This was a spider which hung out by our clothesline, hence the clothespin used to try to show scale…it was so scary we used tongs to hold the clothespin so that our hand didn’t get too close!
My team was on a mission to Papua New Guinea to build school houses and 5,000 gallon corrugated tin water cisterns with roof collection systems.
The spiders, the june bugs, the millipedes, and the praying mantises were just insanely huge….
Imagine this thing crawling across you while you sleep….gack…
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Fall leaves…somewhere in Michigan.
Not a picture that is all that amazing, but there’s something deeply appealing about it for me.
There Dad! It’s a start anyway! Hopefully more to follow soon! 
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This past Friday’s assignment for Photo Friday was “Animals”. Posting late. Better late than never I guess!
This past January took me to our local zool. It’s a beautiful zoo by all accounts, where the animals are extremely well cared for and provided beautiful habitats, but still, zoos make me a more than a little bit uncomfortable. This big fellow especially made me uncomfortable. He is clearly contemplative. He is CLEARLY thinking. While zoos are better than extinction and are great places for learning, I bet this guy hates it in there. There’s simply not enough enrichment that can be provided to animal like him to make up for being captive.
Please leave a link to your entry in comments if you are playing so we can check out your work!
Coming up on Photo Friday:
4th September: Author’s choice: The Wisdom of Age shown in the Face
11th September: Author’s choice: Photo Art (use any photo gadgets you like)
Then a break as ”Author” (creator extraordinaire of Photo Friday) is having surgery. We wish her the best for a good outcome and a quick recovery!
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A redunant name for a beautiful hiking trail in the foothills of Los Angeles. “A place so beautiful, they named it twice”. I went back “home” to the L.A. area for the Easter weekend. Phil and the kids and I headed out on Monday morning to find the trailhead. The trail we were seeking leads to a waterfall, as all of the hikes I go on with them do. This waterfall was along the Gold Creek.
The book we were using as our guide was published in the 80′s, so sometimes the directions are hit or miss. This one was a HIT! The only “glitch” was that the sign we were looking for which would lead to the trailhead was missing on the way. When we turned around to look from the other direction, there it was, and once we found it the directions were spot on.
We hiked in about 2 1/2 miles up (and 2 1/2 miles back, which is good, it’s always good to hike out as far as you’ve hiked in!) on a well maintained trail which completely lacked any evidence of human presence…no trash, no graffiti, no dog poop….barely even shoeprints in the softer areas.
We forded the stream a number of the times on the way there, but didn’t even get our feet wet. I was a bit worried to be hiking since I jacked my right knee up back in December, but it held up nicely. I was very careful about foot placement and avoiding any pivoting on it. I tell you this just to show that the hike, though not totally easy, was doable even for the gimp in the group. (So you could do it, too!) The hike took us through lush green woods along paths liberally decorated with itty bitty wildflowers. This purple beauty measured less than an inch across. Didn’t even see the teensy weensy red bugs crawling around until I uploaded my pictures!
And it took us through more poison oak than any of us had ever seen in our lives! Phil and at least a couple of his kids are really prone to getting horrific rashes from it and warnings rang out frequently about avoiding touching it! (And upon arriving home, all clothes were stripped and washed, and showers were taken, it was that bad!) I haven’t heard if any of them broke out or not, but Richard was already sporting some nasty rashes from his LAST excursion into the wilderness.
Back to the hike. We came around one bend and found ourselves in a manzanita forest. Manzanita is a bush that is found in the chaparrel biome. Manzanita is spanish for “little apple”, I guess because the seeds look alot like little apples. The trunk and branches are a deep rosey red, and they are smooooooooth and satiny. Any way, these were huge TREES! Never seen anything like it. Phil shows how tall the bushes usually are. The trunks were so thick you couldn’t get your arms around them.
The trail led us to something I can only describe as a CLIFF. Rocks jutting out high over a small canyon. Richard loves to rock climb. I am afraid of heights. He decided to pick his way down to the canyon. I wanted to take a picture of him doing it, but couldn’t get close enough to the edge to do that, so I took a picture of him disappearing through a crack in the CLIFF. Bye Richard. I hope I see you again!
He took the short way down, we took the long way down, and we met back up at the bottom.
The last bit of the hike was a little steep and the dirt a bit loose, but when when we rounded the last corner before the waterfall, we entered a little bitty paradise! The cataract measured about 50 feet tall and tumbled into a small, clear pool.
There was a large sycamore tree at the edge of the pool which had a high green and lacy canopy. The canopy provided shade and showed off a brilliant blue sky above it. Off came shoes and socks! The bottom of the pool was firm and sandy/pebbly. But boy oh, the water was cold! Of course I orchestrated one of my famous foot pictures, but I couldn’t stand being in the water for more than a minute or so.
My feet are wimpy because they have spent all winter in shoes (and I just got a pedicure further removing any protective toughened skin!). But Jonathan’s feet suffered no such wimpiness. This kid was swimming in that cold water!
