Gray pebbles background image

Small gray pebbles background wallpaper 300x225

Small gray pebbles evenly spread on the ground, size (wallpaper): 1024 x 768

Here is a beautiful image of gray pebbles found in nature that you may like to use as a background image, pattern or texture. There are many sources from where you can buy images for website designing. One of the sources is buying images or photos from stock photo and image sites. The other is to download them from some free sites specializing in such images.

I have tried both in my early days of designing my own sites and blogs, though I am not a professional designer. But the major problem I find is that I do not find the type of images or photos that I would like to use. So, I decided to collect copyright free/ public domain photos wherever I find them and post them in this blog. And here is one more such image which you can save to your computer for FREE and use wherever you want to use.

I must tell you in advance that some of the images offered here for free download may not be of the right size or color you want to use. But you can always convert them to the sizes you want, or change the colors using several software applications and by simply cutting the portion and size you want to use. It is the easiest thing to do, especially for header images, and similar uses. So, download and try this image, or use it as wallpaper (size: 1024 x 768).

Crawlerway at the Kennedy Space Center

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Crushed stones on the Crawlerway after a transporter rolled on it with a STS-114 Space Shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center on 6 April 2005 - free wallpaper, size: 2048 x 1536

Here is a beautiful pattern of crushed stones (from Alabama River rocks) on the surface of the Crawlerway, double pathway used by Crawler-transporters at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, United States. The Alabama River rocks paved on the surface of the pathway were crushed, as can be seen in the picture, under the weight of the STS-114 (the first Space Shuttle launched after the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster) that rolled out of the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) to the launch pad.

The pattern in the picture can be used as a beautiful background image, texture, or as your computer desktop wallpaper. It is a free photo, a public domain image that can be freely downloaded and used for any purpose you like.

Mrs. Herbert Stevens: Hybrid Tea Rose Flower

Mrs. Herbert Stevens Tea Rose free wallpapers 300x225

Mrs. Herbert Stevens, hybrid tea rose flower, free wallpaper size 1600x1200. CLICK on the image for full view

Perhaps you know Mrs. Herbert Stevens.

For those who do not know Mrs. Herbert Stevens, it is one of the most loved Hybrid Tea Roses, a white variety that can be found in most home gardens because it has a high stamina to grow even when it is not cared for much. These hybrid roses generally grow to a height of 3.5 m (11.5 feet) and the spread of the foliage can be up to 2.5 m (8.2ft). By color, and sometimes from the floral patterns, it may look like Frau Karl Druschki and Mme. Alfred Carrière.

The white or creamy white Mrs. Herbert Stevens, as it is typical of most white roses, is a symbol of peace, love and friendship. As it belongs to Hybrid Tea Roses, it is a modern rose developed from hybrid perpetuals and traditional tea roses.

It is also a sweetly scented variety of cultivar of tea roses that is a favorite of many commercial gardens and rose plant nurseries around the world, because of its vigorous growth, lovely shades of white or white cream color, and its ability to flower almost throughout the year in most climate conditions, a typical repeat flowering variety with large blooms.

It can be grown even in shady gardens with large trees, as this hybrid rose cultivar tolerates small to medium amounts of shades, and its disease resistance level is average.

Mrs. Herbert Stevens is loved by most gardeners because it produces only one flower on the apex of each stem, and do not produce flower clusters. So, it is easy to cut in the desired length of stalk and market the cut flowers.

Typically most types of Hybrid Tea Roses can produce flowers of any shade or range colors, with the exception of blue. The blue color roses you see at florists shops are either artificially colored or spray-painted.

William Bouguereau: The Wave (La Vague) 1896

William Bouguereau The Wave La Vague 1896 free wallpaper 300x225

The Wave (La Vague), oil painting by William Bouguereau, designed as free wallpaper (1920x1440) - CLICK on the image for full size

The French Academic painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905) was a traditionalist whose photo-realistic style of paintings was a huge success among the rich art patrons of his times.

