Taiwan 2024 - New Taipei Awesome Garden, Blue Flower with Glowing Interior

Starting with the big guns...this was captured in the Awesome Garden after a few days of soft rain.  No post-capture work was needed to make the center appear as though illuminated; it just came out that way.

Different angle observed below with focus shift:

Seeing how the middle glows reminds me of some of the NDE descriptions of how the flowers, grass and other plants on the "other side" are seemingly illuminated by the life within.  I have not had such a deep experience, but it's fun to read about those that recount their supposed "death" upon their return to this side of life.

Taiwan 2024 - New Taipei, Buddhist Smokestack

I retired in September of 2023, and on the top of my list of goals was to spend more time perfecting this blog.  That would include spending more time to refine my writing, improving skills in the pictures I take, and finding another platform in which to distribute and showcase my work.

Oddly, upon completing the Canadian posts of Sept-Dec of 2023, I lost interest!  There seemed to be simply no desire to pursue the craft any further.  Perhaps it was the laziness that settles in over time with not having or needing a job...who knows.  Whatever the cause, I ended up spending way too much time laying on the couch with a book or YouTube video.  Haven't even spent much time on the flight simulator (MSFS 2020), another of my retirement goals.

Then our daughter Allison got married.  Preceding the ceremony - which was private, just between the bride and groom plus the officiator and photographer - the wife and I were visiting with Allison as she was getting made up by a professional make-up guy.  She had a friend there who raved about this blog and how much they both enjoyed perusing the pics and reading the stories.

Thus, for the sake of my two followers I'm going back in to continue the blog.  Besides, it's important to keep the creative, right-side of your brain engaged, and this is a good vehicle to do just that.

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The series that I'm starting now is from a five-week visit to Taiwan, the first since the both of us retired, enabling longer trips.  The vast majority of the pics to be posted from New Taipei are either on the way to the fantastic garden featured in previous series or in the garden itself.  The pic above is just down the street from my sister-in-law's apartment where we were staying, and I thought interesting because of the huge smoke stack on top of the place where they burn things, primarily fake money.  Might be a tad wide for a bookmark in spite of its narrow composition...