Head to toe wet. Brrrrr.
We played and laughed for a time and decided this would be a great place for a picnic. Plenty of large flat rocks to serve as a picnic table. I don’t know if we got lucky that day having the place to ourselves, or if it is a little visited place. I wonder if we went back in the summer for that picnic if there would be a horde of people vying for the best seats on the rocks!
Time to put our shoes back on and go.
A hidden place which seemed to have been created, at least for that day, just for us!
For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills…Deuteronomy 8:7 (NIV)
Some of the best times of my life are spent exploring God’s creation with my big brother and his kids.
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This week we are revisiting photo gadgets on Photo Friday. I really wanted to Obamafy myself, but was unsuccessful with my attempts. And I love the Warholizer, so I decided to revisit that as well.
Recently, Becky (from my Malawi team this past summer) came out from PA to spend a couple of weeks with me. The day that I had planned for us to drive up to the summit of Pikes Peak it unexpectedly snowed. So I dragged her to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo instead. It was cold, but clear. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. When we left we were informed that we were visitors number four and five to the zoo that day! In total, there were only seven! The animals that weren’t indoors because of the cold (like the zebras) or in quarantine because of a new arrival (like the elephants) were pretty much out and about. The tigress was one of those animals. I’ve never seen the tigress except for a brief glimpse of orange and black and white through the brush before. She is a glorious animal. Her name is Helga.
And Warholized:
Here’s Mr. Linky:
You know what to do!
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Got my Flickr mess worked out, sort of. I am still logging on using the e-mail address I was trying to get rid of, but at least I can access my account once again! Flickr never got back to me to help with the problem, so I decided in needed to be brave and try to fix it myself. I was nervous the entire time trying to fix the problem because I was fearful that I would do something that could never be undone, BUT, I didn’t, and for that I am soooo relieved! So, in that it is FRIDAY, it’s time to get back to Photo Friday!!
Today’s topic is “Facial Expressions”. I thought I’d try to get a picture of my new kitten, Lu Na Cee. In that she has the chemical properties of quicksilver, this is a more difficult proposition than you’d imagine. She’s slippery and fast and allllll over the place! My other cat, Mew Ling, is used to me putting the camera in her face. Lu Na? Not so much! Every time I’d get close to her, she thought I was wanting to play. And the camera cord was a delightful dangly for her to leap for. Even after I hid it in my hand, she still KNEW it was there. And then there’s the whole “why don’t cat expressions get picked up in pictures?” issue. I call this one “Huh?”.
Please leave your Linky link if you’re playing! If you’re not, why not?, and please go and visit the sites of the other players and check out what they’ve posted today! Drop ‘em a comment!
Coming up on Photo Friday:
28th November: Tina’s choice – Thankfulness (to celebrate Thanksgiving)
5th December: Author’s choice: Winter
12th December: Slim’s choice – Christmas Lights
19th December: Author’s choice – The Festive Season
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Firstly and most importantly, today is my little sister Liz’ birthday. Happiest of birthdays to you, Lizzie! I love you bunches!!!!! (Crossing my fingers you get the ER job!!! You will love being an ER nurse…)
Secondly…
I sort of wish this was NEXT week’s challenge as my OTHER little sister, Whitney, and I are taking her son Mitchell on a road trip to look at the golden autumnal Aspens up in the mountains tomorrow! One day late!! I made the same drive three years ago during my first fall in Colorado. The pictures I took on that drive were with an old camera and didn’t turn out well. So I am going to share a picture I took in the Rocky Mountain National Park two falls ago here in “Color”ado, or should I say “colour”ado! .
Coming up, on Photo Friday…
3rd October: Eiain’s choice – Music (musicians, concerts, still life of musical instruments or musical scores, musical boxes etc - I could go on and on …..) You may also like to add a YouTube clip of your favourite music!
10th October: Mrs Nascar’s choice – Night ( moon, stars or any interpretation of night)
17th October:CuriousCs choice - Bridges / Arches
24th October: Eiain’s choice - Paws for thought
31st October: Author’s choice - Halloween!
7th November: Tina’s choice - Action Shots
14th November: Author’s choice - Windows (unusual or favourite windows, in your own home, or other homes, or churches, buildings etc – you may even include the view through a window. This can be a selection of photos or just one favourite pic).
Please take the time to visit the work of the other players and tell them what you think!
Click on Mr. Linky so that you can access the links to the other participants’ blogs!
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I really DO love Photo Friday. It’s the only thing I seem to be able to post on these days. I’ve got dozens of drafts started about my summer experiences, but still am unable to get them the way I want them. Some of them are simply Titles at this point.
So, having just recently returned from Africa, I thought it fitting to share pics of some wildlife I saw while I was there. These were taken “on safari” in the Liwonde National Park in Malawi. Oddly, I don’t love very many pictures that I took this summer. I do, however, love this one. Not because it’s a great picture or anything – far from it. No, I love it because there are four species captured in the one frame. The hippo, heron, and impala are easily visible, but do you see the warthogs as well?
