Skies over Austria

Last week my honey and I landed in Austria. Coming from the tropics, we've been relishing the white winter wonderland here. (See previous post.)

But I've also been reminded again how the sky can take on such different personalities in different countries. 

These are a few captures from yesterday, starting with an amazing sunrise in my brother's back yard in the Vienna Woods.

These next two were take mid-afternoon on country roads outside Vienna looking towards the Styrian Alps.

 Austria 2012

I hope my blogging friends are 

enjoying fine skies with

warmth in their hearts and their homes 

this holiday season! 

Linking with Skywatch Friday.

Cagayan Skies

These inspiring skies I saw just a few weeks ago near Santa Ana in Cagayan, the northern tip of Luzon, Philippines, I share with you and the good folks at SkyWatch Friday.

 “Be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.” 

~ Maya Angelou
 

"My joy is the golden sunset giving thanks for another day."
~ Johnathan Lockwood Huie

"Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, 

but to add color to my sunset sky."
~ Rabindranath Tagore

PS. I have not been posting these past weeks because I am preparing for a significant life change. I miss blogging and the connection with my blogger friends, but I have had to rearrange my priorities in how I spend my time. So my participation will be sporadic. Just know that I am well and happy.

Reflections in Toogood Pond

Right next to the historic village of Unionville founded in 1794 (in the Town of Markham, Ontario) there is a 33-hectare park with a partially naturalized pond and a marsh. With a university pal I had not seen since 1979, I took a leisurely stroll around Toogood Pond today. 

While we reflected on the years gone by, I also captured a few reflections for Weekend Reflections. A Great Blue Heron with three turtles on a log, a beautiful summer's day sky, and another turtle on a log surrounded by green foliage.

 

Markham, Ontario, 2012

Just A Pair of Sunsets

Brilliant sunset skies captured in the past two weeks. The first pair were taken near my friends' homes in Hong Kong, while the second pair are near our own home in Manila.

 Hong Kong, 2012

Manila, 2012

In the distance I spot a plane and feel the peace of not wanting to be on it.

For sky-watchers at SkyWatch Friday.

Tonight's Sunset

Watching a big round sun set on Manila Bay is my extra special bonus when I am called to an early evening meeting at Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza.

Manila, 2011

This sunset [more beautiful enlarged] is linked with SkyWatch Friday. Check out the hundreds of stunning skies seen and captured from around our globe.

[SkyWatch] Sunset in Anilao

These are three more stunning sunset views from our recent jaunt to Anilao that we savored for SkyWatch Friday.

Batangas, 2011

[SkyWatch] Skies over Anilao

Last weekend we drove just over two hours south from our home in Manila to take our three house guests from Canada snorkeling in Mother Nature's colorful fish bowl. 

On a small peninsula called Anilao that juts out from the mainland of the province of Batangas there is a strip of popular diving resorts. Our favorite is a small, but cozy family-run resort at the very end of the strip.

After a long wet season, the weather was perfect for us: soft, sunny, warm with a hint of a cooling breeze. I am happy to be able to share these skies for SkyWatch Friday.

The first four were captured from our banca ride to and from a spectacular snorkeling spot next to the aptly named Sombrero Island. You can see it in the distance in this first photo and up close in the second.

Batangas, 2011

The water was perfectly clear on this day and tropical fish of all shapes, sizes and colors swam peacefully among the diverse and plentiful corals. Our presence did not appear to disturb them in the slightest. (Why is it so very hard for humans, the so-called "intelligent" species, to co-exist in peace?)

Notice the faint hint of a rainbow over the hill here as we near our resort, as well as the clouds reflected in the calm surface of the sea. 

This last one with the sun going down was the serene view from our resort. I especially like the shapes formed on the water by the gentle ripples and the sun's reflection on the tiny waves lapping the shore.

I am also linking this post with James' Weekend Reflections.

[SkyWatch] Skies after the Storm

These sky images I captured today may look pretty so-so to you, but to those of us here in the Philippines who just got battered by yet another hellish typhoon the past days, the blue and white is heavenly.

Manila, 2011

After billboards caused serious injury to man and property during a typhoon last year it was decreed that billboard canopies be rolled up before the high winds rolled in. 

While I stayed safely under cover in my home, inconvenienced only by a 20-hour cut to internet access in my area, other photographers far braver than I captured the havoc. 

The city is quickly being cleaned up, but sigh, the blue skies may be short-lived. We are bracing for another storm predicted to land on the weekend. So if you don't see me online...

