected; it was literally a “sea” of people, and hard to get from place to place. But this crowd was mellow and courteous to one another.

It was a lot of fun! I’ll post a few more shots tomorrow.

http://boisecurbcup.com/

Thinking ahead…

...for the weekend.

As the old song says: “And you know two heads are better than one.”