William Bouguereau followed the traditional Academic style for his paintings. He prepared detailed studies and sketches of his models so that he could present the most accurate depiction of the human body. In addition to concentrating on presenting the overall figure of his subjects and highly realistic backgrounds and foregrounds, he took extra pains for painting the correct texture of the skin, shapes of hands and feet, etc.

In particular, Bouguereau’s portraits of women were highly appreciated for their noble grace and sensuous charm. He could create in the viewers of his oil paintings of human figures a feeling that they were looking at real human beings, and not just works of art.

Though he retained the original identity of his extremely beautiful female models, he consciously enhanced their beauty considerably. He could give a new dimension to the beauty of women as he painted them with total concentration on the female human figures.

Art critics and art historians generally consider his paintings based on mythological and biblical themes as modern interpretations of the ancient and classical episodes.

In his near photo-realistic style, in addition to innumerable portraits for his rich patrons including the nobles and the most famous personalities, he painted several allegorical scenes, religious themes, enchanting female figures, etc. He gave a life-like presence and artistic imagery for shepherdesses, bathing women, nymphs and Nereids, Madonnas, and gods and goddesses.

Unlike famous artists like Amedeo Modigliani who could not taste success and wealth in their lifetime, William Bouguereau was highly successful throughout his career. His style of painting had a special appeal to wealthy and noble art patrons of his era. Gradually his fame spread to Britain, Spain, Belgium, Holland and the United States.

In fact he was the most famous in the United States where Bouguereau’s works had increasingly eager art buyers among American millionaires for whom Bouguereau was the most celebrated French artist of his times. Even now he continues to enjoy high appreciation in the United States where several exhibitions of his paintings had been organized even in the last few decades.

The image that you see in this post is a large wallpaper of dimension 1920×1440 prepared from a public domain photo of his oil on canvas painting titled ‘The Wave’ (La Vague). Click on the image and download it for free.

Theobroma cacao: trees that provide chocolates

Theobroma cacao cocoa pods free hand colored photo 178x300

Pods (fruits) of Theobroma cacao trees, free hand-colored photo

Cocoa trees (or cacao trees) of the species Theobroma cacao are medium-sized evergreen trees of Sterculiaceae family, native to the Americas. The famous products of the Sterculiaceae family are chocolate and cocoa powder (from Theobroma cacao) and cola nuts, though some of species of this family may also be used for timber.

Cocoa plants have their origins in the Amazon region where they have been growing from around 1900 BC, from where they were initially taken to other regions in the Americas by the original inhabitants.

Cocoa plants grow well in humid tropical type of climate in which rainfall is abundant, and in fertile soil conditions in which the trees can grow without much human attention. It is ideal for shady places, and for cultivation among tall trees, as they can grow even under the shadow of other trees.

The cocoa leaves can be 10 to 40 cm long and 5 to 20 cm wide. They are alternate leaves and produce very thick foliage. The leaves are toxic, and contain a milky unpleasant liquid.

The cocoa tree will generally produce flowers when it is about five years old, producing thousands of flowers a year, but it may yield only about 50 cocoa pods per tree. The flowers bloom as clusters on tree trunks and older branches, and not on the apex. The flowers are usually 1 to 2 cm in diameter, off-white, with slightly yellow or pink calyxes. Cocoa flowers are pollinated by tiny flies, unlike other flowers pollinated by bees and butterflies.

Cocoa fruits (cacao pod) are 10 to 25 cm long and 5 to 10 cm across, and somewhat ovoid. They are green to dark green when tender, and when ripe they turn yellow, orange, or brown in color, weighing about 500 g. A pod may have 30 to 50 cocoa seeds (beans) surrounded by white pulp. The seeds are used for processing food products like chocolate commercially. Each seed can contain 40% to 50% cocoa butter in which the active constituent is theobromine (also known as xantheose), a bitter alkaloid compound, just like coffee beans have caffeine.

