Our neighbours Joanne & Earle called us over this evening, to see their son Jason’s plant bloom!

The plant is called “Queen Of The Night” or more officially, Epiphyllum Oxypetalum! It was a gift to Jason from a friend, and originally comes from South America … it didn’t flower for the first few years (just grew big), but this year has 10 or more blooms!

As we chatted with Joanne & Earle, the flower slowly opened more and more, giving off a stronger sweet smell too:

It’s hard to take a front picture of the flower, as it’s pointing outside, but here’s a try:

I also took some pictures of Joanne’s frog! When we moved to USA 12 years ago, she had this frog and had had it for a long time already - she promises that it’s the same frog still, so it must be 20 or more years old, living in it’s little aquarium, and occasionally “singing” …



(gallery link)
Received a mail order catalog today, selling christmas ornaments (among other things)!
A picture taken back in April 2008 (hence the jackets), or Matthew & I working on a sizzor vehicle, with one of JLG’s smaller boom vehicles in the background - note the portable computer we are both looking at:
We spent the weekend in the White Mountains region of New Hampshire - near Franconia and where MINIsOnTop happens - here’s a picture of where we stayed (the Attitash Grand Summit hotel):

The view from our balcony:

Touring around, we stumbled on Jackson Falls on the Wild Cat river - very spectacular!

I couldn’t decide if fast or slow shutter speed gave the best pictures - so I took both!


Some more views:


Later, we found more exciting water - but this was the result of a dam being partly opened in Berlin, NH - it’s been raining a lot in New England recently, and the river was up to the top of the dam!




(more pictures in the Gallery)