Those are very unusual photos, caflower. I assume the oranges were frozen. Thanks for sharing the pictures. They often have to run fans (or something) in the Ojai area when it gets frosty. I remember when smudge pots were used; not sure if they do that anymore. I think it snowed as well back in the early 50's or maybe late 40's. (Referring to lower elevations where it "never" snows, not the mountains of course).

NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) recently captured this amazing Overview of Earth while orbiting around the moon. This individual image was composed from a series of shots taken on October 12 when the LRO was about 83 miles (134 kilometers) above the moon and traveling faster than 3,580 miles per hour (over 1,600 meters per second) relative to the lunar surface below. Image courtesy of NASA.

We stayed in several hotels while in Egypt. In Cairo we stayed at the Barcelo. Luxor was the Sonesta St. George Hotel Luxor. Four nights on the Amarco Nile river cruise and then three nights at the Pyramisa Isis Island Resort in Aswan which was gorgeous! We took the overnight train to Cairo and drove to Alexandria where we stayed three nights at the Plaza Hotel. All hotels were 4-5 star with fairly good service but the Pyramisa in Aswan was exceptional. We were well taken care and watched by our drivers and Egyptologists. So much so we needed to sneak away a couple times just to feel some freedom. We did this in Aswan when we hired a horse and carriage to take us to the Cataract Hotel where Agatha Christy wrote Death on the Nile and again in Alexandria after a day of having a security agent (black suit, machine gun toting secret service-type guy) chaperone us all day. The Egyptologist told us they never know when a security guy will simply meet them at a hotel one morning when they come to pick up their tourist charges for a day of sight seeing.

Ok I've officially "lost it". The holiday season is just too stressful, with the baggage of seasons long past. Must be. I swear, I looked at Elizabeth's photo, and thought it was a wallaby eating the birdseed. lol