 
I'm linking with SkyWatch Friday.

W is for Windmill

Aptly called giant electric fans by the locals, twenty whopping windmills grace the northern coastline of Ilocos Norte facing the windy North China Sea.

Ilocos Norte, 2010

The 23-storey windmills standing 236 meters apart were installed in 2005 and were the first source of clean energy in the Philippines. Together they produce over 30-megawatts of electricity and supply 40% of the province's energy needs. Yet, to put this into some kind of perspective, the entire province consumes only about half the energy of one of Manila's larger shopping malls!

It's hard to grasp the sheer size of the windmills. Each windmill with 41-meter blades stands 70 meters tall and weighs 104 tons. Its tapered tower of steel measures 4.2 meters thick at its base. Look again at the relative small size of the people in the first photo!

There's plenty of environmental incentive to build these alternate energy projects. But unfortunately, without government subsidies, this renewable energy source would hardly be financially viable, even considering this privately-operated one stands to earn millions of euros in carbon credits.

This final photo was taken near sundown from a platform built along the highway specifically for tourists to view the spectacular scenery.

We're sharing stories with the letter W at Alphabe-Thursday and the shadow shot is for, well, Shadow Shot Sunday.

[SkyWatch] Variable Skies

We've been seeing a lot of this lately, and no, sad to say, it's not a monochrome... just a dreary gray, even when the sun tries hard to poke her head through the clouds.

But at times it did get better... with fluffy white clouds in a brilliant blue sky.

And then there was best, a sunset over the bay, making the nameless bridge a mere silhouette.

Manila, 2011

Check out the hundreds of amazing skies from around the world linked at SkyWatch Friday. And you'll find interesting bridges at Sunday Bridges.

[SkyWatch] Washing the Skyscraper

Manila, 2011

Last week I had an errand to run in Makati, our financial district, and I spotted these window washers on this glass skyscraper. It's not the first time I tell you it's a job I couldn't do, but neither could I resist the shot. It still fascinates me.

Besides, it was one of the rare times I saw anything but gray in our skies these past weeks.

So here it is, for SkyWatch Friday and Weekend Reflections.

[SkyWatch] Vivid Rooftop Skies

Indulge me once more as I share these two skies taken a few months ago. They are as vividly awesome today as they were then.

Bucharest, 2011

My post today is dedicated to Klaus Peter, nature photographer and owner of the wildly popular meme SkyWatch Friday, where he and sky watchers from around the world share their love of the skies. Klaus is with us no more.

"Death is always on the way, but the fact that you don't know when it will arrive seems to take away from the finiteness of life. It's that terrible precision that we hate so much. But because we don't know, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. Yet everything happens a certain number of times, and a very small number, really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, some afternoon that's so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four or five times more. Perhaps not even. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless."
                               ~ Paul Bowles (The Sheltering Sky) 

[SkyWatch] Moon Before Night

Manila, 2011

The moon pull'd off her veil of light,
That hides her face by day from sight
Mysterious veil, of brightness made,
That's both her lustre and her shade,
And in the lantern of the night,
With shining horns hung out her light.

~ Samuel Butler (author, 1835-1902)

The lanterns glowing in the setting sun are made of capiz shell.
 
For SkyWatch Friday.

[SkyWatch] Take Off

No matter how many hundreds of planes I've boarded, I never fail to feel the wonder of the take off. Airports and long flights long ago lost their glamor for me. But the take off is different. 

Those few minutes from taxiing down the runway to when the 385-ton metal box on wheels defies gravity, lifts off the ground, and soars into the sky, leaving an increasingly distant world below, are simply magnificent.

This was my take off from the airport in Amsterdam last Friday as I headed home to Manila. It's my contribution to SkyWatch Friday.

taxiing

lifting

climbing

climbing

soaring

And that little bridge crossing the canal joins Sunday Bridges.

Sunrise in Constanţa

My last full day in Romania started with this lovely sunrise I viewed from our hotel on the coastal city of Constanţa.

Joining the good folks at Weekend Reflections.

This is the last of my exclusively Romania and Austria series. I am back home in the Philippines and now resume with posts with photos from my world travels.

[SkyWatch] More Transylvania Skies

[enlarge to see sheep]

Romania, 2011

I'm hooked on sky-watching, especially when driving through pretty countryside and past charming old towns. These are drive-by shots, and no, I am not the driver.

Find other gorgeous skies at SkyWatch Friday.