The Red Lodge, Montana area attracts hunters, fishermen, hikers and campers, but my single purpose was to drive the Beartooth Scenic Highway. Sixty five miles long, starting at Red Lodge, the Beartooth snakes up the Beartooth Mountains to an elevation of just under 11,000 feet before dropping down into the twin towns Cooke City and …
That’s the way it is with vacation trips isn’t it? Seems like eons ago – if you even remember it at all. Seems as if the national park t-shirt with the wolf on it and the Mount Rushmore refrigerator magnet are the only hard evidence that you actually went somewhere. Going back to work dims …
Friday, May 21, 2021 Day four Mother Nature. Sometimes she can be a real; you know, that “B” word? When she gets to feeling a little fishwifey, she’ll cut loose with an earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I live. I had a friend in Missouri who used to hunker down when the …
“The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for.” ~ Ernest Hemingway I was a junior in high school when Earth Day was established. A group of us went to one of the local San Mateo County beaches and picked up trash. It was along about that time that an oil spill took place …
“Invite Tranquility The sea,– Something to look at When we are angry.” ~ Reiko Chiba, Hiroshige’s Tokaido in Prints and Poetry Needing a respite from everything, I recently took a ride to one of my old Pacific Coast haunts. Muir Beach Muir Beach is tucked comfortably in a tranquil cove a few miles north of …
“A year like no other.” That term became overdone sometime around April and now we find ourselves at the 2020 finish line. What a slog. They say that you hit the wall in a marathon at around mile 21 of the 26. If 2020 was a marathon, and it certainly seems that it was, we …
“Water is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth’s hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms.” Trust Wikipedia to take water and boil it down to a scientific dry gulch. Water is so familiar to us that we’ve allowed it to become unfamiliar. …
The nice thing about photographing trees is that they’re more cooperative than most other living things. They don’t whine like teens. They don’t move from the perfect pose to sniff at the lens like dogs. They don’t photobomb like idiots. Even when trees do move, or their parts at least, the effect can still be …
Is there anything that touches the senses like water? A drench of water cools us on a sultry day and a warm soak takes away the chill or soothes an ache. What tastes better than a cold draft of water at the end of a run? Water in its many forms and shapes provides us …
Since you went away the days grow long And soon I’ll hear old winter’s song But I miss you most of all my darling When autumn leaves start to fall ~ Songwriters: Johnny Mercer / Jacques Andre Marie Prevert / Joseph Kosma I detest that song Autumn Leaves. Yeah I know, it’s a sort of …
Come the beginning of October we’d reached a disheartening anniversary. A year had passed since Cora and I had taken a trip to anywhere besides Home Depot, the grocery store and a couple of al fresco lunches. October 2019, we spent a few days in Reno, Nevada. Reno isn’t exactly the flower in the garden. …
“I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed.” Revelation 15:1 At 7 in the morning the rec path along San Pablo Bay can be a busy place; hikers, dog walkers, runners and an occasional skater. Cyclists wiz by, more often …
Plans to reopen are in the works but we still need to be vigilant, patient and in the confines of our domestic bunkers. In the meantime here’s another breakout from the outbreak. I went on a safari through my archives to find some photos of our animal kingdom. “Birds were created to record everything. They …
Inspired by our new coronavirus normal of stepping back, physically and in the way we now find ourselves living our lives, Patti has chosen “Simplicity” as the subject for this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. Follow the link to Patti’s original challenge post. When it comes to simplicity we can take a lesson from dogs. Dogs …
This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge posed to us by Ann-Christine is ironically appropriate for our current times. Presenting – CHAOS. To see Ann-Christine’s take, follow the link. chaos[ key-os ] noun a state of utter confusion or disorder; a total lack of organization or order. any confused, disorderly mass: A walk-off is the chaotic moment in …
For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, the topic chosen by Amy is narrow. Water creates its own path through the narrowest of spaces, eventually eroding cracks and making them channels. Below are images of California’s Stanislaus River from a narrow rapid to the narrowest of passages. Below, a narrow section of waterfall cuts through Oregon’s …
It’s chilly today. Let me qualify that, it’s in the low 50’s, which for me is chilly. I realize that I’ll get no sympathy from those who are bundling up to go out in the snow. When I took a trip to the San Francisco Botanical Garden it was an unseasonably hot day. The Giants …
When you enter the gates of the San Francisco Botanical Garden you exit the urban turbulence of the city. It’s acres of quiet paths, manicured lawns and gardens with over 9000 different plants from around the world. It’s Eden in the city; Eden that is without a naked couple discussing the pros and cons of …
The American West had a mind to be heartless; a place, a time and a life that didn’t discriminate when it came to the taking of life.
A lucky miner won what was apparently the sum of a saloon keeper’s worldly possessions. As a result the saloon keeper reportedly opted for the next world.