Get to know landscape pro Vas
This blog post is a rare departure from my usual blogs. Instead of the normal, brilliant technical posts that educate and, sometimes, entertain, here we’ll learn more about landscape pro Vas. And why not?
1. Travel botanizing
I love seeing and touching new plants when I travel to new places. Last year I drove down to California and I fell in love with palm trees. But the biggest thrill was touching my very first Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia)! It happened at a rest stop and, because the gang in my car was tired and hot, it wasn’t easy finding volunteers to shoot my historic photo. And what the photo can never capture is the excitement I felt inside.
Later, while staying in Lake Forest in Orange County, I shot pictures of Eucalyptus for the first time. What I didn’t realize was that the church parking lot I was standing in was considered private property. A few minutes later, church employees came to remind me.
2. Singapore-style noodles
I love Singapore-style noodles and I often order them from a nearby Chinese restaurant. But it’s not just about food and taste. Singapore-style noodles have the ability to transform me to my post-university life.
Working a low-paying summer job in the Canadian Rockies, I made a new friend Peter. Peter is from Malaysia and he was the perfect guide for my first visit to Calgary’s Chinatown. It was there I fell in love with Singapore-style noodles while Peter explained how he blew through his father’s cash. It took him a year to spend what was supposed to last four years.
Peter is a now a successful business dude living in Australia. We still keep in touch.
3. Rotenburo
I love Japanese open-air (rotenburo) hot spring baths. It’s difficult to explain the experience, you must go to Japan and experience it for yourself. They will be happy to see you in a post-pandemic world.
Imagine sitting in an open-air bath full of natural hot spring water and the landscape around the bath is covered in snow. It’s amazing. Then, at ten p.m. the bath turns into a mixed arena so couples can go together. It was always fun to see my Japanese wife come join me, covered only by a towel, strategically placed to cover her humble mountain peaks and swimsuit part.
4. Seeds
I love seeds because everything they need to start a new life is inside them. How do they decide, sometimes after hundreds of years, that today is a good day to go for it and start a new life? Reading Thor Hanson’s “The triumph of seeds” is an amazing experience.
5. Kids growing up
I love seeing my kids grow up, learn and collect new experiences. This was in my head last summer at Oceanside, California, as I watched both of them hit the warm Pacific Ocean waves for the first time. Their smiles were huge and genuine. We went back every day for the length of our stay.
What’s in your top 5?