As the percentage of theobromine content of chocolate is very small by volume, it can be safely consumed as a food item. But on a large scale, it can cause theobromine poisoning for chocolate-addicts who consume large quantities of chocolates, especially for elderly people. Also, theobromine is one of the compounds responsible for chocolate’s so-called role as an aphrodisiac.

There are three main cultivar groups of cocoa. About 80% to 90% of all commercial cocoa comes from Forastero, which is not a ‘fine grade’. The Crillo, the Venezuelan variety with higher theobromine content, is the rarest and the most sought-after cacao variety, accounting for about 5% to 10% of total global production. The Trinitero, a hybrid of Forastero and Crillo, grown mostly in the Antilles, has some of the best qualities of both and it accounts for the rest of the world production of cocoa.

It is believed that the first Europeans to come across cacao were Christopher Columbus and his companions (1502) after which cacao along with other new agricultural crop finds from the New World were brought to Spain.

In about a century, news about the culinary and medical uses of cocoa and chocolate had spread to France, England and other European countries. Later, colonial powers like France and Spain started commercial cultivation of cocoa in their overseas colonies in the Caribbean, Philippines, etc.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) some of the top cocoa-producing countries in 2005 were Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, Cameroon, Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, Malaysia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Venezuela, Sierra Leone, Togo, India, Philippines, and Solomon Islands.

From the 1980s, cocoa consumption has increased considerably, and it brought more cultivable land under cocoa cultivation. This has helped many underdeveloped and developing countries to start cocoa cultivation to provide employment and better incomes to rural populations, especially in countries of Africa and Asia, where cacao is grown both by small village farmers and large agro-commercial plantation companies.

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)

Laughing Kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae Kingfisher of Australia pt 210x300

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae), a type of Australian kingfisher

Do you love Kingfisher? I am not talking about the Kingfisher some Indians fly on, or the calendar for which some women buy a lot of lingerie with the hope that they will be on its next edition.

I started this article this way, because I asked the same question to a few friends in New Delhi, and they were talking something like what I wrote above.

“No”, I said.

Then I clarified, “I am talking about the beautiful, brightly colored birds commonly found in India, Australia and most of the Old World, kingfisher of the family Halcyonidae “.

They had no idea, as they were far-removed from nature and they neither recognized, nor watched even the commonly seen birds in their neighborhood parks. They were only interested in some other type of bird-watching on which they seemed to be experts, as they salivated much while lecturing on ‘bird-watching’.

I had a beautiful greeting card sent to me by an Australian friend quite some time ago. It had a beautiful Kookaburra on it. And incidentally one of the friends I talked to was in Australia for some time. So, next I asked him about Kookaburras. Again, I felt I asked the wrong person the right question. He knew only the cricket thingy, which is a craze nowadays in India, and elsewhere, as the Cricket World Cup matches are going on in the subcontinent.

So, armed with a few things I knew about kingfishers and kookaburras, I asked my Australian friend. Luckily he seemed to know a thing or two about the bird, and that is why he sent the greeting card to me (see the scan of the old greeting card reproduced above).

So, here below is a brief bio of the Laughing Kookaburra, with the species name Dacelo novaeguineae.
Kookaburras are terrestrial kingfishers native to Australia and New Guinea. They are not really bothered about water as the other kingfishers are. Four species of kookaburras are identified in Australia and New Guinea, which are: Spangled Kookaburra (Dacelo tyro), Blue-winged Kookaburra (Dacelo leachii), Rufous-bellied Kookaburra (Dacelo gaudichaud), and the Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae).

Laughing Kookaburras seem to be funny birds as they make their trademark calls as if they are mocking at some equally funny ‘laughing human beings’. The name kookaburra is as if someone is laughing with a similar sound.

They belong to the kingfisher family Halcyonidae. These carnivorous birds native to eastern Australia have been introduced to Western Australia, Southwestern Australia, Tasmania, Flinders Island, Kangaroo Island, etc.

