1 pic a day 2012, May 18th: Pink Crown

Pink Crown, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

I discovered this one yesterday. Was facing the street, so I hadn't noticed the flowers. This cactus has never failed to bloom every spring for the last 5 years or so. According to Google Images, this is a Mammillaria zeilmanniana, but it has so many synonyms that maybe I didn't choose the most common one. Everything fits the description and pictures, so let's say it is.

I just noticed that this one already has a fruit, bottom/center of the picture, just above the Asparagus that is growing there. It looks like it's trying to take over the balcony, this one. I removed at least 7 yesterday alone. It's not that we don't like it, but one is more than enough. They tend to "eat" the soil and at least on one occasion one of them has broken the pot. So they have to be kept under control!

1 pic a day 2012, May 17th: In the sun

In the sun, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

Sofía again. I went to the kitchen to make some tea, and saw her soaking up the sun. In the afternoon, is the only spot where you get direct sun, which she needs to recharge her feline batteries. I think.

Her expression is priceless!

1 pic a day 2012, May 16th: Pink Quill

Pink Quill, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

This is technically known as a Tillandsia cyanea. But Pink Quill is a fancier name, apparently.

We got this one as a gift for a friend we hadn't seen for at least a year and a half, which is a shame, as we live in the same city. But you know how it is.

The plant flowered the next day; I wasn't expecting it, and for a few seconds couldn't figure out what was that thing on the plant. Further inspection revealed a nice purple flower (which here shows as blue-ish, for some reason. I guess CCD sensitivity to blue or something techy).

Today I discovered a second flower; supposedly they last a long time, and we should expect more where these came from. Apparently, bromeliads die after blooming, after having produced pups to perpetuate the species, but I have found several sources that say otherwise. In particular, Mr. Subjunctive says that this is not always the case, and I trust what he says. (He writes an amazingly entertaining blog, where I have learned lots about houseplants). So I will keep you posted on any further developments.

1 pic a day 2012, May 15th: Arctic White

Arctic White, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

This is supposedly an Arctic White Hippeastrum. At least that's what the label said. I bought it because it was a new color for me, and so far we have three: red, red+white and salmon. So white was novel if maybe a bit boring.

Boy, were we in for a surprise.

The label showed the usual (for me) six-petal flower, so that was what I was expecting. Not THIS show. I didn't think that white-on-white was going to work, but this must be my favourite flower-themed picture so far (and you know there are a lot of those!).

Sadly, it seems the season is over; I haven't been able to find other colors, but if things work as planned, these bulbs should put on quite a show again next year!

1 pic a day 2012, May 14th: Allium

Allium, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

A bit behind with the "daily" posts. Won't even try to make good excuses: work, work and more work. Anyway. I don't know what variety this is, but it is an Allium; so basically an ornamental onion :P

I love the geometry here; the flowers are perfect six-point stars, so the whole thing screams of hexagons. I suspect that a fuller flower (we weren't that lucky, or maybe this is the best this variety does) would resemble a geodesic dome.

I know; I'm a geek.

1pic a day 2012, May 13th - Shapes & Light

Shapes & Light, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

At Sant Pere de Ribes; a nice day, spent with friends over amazing food, good wine and nice conversation. This is what Sundays are for. After that we took a walk around and these clouds caught my eye.

1 pic a day 2012, May 12th - Parsley

Parsley, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

Huge plant, did not expect it to grow this much. Have started to cut it down a bit, so it doesn't take over the whole pot. It is supposed to be sharing it with Lemon cucumber, Swiss chard, coriander, dill and catnip. We'll see who survives.

1 pic a day 2012, May 11th - Down

Down, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

Waiting for some friends by the elevator, I decided to look down the staircase; something I never do, on account of being afraid of heights. Played a bit with B&W and grain, turned out OK, I think!

1 pic a day 2012, May 10th - Food Porn: Paella!

Food Porn, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

Great food, great company for that day.

Aloe vera

I was having a conversation with some friends the other day, when I mentioned Aloe vera flowers; they gave me this baffled look: apparently, they had never seen those before. I guess I take it for granted, as we have had flowering Aloe vera in our balcony for several years now. The one that is currently in bloom has actually not one, but two flower stalks:

I'm not sure how common this is. Back in Paraguaná, where I used to live, this plant was all over the place, and now that I think about it, I don't recall seeing a lot of flowers. Maybe it's the age of the plant; this one is 3rd or 4th generation from the one we originally had and had to give away on account it didn't fit on the balcony anymore. This one is a bit smaller, but still impressive: roughly 110 cm in diameter, and the flower stalk is about 115 cm long!

