Joy: My small doses of inspiration!!.......

There so many filthy things going on in this world, but why should we let them bug us, when we are blessed with serene beauties  to counter all sorts of negativity and fill our souls with peace....I feel, its a great blessing to be able to see beauty in things surrounding us..

These pictures below comprise some motivation for my walk, day after day, sun or rain...

Noticing their seasonal change fills me with joy and inspiration...

The wall of bougainvillea..with their brilliance they are bound to attract the attention of any onlooker....I wonder, how incomplete South California floral palette would have been without them!!

The magnolia leaves naturally have the coppery shade...yet the setting sun accentuates it with another layer of gold..

This intrepid little guy stuck to the hibiscus twig, as I clicked away...

Not sure if the Santa Ana wind has anything to do with the skyscape but the diffused clouds looked pretty!

Its definitely the peak bloom time for the tangerine cape honey suckles...

This luscious, pink dragon fruit dangles from one of the many California pepper trees in Mission San Diego...

Jacaranda show.......

Ornamental plum.......

Rose galore.....

Pool-ful of lilies......

Aloe blooms......

Profuse wild mustard blooms........

this hibiscus...

..big leaves of Empress tree..

.....pretty agapanthus.........

.......daylily bud...

........patch of blooming clovers

The old mulberry tree, laden with bountiful berries..no wonder, birds flock here...

Lily of the Nile bud about to unfurl...

Tiny olive drupes....

Palm panicle...

Inky blue sky...a storm is brewing up...

Southern magnolia..........

* Appreciate and bask in the splendor in your vicinity...derive happiness and inspiration from them..

  To end this post, nothing but one quote comes to my mind...."happiness is like good health, you don't notice it until its gone"..so true, applicable to everybody...

Observation: Moons in different months goes by different names!!......

I was having a leisurely evening walk in the apartment pavement and my attention was inevitably drawn towards the full moon, luminous behind the veil of the giant Blue gum tree. The shiny celestial body seemed to me quite bigger compared to other full moon nights. As I consulted the net, got to know that the largest moon of the year 2012 is supposed to show up tomorrow, on 5th May. Moon is poised to come closest to earth on this day, so expected to appear the biggest.....

Anyway, in this context I would like to share an interesting piece of lunar info I recently gathered. The funny yet pertinent pet names of full moons in the twelve months of a year. The monikers goes like, wolf moon, snow moon, worm moon, pink moon, flower moon, strawberry moon, buck moon, sturgeon moon, harvest moon, hunter's moon, beaver moon and cold moon...

Let's see how the flower (May) moon looks like..........

It was the day before blue moon...captured the celestial body, as I was coming back from an evening walk...

I  missed taking pictures of the recent supermoon...anyway, this morning while taking a stroll, I saw the waning gibbous..

It looked pretty beautiful against the clean azure sky..I clicked some shots from behind the plans, and I think they turned out nice...
The magnolia moon...

The sycamore moon...

The palm moon....

The hibiscus moon...

Ash moon....

Finally this interesting shot...I grabbed the right time and captured it as the aircraft seemed flying above the moon...

So, autumn is the month of hunter or harvest moon...the big, dazzling, stunning one..I take the opportunity to frame it behind the veil of plants...Here is my attempt to place the bougainvillea strand against its shiny body..

And here the reticulum of palm frond spanning it...

Finally, I saw a blood moon on a September night.......

November evening...

On a cold December evening....

December night with heavy moisture in the sky creates this halo...