Friend or Foe?

I found this really cute grasshopper in my garden the other day. 

I forgot if we gardeners supposed to be friends with these insects or not.

And din't see any of my plants with all the leaves gone, so I treated him as a friend. 

I gave him a ride, he showed me with his little hand where to take him.

Then we had a photo shoot.

And spent a long time talking about important grasshopper stuff, such as green leaves.

And at the end he waved goodbye.

Sharing with you and Saturday's Critters

Tiny Bouquets

From far away my lantana plant looks like a bush full of all orange flowers.  

But if we get a little closer we may see that it is actually full of little 

bouquets of pink, white, yellow and sometimes purple color!

Sharing with you Today's Flowers and Floral Friday Fotos

Glass Art

Dale Chihuly is one of my favorite artist. He makes magic with glass!

A Washington State native and internationally renowned sculptor in hot glass and blown glass.

His sculptures and exhibitions are admired all  around the world.

 Red Reeds is at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts at Richmond, VA. They are hand-blown 

dazzling red glass reeds that create a work of art of about 60 feet in length.

The sculpture  below is named Inside and Out. 

It hangs at  the atrium of the Joslyn Art Museum at Omaha, Nebraska.

Inside and Out is an enormous blown glass sculpture nearly 30 ft. tall and 25 ft. wide.
It is my favorite sculpture. When I visit The Joslyn Museum, I often find myself gazing at it for a long time.
It makes me think of a never ending tree of colorful twirling glass tendrils.

Me

Sharing with you and ABC Wenesday

Blue Tailed Lizard

I had this beautiful Blue Tailed Lizard in my porch the other day. 

But it wasn't going to pose for my camera just like that, first I had to chase it and play peek-a-boo!

I think it knew how much I liked it's blue tail, it turned around and showed it off to me a couple of times!

It was a good lizard, after playing and chasing,  it gave some good poses for the camera

Sharing with you, Saturday's Critters, and Blue Monday

Hot Lips

I finally got me this type of Salvia. I wasn't sure this plant would do good in my zone, 

since I grew up seeing it in Mexico where I'm from and I thought it would die in the winter time.

 In Mexico we called it Mirto del Monte. The place I got it from has been growing it for 

years, they assure me that its a perennial in our area.

                           Doesn't the picture above look like red lips? That's why it's called Hot Lips!

But it will not be having red hot lips all the time! :(  It's just because of the cooler weather we are having, 

and as soon as it gets back to normal hot summer it will only bloom all red. 

I have paired it with a red Dahlia.

Sharing with you and Floral Friday Fotos

Fast Fingers: Speedcubers

First things first, cubers take a selfie.

In the beginning of August we traveled  to the Liberty Science Center at Jersey City, 

because my daughter participated in the 2014 Rubik's Cube National Competition.

And what's a Cube Competition? In my own words: 

That's when a bunch of people that can actually solve the Rubik's cube get together 

to see who can solve it the fast, the faster and the fastest.
Or here is an article for a more detailed and fancy worded description.

This was her first time participating in a cubing competition. 

She has only been cubing for a year. We were new to these type of competitions, 

nevertheless we had fun! We got to meet cubers from all ages and from different countries!

I was surprised to see that there is not only the 3x3 Rubik's Cube, but many more. 

And there are people out there that can put these big cubes back together in minutes!

I'll  let the pictures do the talking. And I've included some YouTube videos

from the competition, just in case you have time to watch how
fast these FastFingers people can solve the  Rubik's Cube in no time.

Collin Burns from the US. He won the 3x3 with the fastest 3x3 average.

Feliks Zemdegs from Australia. This guy won  so many awards that I lost count of them!
But what do you expect? He's just fast!

Mats Valk from The Nederlands. He has the world record for solving the 3x3 in 5.55 seconds!
In my picture below he just finished solving a 5x5 cube.

Anthony Brooks from  The US. In the picture below he is solving the 3x3 one handed.
But he is a champion who holds the Guinness World Record for the most Rubik's Cubes
solved underwater, in a single breath!!

My daughter only participated in the first round, then she spent the rest of the days 

to just hanging around with other cubers, it was like heaven for her!

Kevin Hays 

And what's a Mother with a camera to do in the mean time?

I took lots of pictures, and participated in a social media contest with the the picture above 

and the picture below and won me a hat!

Sharing with you and ABC Wednesday

--------------------------

It would be a long, long post if I try to post the many pictures I have! 

Not to mention there was also blind folded solving,  feet solving, well it was a big event! 

Maybe I'll just share one more video where it shows the other events.