Yesterday I was writing about the vegetation, and now I've been able to get a batch of photos off my travel camera. Dana bought me a nice little Sony point and shoot to bring, because I really didn't want to bring one of my big cameras. If I had, I'd have needed all kinds of support gear to make it worth bringing - lenses, flash, memory cards, chargers, etc. I didn't relish carrying all the weight, nor did I have the room in my bag for that much more stuff.
But my nice little Sony has done well for a throw it in the bag and bring along lightweight camera! Here are a couple of tree pix I took the other day. Apparently the large trees here are in the Acacia family - they get big and some of them have massive, complex trunk structures. The leaves are very small, I guess that is more efficient in this heat and with so little moisture to work with.
Another common tree is the Sawda tree, which looks a lot like a cedar - slow growing, gnarled rough trunk, but the green part is different.
It didn't occur to me til this morning to wonder about the birds. All the trees and plants have been imported to a desert over the past 80 years or so. When did the birds show up? Did they migrate in from the coast? There are doves, wrens, sparrows, and I'm told there are parakeets around here every once in a while. Wherever they came from, there are lots of busy, noisy little birds here. Love it!
Today I walked to work in a drizzle, and it was 68 degrees. Quite a surprise, but a nice one. it drizzled most of the day, and occasionally broke out into a genuine hard rain, and the high was 77 - lovely! The forecast for tomorrow is 80% chance of thunderstorms and rain, so can't wait to see what shows up with that! I don't have an umbrella, so I may be wet by the time I get to work! Here's a look at the forecast for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia:
I'll enjoy the rain, as do all the plants which by this afternoon were greener and/or more colorful. All the flowers perked up with all that wet! But it looks like a warming trend is on the way, upper 90s just around the corner!
But my nice little Sony has done well for a throw it in the bag and bring along lightweight camera! Here are a couple of tree pix I took the other day. Apparently the large trees here are in the Acacia family - they get big and some of them have massive, complex trunk structures. The leaves are very small, I guess that is more efficient in this heat and with so little moisture to work with.
Another common tree is the Sawda tree, which looks a lot like a cedar - slow growing, gnarled rough trunk, but the green part is different.
It didn't occur to me til this morning to wonder about the birds. All the trees and plants have been imported to a desert over the past 80 years or so. When did the birds show up? Did they migrate in from the coast? There are doves, wrens, sparrows, and I'm told there are parakeets around here every once in a while. Wherever they came from, there are lots of busy, noisy little birds here. Love it!
Today I walked to work in a drizzle, and it was 68 degrees. Quite a surprise, but a nice one. it drizzled most of the day, and occasionally broke out into a genuine hard rain, and the high was 77 - lovely! The forecast for tomorrow is 80% chance of thunderstorms and rain, so can't wait to see what shows up with that! I don't have an umbrella, so I may be wet by the time I get to work! Here's a look at the forecast for Dhahran, Saudi Arabia:
I'll enjoy the rain, as do all the plants which by this afternoon were greener and/or more colorful. All the flowers perked up with all that wet! But it looks like a warming trend is on the way, upper 90s just around the corner!
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