Anyway. Went to the balcony to get a few more pictures for the post. The flowers are actually quite nice:

And then I noticed the floor was all sticky; further examination revealed there was syrup-like stuff all over the leaves - nectar leaking from the flowers:

So, of course, I had to try it. Extremely sweet stuff! Google did not reveal any information on whether this is actually used for sweetening food or something (probably not practical), but I did learn that hummingbirds dig it. Since I am most certainly not one, I have no idea what effect it could have on me. I know that ingesting some parts of the leaf is not recommended, so maybe this could be my last post :P 

I should have learned my lesson a few years ago when I spotted a new plant growing in one of our pots, saw some black fruits, and decided to try one. It was Solanum nigrum, also known as Hierba Mora or the more descriptive Tomatillo del Diablo: definitely poisonous, as I learned from Google AFTER having tried one. Nothing happened, of course, but I was quite worried for a few minutes.

At least this time I Googled first. But seriously, it is sweet and it comes from a plant. That should mean it's safe, shouldn't it? Supposedly all the other stuff that one is not supposed to try smells bad, is bitter or something. I think. Oh well.

1 pic a day 2012, May 9th: Snow-like

Snow-like, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

The ground was completely covered with white flowers -no idea what kind- and the sun made it look like snow. Right after a session with a group of teachers, where we discussed potential applications of board-like tools, such as Pinterest, Sworly and The New Hive, which we are testing. These are very rewarding sessions; they have been working with us for almost three years, so they are more friends than colleagues at this point, and are such a creative and inspiring bunch, that you wished you could always work with groups like this!

1 pic a day 2012, May 8th: Langoustines - 129/366

Langoustines, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

...or "Cigalas" as we call them in Spain. Went to this place for dinner with friends last night. It's set up as a fish/seafood market stall; you choose whatever you want, pay by weight, then it's sent to the kitchen and they will call you to pick it up when is prepared. Cool concept, great food!

1 pic a day 2012, May 7th - 128/366

Wow, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

No idea what hybrid this is. Got it as a gift two years ago and it has never failed to bloom. Known as Amaryllis, but technically an Hippeastrum; it looks like "Desire", but it could be anything, seriously. From what I have seen online, the differences between some of them are so subtle that sometimes I don't know why they have different names. But it's pretty, so I don't complain!

1 pic a day 2012, May 6th: (Canadian) Swiss Chard - 127/366

127/366, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

First harvest of the spring... some seeds we brought from Canada, that promised nice, bright colors... and they delivered! This one was as tasty as nice to look at!

1 pic a day 2012, May 5th - 126/366

Nice Day!, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

The sculptures, the reflection of the water, the (ugh) pigeons, the trail in the sky (what's the proper name for that?): it made for a nice composition. This was taken right before a great lunch with friends. Nice way to spend a Saturday!

1 pic a day 2012, May 3rd - 124/366, Watercolors

Watercolors, a photo by torresk on Flickr.

I pass by this square almost every morning on my way to work. On Thursdays, it's even earlier, as I have a 8:00 class. Around that time, they usually have the sprinklers on with -I guess- the intention of watering the grass. What actually happens, the way the sprinklers are set, is that a small stream is created and it runs down the street. This particular morning it was very bright, and that red patch really got my attention. It was the roof of a nearby building, but the reflection on the water is so colorful that it looks as if it was burning. decided to crop it so the buildings and tress don't show. I like it better this way.

By the way, I'm trying the direct connection from Flickr to Blogger. It works OK, although I don't think I get a lot to say on the post layout; maybe I need to explore a bit more. And then I have to log in to Blogger anyway if I want to add labels and such. Will try it for a few days and see whether I like it.

I also started to try the Pinterest function, which is pretty good. Managed to Pin all my 1picxday images to boards organised by month.

1 pic a day 2012: May 2nd - 123/366

Today's picture almost didn't happen. Had a hectic day, as usual, and there was not much that caught my eye during the day. But when I was walking home, there was something in the way the light hit this building that made me stop.

I was in a hurry, so I just took a picture and run to my next (and final) meeting of the day. It was afterwards that I realised the contrast was all wrong and had to play with filters to get some of the details back. Thus the weird glow on the top left corner. It had some nice comments on Facebook anyway, so I can't complain! I guessed this must had been listed somewhere, so after a bit of Googling found out it is called Cases Salvador Andreu; apparently, the style is more Eclectic than Modernist. More information on it may be found here.

Clicking on it will open the original on a separate window, in case you want to see more detail.

This led me to this other site, where 115 works (or 116, the site doesn't seem to make up its mind about it) are listed and together create the Modernisme Route. After reading it, I realised there are several buildings and places around Barcelona named after Salvador Andreu, and two clicks later I learned he is the guy behind the cough drops I took the last time I had the flu. Which proves that everything is connected and that it is very easy to get lost on the Internet and forget what you were doing in the first place. So that's it for today.

1 pic a day 2012: May 1st

Well, May starts and with it a new approach: to try to write a daily post for each picture that's part of the #1picxday2012 group. I'm not really sure I will be able to keep up with it but it doesn't hurt to try. I never thought I would get this far with the 1 pic a day challenge, and here we are entering month 5!

Today's picture is a snapdragon (Antirrhinum) that bloomed last week in our balcony. It's growing in the same pot as the Araucaria (which is featured in the April 1picxday pictures, post coming soon), and that I have always known by the name "Perritos" (little dogs). I don't really remember how they got there, but they are thriving and producing blooms left and right, so I guess they like it here.

