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I know; everyone's already seen it. But its still beautiful.

Not my pic alas, but one picked up from Top 10 Incredibly Beautiful Tree Tunnels via TPP. Photo credit is pawelklarecki.blogspot.ro. The quality of light in the upper branches is gorgeous - the trees seem to be holding the light.

January: Cold in Cambridge (but this is from early-Feb, since I don't have anything terribly good from January. The best I can offer is smoke on the water). February: early bees. March: Phoebe. Our cat. April: Petals on water. May: Humble bumbles. June: Stubai. The entire place is unbearably gorgeous. If you have a robust sense of humour, try this from the Franz Senn hut gents. If you have an even more robust sense, then this. July: Summer in the garden. August: Mallorca. September: Chris's wedding. October: Amsterdam. November: Winter head. December: Cold again (from 2010. I don't…

From The Olde Dayes: 2001, Lammas Land: And Daniel, also in Lammas Land: Not a reflection, but from the same times: And not from those times, but a reflection: From February 2002, one I like because its near home:

Its been very wet this summer, over here, in contrast to over there. A normal Cambridge summer features cracks in the ground and the grass fading; this summer all is a riot of green. I cut back the overenthusiastic hedge halfway down the lawn a week or two back, which has lead to the emergence of some kind of red berry plant looking luscious - better backlit, I think. I also wanted to show you a gorgeous beech leaf but the delicate copper-red colour of the new leaf doesn't really come through in the image; nor can you see the slanting light. The bees are living in a sea of tiny pink-purple…

"We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth." -Bill Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut From hundreds of miles up, the International Space Station speeds around the Earth, completing 18 orbits a day, looking down on us and returning some absolutely fabulous images. Image credit: Fyodor Yurchikhin and the Russian Space Agency Press Services, of Greenland from the ISS. But what you may not appreciate is that my favorite images taken from the ISS weren't taken by American Astronaut Don Pettit (better known as @astro_Pettit), but rather by a…

"Building one space station for everyone was and is insane: we should have built a dozen." -Larry Niven Here on the solid ground of the Earth, the Sun and Moon rise and set on a daily basis. During the hours where the Sun is invisible, blocked by the solid Earth, the stars twirl overhead in the great canopy of the night sky. Image credit: Chris Luckhardt at flickr. In the northern hemisphere, they appear to rotate around the North Star, while in the southern hemisphere, the stars appear to rotate about the South Celestial Pole. The longer you observe -- or for photography, the longer you…

Nice pic, eh? Click for more; ht to Bad Astronomy. I don't have any as good as that, but I do have:

tags: Magnificent Frigatebird, Man O'War, Fregata magnificens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Magnificent Frigatebird, sometimes known as the Man O'War, Fregata magnificens, photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 15 July 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. This bird is built for speed and agility in the air and is…

tags: Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Reddish Egret, Egretta rufescens, photographed at Quintana Neotropical Bird Sanctuary, Brazoria County, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 15 July 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. This lovely species was nearly exterminated in the US by hunters who killed the birds for their plumes. The population is small…

tags: Black Kite, Milvus migrans, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Black Kite, Milvus migrans, photographed at Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Dan Logen, 23 January 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D2X, with 600 mm lens with 1.4 extender, ISO 320, 1/350 sec f/5.6. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. You've seen this African species before, but may not remember, but there are plenty of family members in North America that you are familiar with, so if you cannot identify this…

tags: Gray Wren-warbler, Zambia Wren-warbler, Western Wren-warbler, Calamonastes simplex, Lesser Striped Swallow, Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird]Gray Wren-warbler (perched), also known as a Zambia Wren-warbler or Western Wren-warbler, Calamonastes simplex, and a Lesser Striped Swallow (flying), also known as a Striped Swallow, Hirundo abyssinica, photographed near the Pangani River Camp, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Dan Logen, 14 January 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D300s, 600 mm VR lens. ISO…

tags: White Tern, Gygis alba, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] The White Tern is known by more alternate names than a con-artist, also being known as the Angel Tern, Common White-tern, Common White Tern, Little White Tern, Little Fairy Tern, Fairy Tern, Little White-tern, Little Fairy-tern, and even (since it lives in tropical oceans of the world) as the Atlantic White Tern, Gygis alba (formerly; Gygis microrhyncha), photographed on Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge -- one of the most remote coral atolls on earth -- a US territory in the north Pacific Ocean [I will…

tags: Bicolored Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus gubernator, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Fledgling Bicolored Blackbird, Agelaius phoeniceus gubernator, photographed at Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds, Marin County, California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 13 May 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/500s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. This mystery bird is quite challenging to identify, but for those of you who can ID this…

tags: Red-throated Loon, Red-throated Diver, Gavia stellata, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Red-throated Loon, also known as the Red-throated Diver, Gavia stellata, photographed at Bodega Bay, California. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 12 May 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1000s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. This bird has a character that sets it apart from the others in the same genus and family, and this…

tags: Least Bittern, North American Bittern, Ixobrychus exilis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Least Bittern, Ixobrychus exilis, photographed at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Anahuac, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 5 July 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/1250s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Why are these bird's eyes placed in such a strange way on its head? This bird's eyes are placed in a pointing down way…

tags: Swallow-tailed Kite, Fork-tailed Hawk, Swallow-tailed Hawk, Snake Hawk, Fish Hawk, Elanoides forficatus, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Swallow-tailed Kite, also known by a bunch of other common names, such as the Fork-tailed Hawk, Swallow-tailed Hawk, Snake Hawk and Fish Hawk, Elanoides forficatus, photographed at Double Bayou Park, Chambers County, Anahuac, Texas. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Joseph Kennedy, 26 June 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D200, Kowa 883 telescope with TSN-PZ camera eyepiece 1/400s f/8.0 at 1000.0mm iso400. Please…

tags: Irania, White-throated Robin, Irania gutturalis, birds, mystery bird, bird ID quiz [Mystery bird] Irania, also known as the White-throated Robin, Irania gutturalis, photographed at Nyumba ya Mungu Reservoir, Tanzania, Africa. [I will identify this bird for you in 48 hours] Image: Dan Logen, 14 January 2010 [larger view]. Nikon D300, 600 mm VR lens. ISO 500 1/400 sec, f/6.3. Please name at least one field mark that supports your identification. Review all mystery birds to date.