sunny day following a heavy snow in northern Indiana

peeking through the trees toward Horseshoe Lake mostly covered with lily-pads and blooms

passing for an assortment of freshly mined diamonds, these rough 'gems' are actually grains of refined sugar. they are spilled upon a deep-blue CD case which gave us a nice colour backdrop and texture. the crystalline grains of sugar average around 1/60 of an inch.

layers and layers of spire-shaped mountains in ZhangJiaJie

an up-shot of the large clusters of dates on this Phoenix dactylifera in Kauai

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.

these large birds appear to have infinite patience as they stand motionless for hours waiting for their meal to swim by.