Well, spring is breaking out all over the Emerald City of Seattle and for some reason I am feeling a green theme might be in order this week (I wonder why?) Here are a few green sights I’ve spotted on my travels.

Along the road leading from Arches National Park to Escalante, I spotted a dazzling burst of green streaking through hulking black rock.

I’m still surprised at the colour of the water that flowed over Niagara Falls; I never expected it to be so vivid.

One of my all-time favourite statues (and all-time favourite poets) is positively a study in green. Here is the wonderful bronze of Patrick Kavanagh along the banks of Dublin’s Grand Canal.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the glassy, sometimes-green, sometimes-blue water of Lake Atitlan that took my breath away during my all-too-brief visit and left me longing to return.

Last but by no means least, I ventured out to the Hamptons over July 4th weekend a couple of years ago and had a perfectly lovely time exploring the quaint and oh-so-trendy village of East Hampton. Only one thing troubled me. Right in the middle of the village lies the Town Pond (why they don’t call it the Village Pond is a mystery to me). It is home to all kinds of birds and they were bobbing around merrily, but I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the water which glowed a bizarrely luminous green. I couldn’t figure out why the good villagers of East Hampton would dye their water such a ghastly green; it seemed so out of keeping with the aesthetics of the village and terribly unfair to the wildlife.

It quite honestly almost put me off the Hamptons altogether, until I discovered, months later, that it had only turned green sometime during the night before I arrived and returned to normal the day after I left. Investigations ruled out algae and anti-freeze and concluded that it was a prank by person or persons unknown. I seem to have an odd knack of arriving in places shortly after something unusual has gone down. I swear I had nothing to do with it!

If you would like to join in the travel theme (everyone’s welcome!) here’s what to do:

• Create your own post and title it Travel theme: Green
• Include a link to this page in your post so others can find it too
• Get your post in by next Thursday, as the new travel theme comes out on Friday
• Don’t forget to subscribe to keep up to date on the latest weekly travel themes. Sign up via the email subscription link in the sidebar or RSS.

Looking forward to your green-themed post. 🙂

An important note for my WordPress pals -there are still ongoing issues with delayed and missing posts if you’re following through the WP reader. The tech team still haven’t found a fix, so I’m looking at switching to email/RSS subscription in the near future. If you have a chance, visit wheresmybackpack.com when you’re not logged into WordPress and sign up via the email subscription box in the sidebar on the upper right or RSS. Or you can wait until I make the switch and sign up then. It won’t be for a couple of weeks. xxx

Just one more thing… Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

xxx

Ailsa