Frozen fountain thawing.

Totally happy because I have the fountain almost finished. There is even water spouting from the mouth of Zephyr.

Wildflowers in Dome Valley.

I decided to get an early start this Sunday to make pictures of the wildflowers, which are plentiful, after the good rains we had this winter. Up before sunrise and enjoying that it is again warm enough to go barefoot, I gathered the bits and bobs I needed; water bowl, leash, treats; and oh yes, my camera.
My mother and I always talk on Skype on Sunday for a couple hours around 10 a.m. my time, so I contacted her to tell her I would be out. My mike clearly didn’t work, and while we could see each other by video I was trying to make clear to her what was going on. Goodness knows what my mother thought I was mouthing, but she doubled up and let out peals of laughter. Every time I tried to make it clear, bubbles of laughter came through my speakers. We managed to do this for well over 30 minutes and had an enjoyable non-conversation anyway.
Ready. I put everything in the car and returned to a very aloof Athena, who refused to budge from her safe place under the coffee table. Nothing I did could entice her to stick her head out far enough for me to slap on her collar. Not the tastiest pieces of chicken; not a happy yellow ball that makes squeaky noises; not even my walking to the back gate pretending we were going for a run. Her cool blue eyes were on me and conveyed the message clearly: I am not going for a ride in the car and that is the end of it.
Here are some of the flowers blooming in Dome Valley.

Brittlebush in a dell.

Mallow.

I call them Globe Mallow, but they probably have a name all their own.

Yellow and green everywhere.

Verbena flowers.

Creosote flowers.

Sand Verbena.

Don't know what this is.

I have no idea what this is. I have seen these shrubs in river beddings for years. I have never seen them bloom like this, but perhaps I didn't have my eyes open. Maybe someone can help me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

First video.

I feel a little foolish doing this because all through my childhood the family would make home movies. Well, as I remember it, it was mainly my Aunt Louise who would use the camera and if she had no suitable subject she would film the roses in the garden. The garden was large and there were roses of every color bordering the lawn, however when watching the films it was very boring to see rose, after rose, after rose.

I decided to try my hand at video because of the rather big puddles left behind by the rains and the pleasure Athena has when she can splash through water.

Having had to see the video a couple of time to figure out how to post it to my blog I can imagine how interesting this must be to you. My dog and more of my dog and then a little bit more.

For those of you who are emailing me at roadrunner.com I need to let you know that I have not been receiving all my emails due to some malfunction of the outlook junk mail setting and therefore might not have responded. I am working on it. You can always use hotmail.com using same user-name.

Hope you get some enjoyment from watching my first video even if it's my dog, more of my dog and then a little bit more.

Watch for the big splash, I don't think she realized how deep it was there.

Dark clouds over the U.S.

We saw it coming but what can you do? Things come as they
will and all you can do as an individual is ride out the storm
and move on when things settle down. Chatted with a neighbor
at the hotel who told me about the devastation of Hurricane Ike
in Texas, where he was from. He had very little left.


Nature treated us to a little winter wonderland. It was a pleasant
surprise as I had not seen snow for about 12 years.


As soon as we were out of the mountains we were back in more
familiar territory. Now this I recognize!


When you see a peaceful picture like this
you can hardly imagine that out there we are
in an economic crisis, that there is a senseless
war being fought and that so many people do not have any
security for the future.
Maybe I am better off not watching television but I
consider that an ostrich policy. I read papers, listen to
BBC and NPR and check the internet for my information
but it hits me more when I watch TV.


Mesa Verde - totally fascinating how people could survive here.
Undoubtedly we will survive too whatever happens.


Shiprock near the Navajo Nation. One day I will make time to
visit the area to make pictures of the Navajo who are an
endless fascination to me. Perhaps I will one day learn how to
make the hollow, silver beads that they make on the reservation.


Canyon de Chelly, one of my favorite areas in Arizona and by this
time I am beginning to smell home on the westerly winds and my
longing for my own bed, my own cooking and my dog can hardly be contained.

This is 'Old Faithful' performing for us on time.


Blandness is not found in nature. What a magnificent orange-
red blast of color made by the bacteria in the geyser area.