Clicking on it will open the original on a separate window, in case you want to see more detail. It has gorgeous colors, so it's worth it!

As the work that was being done in the balconies has finally been finished, we could move the plants outside again. We have 138 plants! Actually, 137, as one of them was accidentally crushed to pieces a few minutes ago. A curved support and a square rail don't match. The poor thing was featured as 52/366 on February 21st, so its legacy will live on. Plus we still have hope that it will survive.

1 pic a day 2012: March

Another month, another batch of pictures: 31, in this case. It's spring now in Barcelona, which shows; there are more pictures of flowers and plants this time around, most of them from our balcony. Mediterranean weather is great!

There is #foodporn, of course, and several pictures from around the neighbourhood. We are relatively new to this area of Barcelona, and the 1 pic a day challenge has forced me to keep my eyes open and look around, which is good. For March 14th, or 3.14, PI day, I ended up posting concentric circles instead of the pie (well, cake) I baked for my Maths class that day. It's actually a ceramic piece shoot from above; it was created by a renowned artist from Paraguaná, where I lived between 1991 and 1995. I had several of his pieces, but my cats at that time, Tonto and Negro, managed to break them all. This one was a gift from my mother.

I particularly like March 16th, 76/366; the reflection of the wine on the tablecloth is amazing! And the #foodporn that day was out of this world. All in all, there are five pictures whose subject is reflections or tricks of light: 64/366 (solar halo), 76/366 (wine magic), 82/366 (a square after the rain), 83/366 (liquid Sagrada Familia) and 88/366 (rainbow on the stairsteps); again, because of the sunny weather and the scattered rains.

My cats don't show up in March, although we do have a feline guest appearance on 90/366, March 30th. The last picture is a tulip from the balcony, a nice surprise since I didn't remember planting those bulbs!

Although many times it's just a question of "Ok, I HAVE to post something today", most of the time there's a lot of thinking behind the pictures that end up here; in fact, I am creating a folder of "almost-made-it" pictures (probably to be featured on their own post). So I was thinking that I could manage to do more frequent posts if I do them around the pictures. That would mean that any post not related to #1picxday would be lost among all the picture-related ones; but I think I'm going to try it anyway. I'm nowhere near the point of needing two (or more) blogs and I seriously doubt there's a big enough audience for one, let alone two. We'll see.

1 pic a day 2012: February

Well, the good news is that I have managed to keep up with the challenge and post one picture a day during February too! This has originated a set of questions, though: where should I store/organise them? What app is better for taking the pictures and editing them? And, most importantly, will I be able to keep doing this throughout 2012? (it seems so; I've managed March so far).

Let's look at the pictures first, before attempting to answer any of these questions. This time, they are in chronological order. (Thumbnails link to the Flickr set)

There's a lot of yellow here, something I hadn't noticed. Blue, as usual, and some grey on account, I guess, of it being winter. Managed to keep flowers & plants, and food, under control.

The black picture on the right doesn't look like much but I'm pretty proud/happy with it. It shows Jupiter, Venus and the Moon almost aligned. Didn't think my iPhone was up to it, but it turned out alright!

That picture is the last one in a series that started on the 19th and continued until the 24th: I got the flu, and it hit me pretty hard. So much, in fact, that for the first time in years I cancelled all my classes and stayed home for the whole week. Mostly in bed, which explains the rest of the pictures that week: the lamp on the ceiling of the bedroom, the plant we have on top of the fridge, my "comfy paws", the drapes and finally the alignment of celestial objects, taken from the window (I was feeling better).

Flowers will probably start to show up more and more; spring is almost here, and we have some serious (balcony) gardening work ahead of us. One of the advantages of Mediterranean weather!

Now for the questions; I started saving the pictures on Flickr. As I mentioned in a previous post, I started doing this following Cristina's invitation to join a group there. I also started posting on Facebook too, but I forgot I intended to start using Twitter for this. Will try and start this month. Anyway, Flickr informed me yesterday that I'm about to reach a 200-pictures limit, and that would be a marvelous idea if I were to purchase a Pro plan. The price is not that much, really, so that's not an issue; but I haven't made up my mind yet. I like Flickr a lot. Have been using it with my students for several years, and I think its social elements are much better than some of the other options available. We'll see.

I have been using my iPhone to take the pictures; it's always with me, it's convenient, and the quality is pretty good. I just downloaded Camera Awesome, and will give it a try, but I mostly use the iPhone camera app and SnapSeed for editing. It has a nice range of effects and tools; I haven't really tried Instagram yet. Downloaded, created an account, but that's pretty much it. Will try it for some of the March pictures.

The last question will have to answer itself, later this year. I'll keep doing my best!

Anyone else trying this? It would be good to know of your experience, and whether you follow a theme, have some kind of "requirement" for the pictures you post, what device do you use and what are your thoughts on editing pictures before posting.