Earlier known as Dacelo gigas, Laughing Jackass, and Giant Kingfisher, they are large birds, about 45 cm long, with large heads, large bills and large brown eyes. They have white bodies and heads with dark brown stripes through each eye.

Their wings and plumes on the back are brown with blue spots on the shoulders. They have reddish-orange tails with brown stripes and white tips on feathers.

Kookaburras hunt for prey by perching and waiting on tree branches or tall posts for the prey to come nearer. They generally prey on mice and other rodents, lizards, small birds, small mammals, large insects and snakes including highly venomous snakes.

Laughing Kookaburras can be seen in gardens, parks and among human settlements. They are known to eat out of the hands of humans who may feed them. They may even snatch food from people’s hands by swooping down from a distance where they are perched.

Rosa Barkarole: Free red rose flower wallpaper

Rosa Barkarole free red rose flower wallpaper 1600x1200 300x225

Rosa Barkarole: free red rose flower wallpaper, size 1600 x 1200

For those who love red rose flowers, and especially those who are looking for beautiful desktop wallpapers featuring red roses, here is a beautiful flower of the variety Rosa Barkarole.

Rosa Barkarole is developed by cross-breeding Hybrid Tea Roses with Hybrid Perpetual Roses. Rosa Barkarole is a hardy garden rose cultivar believed to have been developed in the second half of the nineteenth century by crossing Portland Roses with the two other popular varieties, the Bourbon Rose and the Gallica Rose.

Generally, the Hybrid Tea Roses bloom continuously and mostly produce very large, sweet-scented flowers in pink or red colors. Hybrid Perpetuals had about 4000 varieties around 1900, and even now Hybrid Perpetuals like ‘Mme Victor Verdier’ are still very popular. Similarly, Gallicas (sometimes known by their nickname Mad Gallicas) also, generally, have sweet fragrance, intense colors varying from rose, red, pink and maroon.

Bourbon Roses, from the Reunion Islands, are supposed to have originated from a natural cross between the China Pink or Red Perpetual Rose, having lush flowers and nice fragrance, and colors ranging from white, pink to deep reds.

So, naturally, Rosa Barkarole roses, developed from the above stocks are very popular as cut flowers and grown extensively on a commercial scale for local distribution as well as for exports.

Note: This is a free desktop wallpaper designed from public domain photo. I have already posted red rose flower wallpapers as well as yellow rose flower wallpapers. Click on the links and download them for free!

Different species of rose flowers

Yellow ochre hybrid rose flower free wallpaper 1600x1200 300x225

Ochre-yellow hybrid rose flower photo designed as free wallpaper, 1600 x 1200

How many species of rose flowers have you seen? Perhaps too many to remember!

As for me, I have seen several varieties of them that produce flowers of different shapes and colors that I simply cannot make out which is which. When I became convinced that there are too many to remember, I left the idea of learning more about them, and just started watching them only to enjoy their beauty. My knowledge about roses is just limited to identifying them as red roses, pink roses, or any such layman’s classifications.

These confusions about the true identity of the species of true roses were worse confounded when I watched that even in red roses, for example, there are so many variations not only in shades of red color, but in other aspects also.

Few other general things that I can identify are whether they are hybrid roses, natural true roses, etc.

Perhaps, rose plants are one of the species of plants that have such a wide variety of species in terms, mainly, of the colors of flowers, shapes, sizes, number of petals, etc., though there are many other notable variations in the sizes, branching patterns and shapes of plants, leaves, inflorescence, etc.

Well, can this inability to identify roses in terms of all their botanical and other specifications be a problem typical of me? I do not think so, as I have met many other rose-lovers who face the same dilemma.

Even among seasoned botanists there is ‘disagreement over the number of true rose species’, simply because some of these species appear so similar that they are easily confused to belong to the ‘same single species’, and sometimes the same species will appear to belong to different species.

Yet another interesting thing that you can watch is the difference these plants have from one generation to the next. You can easily test this by planting some stem cuttings of your favorite garden rose, or potted rose plants. You will be surprised to note the difference in the color of their flowers.

