A photo a month

It was a day of wandering through photos, a day of selecting photos for months, a day of building calendars. And yes, I did say calendars, plural!

My friend Caroline started using RedBubble a little while ago. My curiosity was piqued by a post on her blog so I wandered over to explore. I set up a RedBubble site of my own last month, uploaded a few photos, and then wandered off, busy with other things. I didn't head back there until today, when the urge to create a 2009 calendar struck. I really meant to create a single calendar, but at the end of the day there were two.

Wandering from northeast to southwest contains images from several trips, to Acadia National Park in June, to New Brunswick in August, and to Death Valley National Park in November.

Glimpses of Acadia contains images from my trip to Acadia National Park in June, as well as a quick stop there on my way home from New Brunswick in August.



I not only didn't manage to create a single calendar, I couldn't decide which one I needed, so I ordered copies of both. I'll report on the quality when they arrive.

If you'd like to see (or order!) one of my creations, just click on the photos above. You will be able to page through the calendar's on my RedBubble site. Or - if you'd like to choose photos from my galleries for a custom calendar, please use the email link in my guestbook to contact me; I would be happy to work with you.

Just a dusting...

Snow flurried, white floating, coating leaves and grass. Yes, winter is edging closer.

An icy reflection...

...a sure sign that winter is here.

Do you ever wonder...

...how prices are set? Grocery prices, that is?

I made a quick trip to the grocery store last night. I always keep seasonal fruit around for snacking, and I always have some fruit that is a good topping for my morning cereal. The cereal-topping fruit? Always bananas, and whenever possible, some kind of berries. If I can't find berries then sweet red grapes provide a very nice substitute.

I remember many many years ago when it was only possible to get fresh berries during our spring and summer. That's not true any more, but last night's view of the produce aisle still surprised me. Instead of the normal price of $2.99, blackberries were selling for 99 cents! Yes, it's a small container, but oh! so good! Two containers jumped into my bag to make this a blackberry and banana week.

Now that's a nice out-of-season treat!

Sense of humor required!

Laughter is a good thing. Hanging up on the president? What would your reaction be if you received a call from Barak Obama? A Florida congresswoman hung up on him twice, sure that the calls were spoofs.

No, it really was Barak Obama. It took a call from another representative to convince Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen that it was the president-elect who she hung up on - not once, but twice!

Florida representative 'flabbergasted' Obama call wasn't prank

Winter approaches

As much as I'd like the ground to stay dry and uncovered, winter creeps in on quiet feet.

No stopping!

Sometimes it is very difficult to behave.

I was driving west on the New York Thruway, heading to my parents' home for a weekend visit. Driving, down a long stretch of road, when my camera eye was drawn by reflections in the quiet water of the Erie Canal.

Sometimes, it is so hard to not follow those camera desires. I would have loved to have pulled over, to have tromped down closer to the canal accompanied by my camera, to have grabbed a few images. It was a very gray day, and yet there were still distinct reflections in the water. A beautiful sight, captured by words instead of pictures...

Ghost town art

Rhyolite beckoned, an abandoned town, ghosts of the gold rush. I gave in to my curiosity and left Death Valley, heading over the Amargosa Range to visit a ghost town. Little did I know that I would also find some amazing art there.

"Just outside of Rhyolite, Nevada, a spectacular ghost town off the road leading to Death Valley, California, a group of prominent Belgian artists, led by the late Albert Szukalski, created a self-described art situation consisting of seven outdoor sculptures that are colossal not only in their scale, but in their placement within the vast upper Mojave desert."

...quote courtesy of the Goldwell Open Air Museum

Jumping into my camera

Visions of the desert, intense colors, sand, rocks... My too quick trip to ramble in Death Valley National Park lives on in memories, and in photographs. You can follow my ramble in words in my journal or in pictures in my A return to death photo galleries.

In the valley... Badwater to Golden Canyon:

High... Zabriskie Point & Twenty Mule Team Canyon:


In the valley... Furnace Creek to Mosaic Canyon:


Sand Dunes sunrise:


Rhyolite... ghosts & sculptures:


Red Rock Canyon:

Seeing things?

The first time these two planes passed over my head as I wandered the sand dunes in Death Valley I thought I was seeing things, that my imagination was working overtime.

The second time? I knew they were real, my first view of a stealth fighter in the air.

Yes, the images are really tiny. The planes were moving quickly, and I had to just use the lens that was on my camera at the time.