Greetings, and apologies for the hiatus since my previous post! Those of you who come to my blog purely for the photos may find this post a bit disappointing, but those who are my true friends may enjoy learning a little bit more about me and my interests other than photography! My interest in needlework as art dates back, I think, to some of my earliest memories of visiting my maternal grandparents and being fascinated by a piece of work,…
Greetings! The thermometer finally climbed enough yesterday (Saturday) afternoon to entice me outside for a long-ish walk to some of my favorite local spots. The ponds are still iced-over, but here and there small patches of clear water have emerged. This gives birds such as this Great Blue Heron an opportunity to go fishing; but only at the risk of walking across the ice! I must admit I was torn between hoping it would be successful on the one hand,…
Greetings! You may be familiar with the saying that what is the end of the world for the caterpillar is just the beginning for the butterfly. Google seems to be divided as to whether this originated with 20th century author Richard Bach (Illusions, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, etc.), or ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching, etc.). My copy of Bach’s Illusions is buried away somewhere, but I have a feeling that maybe he included it in the book…
Greetings! And welcome to 2018! The start of a new year always seems like a new beginning, with all kinds of possibilities. Unless 2018 is unlike any other year, it will undoubtedly bring joys and sorrows – my wish to each of you is that the joys outnumber the sorrows. To symbolize the idea of a new dawn, how about an actual dawn picture? I actually took this one on New Year’s Day a few years ago without having to…
Greetings! The tradition of having a model train running around the Christmas tree allegedly started in the Baltimore, MD, area in the late 1800s. Last Christmas Ruthi and I decided to revive the custom, using one of her Lego trains. The train was very small, but then so was our Christmas tree – in fact it sat on top of the (suitably protected) piano! I was certainly not aware of the custom when I was growing up in England. At…
Greetings! This week I have taken a look back at the past year and picked out some pictures that did not feature in a weekly essay (well, alright, one did), and do not fit a single theme, but which say something about my journey. Thanks to my wonderful doctors and nurses and modern medical technology, my cancer is in remission at the moment, and I am still out and about with my camera. But the ongoing experience is giving me…
Greetings! In the annals of the legendary British King Arthur, Avalon was the magical island where the sword Excalibur was forged, and where, after the battle of Camlann, Arthur was taken by the enchantress Morgan le Fay to recover from his wounds. In some versions of the legend, Arthur died there, but in others, he recovered and is waiting for the right moment in history to be reincarnated. Today, the word Avalon is perhaps more familiar to many Americans as…
Greetings! Last week’s essay was very different for me in that it had no animals, and not even any wings! Even more unusually, and a bit uncomfortably, I even allowed a little of my innermost feelings to creep in. But if you watched the videos as I suggested, you may have picked up a deep resonance with what I have been trying to do throughout my photography – namely just to encourage all of us to see what is around…
Greetings! We closed last week’s pictures with the sun going down between two of the Piedras Blancas, and we start this week’s images with a view from a hilltop somewhat inland showing those two rocks (just left of center) and the lighthouse (just right of center, directly in front of the largest rock). This hilltop is perhaps the most visited in the area – the view looking up to it is almost magical! In fact, the creator of the building…
Greetings! After last week’s essay about the Acorn Woodpeckers, at least one person asked the obvious question – “With all those acorns, where are the squirrels?” Well, here’s one of them! This is a California Ground Squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi). They rarely wander far from their burrows, but, like this one, they can become quite used to humans, who may bring food. We did not offer it anything, but it was so friendly it was quite difficult to back away far…