Urbs in Horto

Click on the image for enlarged view ...

A new flower-blog added .. Urbs in Horto ... which is the official motto of the city of Chicago meaning, "city in a garden" ...

Past few days I've been working late nights till literally my shoulders were stiff and my back hurted, just to organize the flower shots I had taken ... and have now uploaded more than 100 images ... of which the name of a few [about 8] flowers I could not find out ... All shots have been taken this year, since April, 2007; when the flowering season begins ...

I've always loved flowers, but having grown in tropical climate, in India ... I was accustomed to very different types of plants ... Here winter is gray and barren, mostly snow covered, there winter was the most colorful season. Many types of common flowers from bulbs, like crocus, hyacinths, alliums, tulips, daffodils ... that require cool winter period, and bloom in spring ... are commonplace here ... but were rare in the place where I grew ... Most flowers like pansy, gladiolous and chrysanthamum that grow in summer here, used to grow in winter there ...

Then Illinois being a prairie land, has it's own set of native plants, that I had never even heard of. Many of the flowers common here as Columbines, Prairie Smoke, Shooting Star, Blazing Star, Compass flower were totally new to me ...

But I love photography, and took lots of photos, especially of flowers that I was not used to ... and then spent hours trying to figure out their names ...

But then the images were all on my computer harddrive and noone else could see them apart from me ... and I thought about uploading it in a blog, so that anyone who likes flowers could enjoy them ... Here's my new blog "Urbs in horto".

Urbs in Horto is the city of Chicago's Latin motto... which is means "City in a Garden" ... It is found on the "Seal" of Chicago, which was enacted in 1833, when the city was still a town. More than 150 years later ... the city has lived up to to it's motto ... and there are gardens and roadside planters & trees all over the town.

The photos have been taken from a number of gardens and includes roadside blooms as well. Some places I go very frequently like Lurie Garden or Lincoln Park Conservatory ... But few places I've visited just once like Gardfield Park and Chicago Botanic Garden ...

Generally images are from:
- Lurie Garden
- Lincoln Park Conservatory
- Chicago Botanic Garden
- Garfield Park
AND lots of roadside bloom ...

I have many more images to add, which I will when i get time ...
Few flowers on my wish list to photograph
- Passion flower
- Birds of paradise

Wish to be there ...
- Morton arboretum ...

What's in a name?

Many of the dainty elegant flowers, so called lily, are in fact not true lily ...
A true lily belongs to the family Liliaceae ...

Lets check out the family of the so-called lilies ...
# Daylily - Hemerocallidaceae
# Peace lily - Araceae
# Calla lily - Araceae
# Canna lily - Cannaceae
# Lily of the Nile - Agapanthus
# Lily of the Valley - Ruscaceae
# Amaryllis - Amaryllidaceae
# Kaffir Lily - Amaryllidaceae

So none of the above are true lilies ...

True lilies belong to the genus Lilium. They grow from bulbs made of fleshy, overlapping scales with no protective covering. True lilies have stiff stems with relatively narrow strap like leaves from top to bottom. Large, showy flowers develop at the tip of each stem. These flowers may be trumpet-shaped, bowl shaped, or bell shaped. They may nod downwards, face outwards, or turn upwards. They come in a wide variety of colors and some may also be delightfully fragrant.

There are three main types of lilies: Asiatic, Oriental and Aurelians [trumpet lilies]... and then there's a fourth subgroup of "hybrids".

Some very popular true lilies are:
Stargazer [crimson-red] - Oriental lily
Casa Blanca [pure white] - Oriental
Enchantment [orange] - Asiatic
Easter lily [white trumpet shaped] - Trumpet Lily

wondering how many ...

You may have landed here from anywhere ... see and hopefully enjoy the photos ...

But if you are wondering how many photoblogs I maintain ... I cant explain.

If you have a passion for anything, you'll understand... or I cant explain. I love photography and I like to learn ... and I try to combine the two ... There will be few/many more blogs to be added to this ...

I am also am passionate about classifying ... and cant lump hundreds of butterfly photos, with cityscape images ... In fact, I would love to smaller divisions in Butterfly Blog [and Orchid Blog] ... with different the species in the same family put together ... maybe one day, when I learn a bit more about them ...

Right now, I'm also concentrating on the history of chicago ... especially about rise of Chicago as a world class city from a swampy marshy tribal area ...

Another weekend passes by ...

Last weekend passed in a blink ...
Well not exactly ... I saw the "Chicago Air and Water Show" last Saturday [August 18, 2007] ... It was spectacular!!!

Last Sunday it rained the whole day, so I watched movies at home ... "Lonely Hearts", left me very cold. The cast was superb with John Travolta, James Gandolfini and Salma Hayek ... But the story was very disturbing ... Facts can indeed be stranger than fiction... The movie is based on true story in the 1940's ... Some people are really messed up.

