first solo pint of icecream on this tour

Common Cabbage White butterfly...not a garden good guy.

Inside

More Pompeii photos. 1st shows the wide expanse and lovely architecture of the area, especially the arches. According to Wikipedia, "The Romans
were the first builders in Europe, perhaps the first in the world,
fully to appreciate the advantages of the arch, the vault and the dome." 2nd - a street also showing wide expanse. 3rd - "speed bumps" on the street to discourage some types of traffic.

Chatuchak Park, Bangkok, Thailand:

I love all the pics! Love the birds and history today. I just got a new phone and I have been trying to post but it's been acting up and not letting me. I will keep trying :)

Looks like you figured out the new phone, Sabbath. Very nice photo!

stacey, I got some additional explanations of the "speed bumps" from the guide I had. I was told that these had a dual purpose of allowing pedestrians to cross rain-flooded streets without getting their feet wet as well as to discourage large carts. The slots between the large stones were made to be the standard size for smaller commercial and household carts that were permitted within the town. As the guides were Italian, I'm sure each individual's imagination influenced their words.

An important enabler of Roman building was their discovery of a form of cement. All the stone and masonry structures that exist to this day - The Colosseum et al, and not the least of which the magnificent aquaducts that are all over Italy and France - could not have been constructed without cement.

Thank you for that added information, Elmer, especially for mentioning the ancient Romans and their discovery (or invention) of a form of cement. I had wanted to mention this to co-travelers during our trip, but wasn't sure if I remembered it correctly from my old university class. I plan to follow up my scanty memory of whether it is true that many medieval buildings in Europe were built by fitting stones together, since cement technology was unknown to them at the time.

It's not a great picture, but I'm excited! Put up seven out of ten fence posts in one day. I think I can finish my almost free fence (the posts are free and the fence will be $150ish) by this weekend. Woohoo!

A big pelican flying over our canopy.

rob...your doing a GREAT job!

Elmer...great info....I did not know that....keeping your feet dry...hhhmmmm....

Sabbath.....I tried growing Rothschildiana lilies in the house once....:0) Soooooo pretty!

Nicole- I took the picture of a friend's lillies, I am not that talented at gardening. They are beautiful.

Thank you for the flame lily pic Sabbath! It was breathtaking!...one of my favorite flowers. Summer, your verbena is just stunning!! Such great pictures from everyone!

Bonus... son took this just now

Rob333- we had a gorgeous sunset tonight too, it had more red than usual. I wonder why some nights the sunsets are more red, or plum or orange.

Sabbath7 "Red sky at night, sailor's delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning." One of my mother's sayings. And was usually true.

Rusty