closeup texture shot of an Ultimate Pink type rose

giant variegated Agave plant in Arizona desert

It's been raining most of the day and it's paying off by making this typically smaller waterfall much more voluminous.

as the snow accumulates in the high mountains, it stacks up and begins to slide down the mountain side as a glacier. as the glacier continues to get pushed from behind (from more incoming snow), it becomes packed into a very dense ice and can travel decades across the country side. sometimes they end by finally giving way to the heat, and turn into a stream of icy cold water. other times they end by crumbling into an ocean like this one.

My friend and master gardener was showing me the sites and we came across her favorite of all trees, the chionanthus virginicus, or fringe tree. In late spring it blooms with drooping clusters of white flowers. I now understand her passion for the tree as is had a very soft friendly appearance with a lovely scent from it's quantity of blooms.

eastern Utah just after sunset

Although this can commonly grow into a tree it is officially classified as a shrub (cotinus coggygria) from Eurasia, and a really cool shrub at that. This was my first encounter with one of these and I was delightfully amazed with its colours. The leaves were a grape-purple on the top side with a more common greenish underside. When the sunlight shown through the leaves, they lit up a brilliant red, adding another odd colour to this unparalleled plant. I made sure to capture this wonder of colour on a bright sunny day with an equal amount of leaves showing their upper and lower hues.

early morning at the top of Bryce Canyon