Place: Balboa park fauna...

Apart from architectural wonders and abundant flora, one can see a good deal of fauna in Balboa Park...

Such as.

Mallards....

Great egret....

Cooper's hawk...

Crows..

Monarch butterfly...

Koi...

Thought: Weapons of a different kind...

Thought: In honor of my Pakistani collaborator......

It's an anecdote about one of my collaborator from Pakistan...
It is one of the most humanitarian alliance in the form of 'screening phytochemicals from biodiversity and using bioinformatics or animal models to evaluate their drug candidate potential, in this disease-afflicted world, followed by publication of the findings'...

It all started 3 years back, when we stumbled upon in a research/academia site..

He asked for my assistance in writing the manuscript...why he selected me from numerous other people out there, is a mystery to me...may be because I had a line-up of publications in decent journals...whatever the reason was, the decision was very rational..after all, long before India was fragmented, we shared the same mainland..and it is very normal only to seek each other's help....

I agreed. For that matter, I would have nodded to anybody, approaching me with similar proposal. But, there were few more subtle reasons in this case, that I must mention.......

*He belongs to a region of Pakistan, that is a highly active seismic area...earthquakes, landslides are very frequent there..

*The Talibans at the peak of their regime, almost captured the area. They were defeated, but a majority of the residents lost their homes...

*Most of the residents earn their livelihood by herding livestock and trading forestry products..

*The macabre killing of hundreds of school children happened barely streets away from the working place of my collaborator..

* And in a recent University attack, one of the Chemistry faculty member who lost his live, while protecting his students, was the collaborator's friend..

Imagine maintaining sanity amidst these situations, and working tirelessly for a novel cause, by forging bond with someone, perceived to be from an enemy country...

And now, through him, I know many Professors and researchers from a number of Middle Eastern countries, working on similar area....All of they hold me with high regard, and so do I..

Hope, you found the story heart-warming. 

Joy: Basking in the flowers....

We are in the peak of flower season now....and who does not love it?

Even, those of us having issue with the allergic pollen love it..

Apart fro the aesthetic pleasure and fragrance, the butterflies, bees, robins, song sparrows, bluebirds, orioles and myriad others cheerful sights are added perks of this season....

Here some of my 'basking in the flower' moments, though they are not necessarily from only spring blooms, California flora blooming something or other, throughout of the year...

Encelia in Anza-Borrego..

Ranunculus..

Meadow flowers..

Roses...

Pink trumpet...

Petunia..

Purple orchid and hawthorn..

Mustard..

Serviceberry flowers..

Palo verde...

Bougainvillea..

Jacaranda..

Yellow trumpet flower..

California buckthorn..

Unidentified...

Coral...

Aloe.....

Photography: Bokeh shots (II)...

I love this bokeh......

Photography: Flowers reaching for the sky.....

An attempt to capture the flowers from a different perspective....

Now, these are from my garden....

Plant: Kalanchoe blooms...

Kalanchoe, a succulent of Crassulaceae family is blooming profusely this time of the years...in an assortment of brilliant colors like red, orange, pink, yellow..