Did you know that members of different hippo pods have different “highways” that they each use? I didn’t. And hippos of one pod do not use the highways of hippos of different pods! The things you learn when you are on safari!
And here’s one of a warthog upclose. Seems there was a warthog “highway” right in front of our chalet at the safari camp!
The yellow at the bottom of the photo? Normally I would have cropped that out. It was my front porch. I left in in as a reference to the proximity of the trail to our accommodations. This highway was actually a hippo highway as well. This was one reason we were all strongly warned to never leave our chalets alone, and to stay on the people pathways. Those hippos were loud at night, too! You couldn’t have PAID me to leave my chalet after dark, even if I wasn’t alone! Even if I had one of the armed guard with me. Hippos are some scary creatures!
More on our safari weekend in a later post…IF I can ever get the post to feel right!
Click on the links to visit the entries of the other participants! Drop them a comment and let them know what you think. There are new participants since I left for Africa. A big hearty and belated welcome to them!
Here’s what’s coming up on Photo Friday in the weeks ahead…
Photo Friday Advance Diary:
22nd August: Julie’s choice - “Hat Day” (a picture of someone’s hat, that’s funny, pretty, or a self-portrait of us wearing our favorite or funny hat)
29th August: Mrs Nascar’s choice – Old cars (any interesting old cars from rusty scrapheap cars with a bird’s nest under the bonnet, to fabulous vintage or racing cars)
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My first Photo Friday in some time! Today’s Photo Friday is Author’s choice:
Reflections (in lakes, rivers, puddles, ponds or even windows etc.)
For this entry, I decided to go with a slightly different interpretation than perhaps is expected: the reflection of light off of a surface. As luck would have it, I came across this amazing little arachnoid after leaving CostCo the other day. My nephew espied the half-inch leg-spanned creature busily weaving on the rear of his mother’s (my sister’s) truck. At first glance the wee beastie looked white. On closer inspection we saw that it was actually silver! It caught the sun much more brightly than I could capture on film.
Lookie! You can see two strands of silk extending from the spinnerets!
Get a look at the creepy skull-like head! Scarrrryyyyy!!!
Now the skull is screeeeaaaammmming and has fangs!
Any body out there have any idea of what sort of spider this is?
Please visit the other participants’ entries and see what they are reflecting upon this day! I’ll add links as the entries are posted. However, I am back to work today after a three month’s absence (blech!) and won’t be able to add the links until later in the day…my apologies!
Here they are! Breaking the rules and going on line at work, but at least it’s lunchtime!
and a late entry: Just For Fun
Here’s what’s coming up on Photo Friday in the weeks ahead…
Photo Friday Advance Diary:
15th August: Tina’s choice – Wildlife
22nd August: Julie’s choice - “Hat Day” (a picture of someone’s hat, that’s funny, pretty, or a self-portrait of us wearing our favorite or funny hat)
29th August: Mrs Nascar’s choice – Old cars (any interesting old cars from rusty scrapheap cars with a bird’s nest under the bonnet, to fabulous vintage or racing cars)
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I took this picture last year when we went on a bird watching trip during Boot Camp. It’s some sort of Heron. I love this picture. I’ll go on the bird watching tour again this summer, if they do it. We saw evidence of eagles out in the preserve, but didn’t actually see any of the raptors. I would like a second shot at that, and maybe I could capture on on film. That’d be cool…
Happy ACTUAL 70th birthday, mom. I’ll be thinking of you especially today…
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(Posted in absentia)
Every once in awhile I take a picture that really amazes me. Other than brightening the photo, I did nothing else to it, and yet, it looks like a watercolor painting. At least it does to me.
Click HERE if you want to see the unbrightened version.
This lily was growing in the pond in my brother Phil’s backyard.
And I’d like to also present this flower to Doris on her 80th birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Doris!!!
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(Posted in absentia
Yep. I know you’ve seen this picture before. I had asked for advice on which photograph to submit to a photography competition. The majority voted for this picture, so I submitted it.
Lucky day, I was one of the first 20 people to submit their photo and was given a 20 dollar gift certificate to a local restaurant/coffee bar! I’ll have to wait until I get home to cash that puppy in though…
Wish me more luck. I’d like to win a new camera. The Butterfly Pavilion is accepting submissions through July 30th, so I’ll be back in the states in time for the announcement of the winner, which I’m sure, with all of your support, will be me!
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(Posted in absentia)
I am thinking of entering a photo in a local photography contest. The subject matter is “Pollenators” and we are to show them in the process of doing their thing.
I have a few pictures I am considering and would love your feedback!
There are three. The third picture is simply a “brighter” version of the second.
Which do I enter? Help me choose!!!!
Or are none of them even good enough to enter. Dunno!
Your thoughts?
(I took these pictures in my brother’s yard this past week in California…he has a most wonderful garden. The entire southern wall of his home sports rose bushes – many taller than I – simply loaded with roses of many colors. The bees on this day seemed partial to these vermillon blooms)
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