Midweek a "potentially" memorable event which turned out to be a NON-event ... I missed the Aretha Franklin Show [Aug. 21]. I had bought the ticket about two months back... and it was in my purse. But I could not manage to go to the Ravinia Show ... Far far away a late night show in mid-week ... just couldnt make it!

Two days back started organizing my flower shots in Blog "Urbs in Horto".
I want to add many more blogs ... at least THREE more ...
# Streets of Chicago
# Architectural Museum
# Railways
I think all my spare time is booked till December this year!

This weekend will go in organizing "Urbs in Horto" ...
I'm having a great satisfaction in getting at least some photos in order ...

Butterfly Blog

So my butterfly blog got a kick-start yesterday ... I've been working on it for 5 hours yesterday night ... and 3 hours today morning ...

However much more work needs to be done ...
# Have to write about some BASICS like defining characteristics of butterflies .. types ... and ... the difference between a butterfly, skipper and a moth ...
# Write about Judy Istock Butterfly Haven ...
# Add many more images ...

Come to think of it, not a bad performance, considering that before April, 2007 ... the only butterfly I could recognize was a Monarch ... Keeping that as the base, I am quite satisfied ... But I know all too well that I need to learn a lot and this is just the beginning ... In fact a blog is just a way to organize the materials that I've collected ...

* I've been visiting The Butterfly Haven" only since April, 2007 ... so all the images have been taken since April, 2007.

Just for the records ... the starting dates of these blogs ...
# The Butterfly Haven: August 11, 2007
# Here and There: August 10, 20007
# Lens Impressions [textblog]: July 4,2007
# The Orchid House: July 1, 2007

I think I will add many more ...
# Railways, chicago
# Outdoor Sculptures
# Flowers

Random thoughts ...

These days I'm a bit bored of my photo-blog "My Photo Journal" ... Not with photography, but photo-blogging ... However, I still update my site regularly ... Guess the updating is driven more by the sheer force of habit than by the enthusiasm I once had ... So it's time to step back ...

Next few days, I should give more time to things that have interested me these past few days...
- Learning about butterflies ... time to start a new "Butterfly Haven" Blog ... [maybe tomorrow morning]
- Learning more about the masters of photography ...
- and iron three machine loads of washed cloths! [there goes my weekend]...

Lollapalooza without my digital SLR

An eventful day without my Digital SLR ... has to be mentioned here ... This Sunday I attended the Rock Show Lollapalloza ... without my Digital SLR ... Why ??? Cameras with detachable lenses were not allowed for some security reasons!!! I missed it??? YES!!!! Shooting events that I enjoy has become my second nature ...

Imagine seeing a Live Rock Show standing in the very FIRST ROW ... without my digital SLR. Heard midblowing acoustic guitar played by the duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela ... To get an idea of the stunning performance ... CLICK HERE ...

Within 5 mintues of the word GO, the vibrations in the air changed and then the ground was quivering ... and more than thousand of people were swinging to the beats ... No lyrics ... Just guitar ... incredibly fast-fingered ... The crowd was in a trance ... No yesterday, no tomorrow, just the moment ... Music in the air, in the body, in the soul ... It was a liberating experience ... My most memorable 3 hours ... Loved every second of the feverish energy and electrifying sound ...

I remember these word of Gabriela ..
"This is a new song. We havent named it yet. Do whatever the fu*& you want. Dance naked if you wish. Enjoy."

Then I also saw Paolo Nutini and Iggy Pop ... but my heart was won by the guitar duo Rodrigo Y Gabriela!!! I've seen live Blues show, Jazz Show, Country Music show ... But Rock Show really ROCKS!!! I love Blues but was won over by Rock!

In the end I think it was good to live in the moment without any attempt to capture the moment ... I did carry my small compact digital camera ... and did take a few shots ... but it's my digital SLR that I'm most comfortable with ... and as much as I console myself that living in the moment was good, I missed capturing the experience with the camera I love ...

Let Bygones be bygones

Life moves in phases ... I once had a text bog, that I would check every single day ... Now I dont even remember it's password ... I tried my best, but failed ... Guess I'm forced to accept the wisdom of the dogma, "let bygones be bygones" ... Time for a fresh start, to scribble some random thoughts that strike me every now and then ... so begins a new blog, with a very trite title, Here and There ...

But I dont want to lose some good articles in my Old Blog, so I'm linking them here ...
[1] Movies Blog ... Shhhh... Movie's On, click here ...
[2] Music Blog ... The Sound of Music, click here ...
[3] General Blog ... Placebo Effect, click here ...

If anyone at all goes through these older blogs ... check the archives, for some of the older posts especially in music and movies are well researched... In the music blog, the series on the "History of Rock-&-Roll" [collection of 10 posts from Nov 1- to-Nov 29, 2005 ] ... Similarly older posts on movies are something that I really wanted to save and thats why the links here ...

Guess I will make a list of some some of my favourite posts the old "Placebo Effect", when I get some time [this coming week maybe]....