Part of the ground surrounding geysers is
dead and white however other area display
amazing colors.


Can green get any greener?


A geyser belching gases smelling of rotten eggs.

Halloween house.

The journey goes on.

After so many picture of mountains I started to long for subjects
that were closer by. I like pictures to tell a story and that's
probably why I take picture of people. They always tell a story.


No changes made to this picture and am amazed at the bluish
hue it has.


The water was like a mirror and the reflection of the trees
are an impressionist version of the real ones.


It seemed that every day something else was in bloom or
changing color. We had yellow days, green days, red days,
copper days. This was a crushed pomegranate red moment.


Bison at last, and dozens of tourists most with enormous camera
lenses which put my equipment to shame. I can understand that
Yellowstone attracts photographers because of all the beauty
it offers.


Making pictures of water is always a challenge
to me. I wanted to show the swirling and the
splattering of the water itself, the white of the
water and the darkness of the debris and rocks.


This is an enormous country and only by traversing it do you
get some idea of it's vastness. Here I was attracted by the
black beef cows under a cloudless sky and a splattering of
pastels, grazing on the hay colored prairie.

4500 Miles of Color.

We traveled 4,500 miles at just the right time of the year to see the
fall colors change from green to yellow and then gold and amber
before the leaves started falling revealing the bare branches of the trees.


Every day brought new spectacular sights and if you are into color
as much as I, then you too would have seen colors that you can't describe
or name.


Yellowstone was everything they said it would be but it made me
yearn for Africa. I however doubt that wildlife viewing there is the
same as I remember it to be.


It wasn't only all about orange and yellow, the blues and grays
too made up part of the pallet.


I don't watch TV and living in hotels these past weeks
gave me the opportunity to watch the presidential debates, which
provided more than enough food for thought as I
watched Idaho, South Dakota, Montana pass by my
car window.


I took the liberty of giving this picture a little color because all
the postcards and pictures look exactly the same. While at Rushmore
I spoke to a man who had done well in real estate and we discussed
his concern about his money which could possibly be reduced to
a fraction with the insecurity on Wall Street and with the banks.


I discovered how hard it is to make mountain
views look original on photo. Composition and
depth of field are the only tools in my box that
I could use.

I may be living in a hotel.

I have only recently noticed the smartly folded corners on my toilet roll, the three towels beautifully arranged on the towel rack and some small ones decoratively rolled spa-style instead of my usual one just hanging there limply. Lots has changed this summer and one of the really good changes is Anna. While I run around trying to multi-task like I used to, but no longer can, Anna enters the picture in her quiet, unassuming way and takes care of everything. I never have to ask nor is there ever a reason for a comment. In addition, I am usually treated to Chile Relleno and home-made tortillas or something else more delicious than one would get in the best restaurant.

Maybe I can teach her how to do dishes.

....she has trouble turning the pages on her own. She really has to start learning to be a little more self-sufficient.

The Weimie.

Athena, in the meantime has finished her book and has gone on to her second. It keeps her busy while I am working. She has one big problem though....

...and you, with knobs on.

The kitchen cabinets are painted in a nice cheery color that I call 'Mango' (it is much brighter than in this picture which makes it look pink - how horrible!) and for good measure I added some happy knobs called 'Fiesta'. Now every day it's party time at 6 in the morning. It looks so much better than that bland, boring, nothing color I had before. I have done more in 3 months than in the 10 preceding years when work absorbed most of my attention....oh, and survival too. How soon one forgets.

Shiny floor - new carpet.

Having the floor poly-urethaned gave me a good reason to replace the carpet under the dining table. Athena really doesn't care because she liked the old one on which she could take her ice cubes to crunch. I am also having the sofas reupholstered. No one ever sits on them but I was done with the same old, same old. They are being delivered next week.

Travel in SA in the Fifties.

I found this picture in a box of things belonging to my grandmother. It was taken in the early 1950's on one of travels in South Africa. I remember we would bring along biscuits, sweets and cookies to hand out to the children along the way.

These days when I travel I always bring along 'bubbles'. I sit, blow bubbles and kids come from everywhere. It breaks the ice and I get happy, smiling faces on my pictures.