Tucson, AZ: Biosphere2. See GALLERY. This is a very impressive complex to tour. The entire place is hermetically sealed, unlike green houses at a typical botanic garden. There were tropical zones as well as desert zones all climate controlled. In order to prevent the glass from exploding due to air pressure changes during the day there were two “lungs” that would expand and contract as the pressure varied. Each “lung” was 150′ across with a ceiling weighing a few tons would rise and fall as needed. Originally the Biosphere hosted a number of scientists who were sealed into the facility for a couple of years to study self-sustaining environments. There are currently no residents housed there but various experiments are still on going.

View photos HERE. Marianne’s various Halloween shrines and villages.

The photos are HERE. It was a lovely 75 degrees here yesterday so some friends and I decided to take a trip to the Denver Botanic Gardens. It was a perfect day. Lots of fall colors. And  I expect that most of the leaves will have fallen in a week. The Gardens were also decked out for Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) with some sculptures and lights.

The day started off with some light rain but it had stopped by the time I got to the Denver Botanic Gardens. The overcast sky made for some nice lighting. Here are the PHOTOS. There are some 3840×1080 panoramas included which are suitable for a dual monitor setup.

These PHOTOS were specifically sized to be displayed on two side-by-side monitors of 1920×1080 each (a total size of 3840×1080). Mostly landscapes, some from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and some from New York. If you see one you’d like for your personal use then click on the little magnifying glass icon directly above the image. That will display the full resolution image. You then right click on the image and select “Save Image As…”. (after saving you have to use the browser’s back button to get back to the gallery.) The trick to displaying these across two monitors is to right click on your desktop, select Desktop Background, and set Picture Position to Tile (that’s the important part). Then select one or more panoramas.

See the PHOTOS. Today my friend Match and I did a walk-about in Denver’s “Five Points” neighborhood, a few blocks north-east of downtown. It was 40ish degrees out with a bit of haze in the sky. The neighborhood had lots of art and murals and a very good bakery. The light rail trains went along the main thoroughfare.

See more PHOTOS. A beautiful fall day at the Denver Botanic Gardens (68 degrees). Yesterday we had our first frost in Denver.

See more PHOTOS. Some photos of Cosmos taken recently at my friend Match’s house. They have a beautiful garden and the Cosmos were about 4 feet tall.

Some PHOTOS taken yesterday. A nice summer day spent along Clear Creek near Empire, Colorado. I had to use some HDR (high dynamic range) photography tricks because of the bright daylight and dark shadows. Later in the day it became partly cloudy which helped in taking good photos without HDR.

Some PHOTOS I took at El Rancho de Las Golondrinas near Santa Fe, New Mexico. This place is a preserved historic site.