A Decade of Travel, a Lifetime of Change Our travels started more than forty years ago when my two roommates and I decided to leave the US from …
India: where nothing changes. Except for… everything. #India #travel #humor
I hope you enjoy this interesting and enjoyable retrospective of Barb Taub’s many trips to India.
The Wildlife Photographer of the Year pictures for 2023 have been released and they are amazing! Here’s a selection:
The polar bear picture is such a stunning capture making Nima Sarikhani the winner for 2023. Please click the link below to read more about these photographers and their work.
Scenes from a couple of my recent walks.
Happy mid-week.
I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more …
Travel Quote
A beautiful travel quote and picture of Peñíscola, Spain from Travels Through My Lens. Please click the link above to see more of Tricia’s lovely photography.
After having been quite frozen and with only an ice-encrusted fountain to keep the water moving during last month’s cold snap, the fish pond in our Japanese Garden is back in good nick. Two weeks ago it looked like this:
There had been some significant thawing from the week before but I still couldn’t see any of the fish.
Then there was yesterday:
The fountain and pond were looking much warmer of course and I spotted some of the fish.
If you look to the mid-lower left you will see some fishy looking shapes; we saw about seven of them. They are in a state of quasi-dormancy during winter, but are very slowly swimming and do seem to have come through our nasty deep-freeze just fine.
Happy Monday.
This continuing series depicts our beautiful world, encouraging viewers to share them and help save our unique home from human carelessness and …
#ScenicSaturday 3rd February 2024:
A beautiful scene from the UK’s Forest of Dean courtesy of Stuart Aken.
A couple of days ago, the fog lifted and we were rewarded with a beautiful sunny afternoon.
We decided to go to Skaha Lake at the southern tip of Penticton to enjoy the weather with a walk.
The esplanade was filled with children, dogs, families, young lovers, seniors; everyone, it seems, was enjoying what felt like a genuine spring afternoon.
We had about 14C (57F), no wind and a gentle sun. It was great to loaf along watching dogs and children run around while adults smiled and chatted and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon.
This beach will soon be busy with swimmers, dragon boats, sailors, sand castle builders, picnickers and kite surfers. Hooray for spring!
The Okanagan Valley experienced a deep freeze for a few days in January. At times, the temperature dropped to -25C (-13F), leaving farmers scrambling to protect their trees and vines with heaters, fire pots and continuously flowing water. In this area, such low temperatures are extremely unusual; the last time this type of freezing occurred was 34 years ago in 1990.
As you can imagine, the owners of orchards and in particular, wineries, are very worried about the damage that has been done. Some reports are that as much as 60% of the grape vines have been destroyed and that there has been significant damage to some of the orchards.
Farming has never been for the faint of heart. When everything falls into place, all goes well. But the number of unexpected issues, especially from the weather, can cause catastrophe.
A lot rides on agriculture in this valley. It’s heavily connected to tourism and is also a huge employer, but the smoke and fires from last summer together with the January freeze may make it impossible for some people to continue. I hope not, but life is sometimes extraordinarily unfair.
Okanagan Lake has been incredibly foggy over the last week.
The skyscape and moody, ethereal atmosphere has been incredible.
We have even experienced a very rare pink fog.
Yes, a pink fog – there were no filters applied to the above photo. The heavy moisture content in the air caused the blue wavelengths of the rising sun to be scattered out, resulting in a pink fog. Further up the valley, the fog was actually red. This incredibly rare phenomenon didn’t last long; only about 10 minutes.
Pink or not, the fog is beautiful, and there’s one other advantage: any groundhogs lurking about will definitely not be seeing their shadows and sending us six more weeks of winter!
Happy Groundhog Day!
These were taken less than 10 minutes apart … from Marrowstone I have to cross Indian Island to get home in Port Townsend. The top photo is looking …
Looking East and West at Sunset
Beautiful sunset/cloudscape photos from Allan J Jones. A visit to his photoblog is well worth the time – he has posted so many gorgeous pictures.
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 