Soil conditions and climate also seem to have a significant effect on them. Roses of a particular species, color, etc., can be seen to vary significantly when baby plants are planted in different climates and soil conditions.

The lists of rose species available from many authentic sources may show 100 to 150 species. But mostly, accomplished botanists downsize the number down to around 100 rose species.

There are four subgenera of the genus Rosa, which are:

  1. Hulthemia from southwest Asia, which are the only roses without compound leaves or stipules
  2. Hesperrhodos (western rose) from southwestern North America
  3. Platyrhodon (flaky rose) from East Asia
  4. Rosa subgenus with eleven sections

The eleven sections of Rosa subgenus are:

  1. Synstylae (white, pink and crimson roses from all areas)
  2. Rosa (Cinnamomeae with many more sections producing lilac, mulberry, white, pink and red roses from everywhere but North Africa)
  3. Caninae (Asia, Europe and North Africa)
  4. Pimpinellifoliae (Asia and Europe)
  5. Gallicanae (Eastern Asia and Europe)
  6. Banksianae (China)
  7. Laevigatae (China)
  8. Bracteatae (China and India)
  9. Chinensis (China and Burma)
  10. Gymnocarpae (East Asia and North America)
  11. Carolinae (North America)

Apart from the above, there are several thousands of sub-species of Rose cultivar that are commercially developed, cultivated, sold locally and exported internationally by Botanists, horticulturists, rose plantation owners, and others. Every day or every moment a new cross bred or hybrid variety will be developed by budding healthy growing stocks with profusely and attractively flowering other hybrids used as scions.

Seen on the top of this post is a hybrid yellow rose flower photo that you can use as free desktop wallpaper, size 1600 x 1200. It is, again, not a real yellow rose, but it is a shade of ochre.

Red rose flower and the symbolic meaning of red color

Red rose flower free desktop wallpaper 1600x1200 300x225

Red rose flower: free desktop wallpaper size 1600 x 1200

What color do you prefer for a rose flower? Does the sight of a woman in red dress make you go red?

Let’s put it in another way. If you are to present a rose flower or a blossoming rose bud to your lover, date, or anyone dearest to you, what color do you prefer for it? I think most of us like to present a red rose, or red roses to our loved ones.

To me a woman, or anyone for that matter, wearing all red costumes looks a bit comic. But red has a dramatic effect, often a bit romantic, if wisely combined and contrasted with other colors. Costume designers, designers of fashion accessories, especially lingerie, and even jewelry designers use this psychological effect of red in their designs.

Among flowers, one of the most common color that you can find anywhere in the world is red. It is nature’s selection for romance. Yes, romance between flowers and butterflies, or bees and other insects that pollinate flowers so that plants adapted to sexual reproduction can produce seeds and propagate their species.

Nature has another reason to select red as its most preferred color for flowers. Red contrasts, and even blends well mostly with all green vegetation and, red flowers are visible from even a longer distance to insects that carry pollen grains for fertilizing the same flower (bisexual) or monosexual flowers.

Next in the order come shades of red, pink, orange, yellow, etc. White flowers also can be seen commonly, but most white flowers, and shades nearer to white bloom in the darkness. It is because white is the most visible color in darkness, and nocturnal insects and other organisms are attracted by white flowers.

From ancient times, in most cultures and religions throughout the world, red has always had a special place. Also, red represents romance, love, passion, etc. and some of you may have used red lace hearts on Valentines.

In a recent research by a team of psychologists, it has been found that red is more romantic and women wearing red attract men more towards them than women wearing other colors. The study also found that other male primates such as monkeys, baboons and chimpanzees are known to be attracted to their females that display red color.

Interestingly, the effect of red attracted only men emotionally, amorously, and/ or psychologically. Red color did not have similar effect on women who watch other women in red apparels or accessories. Also it only showed how men perceive attractiveness. However, such attraction did not have any effect on how they rate of women for their intelligence and other positive personality traits.

Red color also symbolizes anger, guilt, sin, sex, danger, blood, and violent revolutions. In some cultures red color is also associated with prostitutes and brothels, for example, see the usage ‘red-light districts’.

Red is also associated with debt, as in the usage, ‘the company is in red’. Its association with crime and illegality is implied in the usage ‘caught red-handed’. Teachers use red pens to mark or score off mistakes, even though they use the same pen to write corrections and record the marks scored, possibly because they might find it time-consuming to switch pens.

However, the use of red color as symbols of lust, passion, love and beauty overrides its other associations and implications, and for this reason, association of red color with love and beauty is commonly attributed to the use of red roses as a symbol of love.

Pohutukawa trees: the New Zealand Christmas Trees

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Pohutukawa trees (the New Zealand Christmas Tree) at Cornwallis Beach, West Auckland

Here is a beautiful photo of one of the most beautiful trees on Earth!

It is called Pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), one of the 12 Metrosideros species of trees endemic to New Zealand. It is an evergreen tree of the myrtle family.

Pohutukawa trees have their natural and endemic habitat in the coastal areas of the North Island of New Zealand. The Pohutukawa found inland near Rotorua and Lake Taupō might have been planted there by the Maori, the indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand.

Pohutukawa can be seen as multi-trunked trees, growing up to 25 meters/ about 80 feet in height. Some of these can spread around up to 40 meters/ about 130 feet.

Pohutukawa trunks and branches may have hanging aerial roots, just like prop roots or stilt roots found on banyan trees. The leaves are dark green, oblong, leathery, and covered with white hairy structures underneath.

The flowering season is from November to January, peaking in December, when the crowns of Pohutukawa are thickly covered with clusters of bright red to brilliant crimson flowers. Maybe, for this reason, the tree has received the nickname ‘The New Zealand Christmas Tree’.

The New Zealand Christmas Tree is an important tree in the culture of New Zealand, and it is highly regarded as a chiefly tree by the Maori people.

Though the Pōhutukawa flowers are bright red to brilliant crimson in color, you can see many local variations. Some trees seen around the Rotorua lakes have pink flowers. There is a cultivar named ‘Aurea’ that blooms yellow flowers.

Interestingly, there is a Hawaiian relative of Pōhutukawa, the Ohi’a lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha), that produces flowers resembling Pōhutukawa flowers. Also, you may misjudge the Fish-poison tree (Barringtonia asiatica), which has flowers resembling Pōhutukawa flowers.

The Pōhutukawa tree is very popular as a garden tree or a decorative tree. Its popularity is not only because of its attractive canopy and its vibrant crimson red flowers, but also because it is a pioneer tree that can grow even on bare grounds, barren lands and in the toughest of terrains like vertical cliffs.

For the above reason, the Pōhutukawa has been introduced to several other countries, including Australia, where it can be seen on coastal cliffs near Sydney.

Because of its invading growth, in South Africa Pōhutukawa trees are considered as an invasive species harmful to the endemic vegetation.

Similarly, these trees have been reported to have caused concerns in San Francisco where their spreading roots were found to break sewer lines, footpaths and sidewalks.

But in coastal California, it is a very popular tree on streets, parks and lawns. The city of La Coruña in Spain has adopted Pōhutukawa as its floral emblem.

Its native land, New Zealand had dense forest-like population of Pohutukawa till the 1990s. Since then, according to reports, aggressive farming activities and induced pests had reduced Pōhutukawa forests by about 90%.

Also, the common brush tail possum, an arboreal marsupial endemic to Australia, but introduced to New Zealand, have become a big threat to Pohutukawa, because they eat up all its foliage.

As the declining number of the New Zealand Christmas Tree became a cause for worry, Project Crimson, a conservation trust, was formed to protect Pohutukawa and Rata trees. Since then, their committed volunteers have planted several hundreds of thousands of these beautiful trees.