New Day at Mesa Verde

Sunrise from the Farview Lodge at Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado, USA.

Stainless Steel-Part4

This entry in the "Shiny Structures Series" (see previous entries Part1 Part2 and Part3)is in my own neighborhood for a change. A water treatment plant across the street from Eli Whitney's first mass production armory in Hamden, Conecticut.

Great Sand Dunes-Part3

Bucket of Blueberries

Great Sand Dunes-Part2

Precious Moments

Father and Daughter photo by Joana

Sunshine Amongst the Rhodies

Rhododrendon State Park in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire.

The Dryad

Edgerton Park's own resident Dryad.

Something happens to him after a few.

Ominous Sky Over Mesa Verde Colorado

The View From 3 North Bank Street

The bathroom window in Michelle's New Haven house circa November 2002.

Autumn Light

Signs of Spring

Sidewalk with garden hose and maple droppings. Whitney Avenue New Haven.

Julius the Bull Rider

We met Julius while visiting Mary Anne at the Shonto School. He is a Navajo Bull Rider and invited us to come watch him practice at the Shonto rodeo grounds. I will just say that while I respect all the bull riders' courage and their amazing abilities, what they are doing seems absolutely crazy tome! Everyone (aside from the bulls) seemed to be enjoying themselves though, and there are some fringe benefits. When we told Julius we lived in Connecticut he told us he had competed in the huge tribal gathering in Connecticut called Schemitzun and had won several thousand dollars and a new pickup truck that he drove back across the U.S. to Arizona. Hopefully it has comfy seats because his backside had to be hurtin'.

High Flight

From up here things look pretty bright. Reminds me of the poem "High Flight" that was used as the nightly sign off for TV stations when I was a kid.

Ouray, Colorado

Great Sand Dunes-Part1

Variation on the Theme

The-Atomium in Brussels, Belgium continues the stainless steel architecture theme perfectly.

Minimalism in Missouri

Rocio Romero's LV Series prefab house in Perryville, MO.

St. Louis Stainless Steel

Eero_Saarinen's stainless steel masterpiece of monumental minimalism.

There was an old woman who swallowed a fly.

Carnivorous pitcher plants in the greenhouse of Longwood Gardens.

Chefchaouen Chefchouen Chouen

Two women walking in an alley. Sitting high in the Rif Mountains of northern Morocco, Chefchouen (also just called Chouen) is one of the most beautiful towns in Morocco and also one of the most relaxing. One reason for the laid back vibe is that this is the heart of "Kif Country" (the hashish producing area) in Morocco. It was not uncommon to see merchants and customers partaking in not just the usual hot mint tea during price negotiations but also passing around a hash pipe as well.

Tamezmoute? Or Not Tamezmoute? That is the question.

We left Marrakesh early in the morning and headed south east over the the Atlas Mountains. We were looking for a Peace Corps Volunteer named Garren who was living in a village 11 hours away near the Draa Valley. A friend had arranged for us to meet up and head out to the desert together. I had never met Garren before and the directions he had written down for my friend a couple of weeks earlier went something like this: "Go for a few hours past Ourzazate until you cross the river three times, then go past three villages. Ask for me at the cafe of the fourth village." Sounds simple until you cross the first few bridges over dry river beds and wonder "did those count as rivers?" or past a few houses or buildings along the side of the road and try to figure out if they were considered a village or just some houses. So after hours of wondering if we had traveled far enough or gone way too far and pretty much giving up on finding him altogether, we drove through a sleepy, dusty, sun baked little village and heard something unusual. Almost everywhere I had been in Morocco the default musical soundtrack usually consisted of a mix of Moroccan pop music, Algerian Rai Music, Berber folk tunes, or even Adalusian Flamenco guitar which could be heard wafting from cafes, taxis, street vendors, and buses. But here was a different type of sound, both strikingly out of place and yet very much at home at the same time. Filling the air of this seemingly deserted little village was a music that sounded at first to have little form but slowly coalesced into something very familiar to me. The unmistakable little voice, and the oddly beautiful sounds of Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead's "Here Comes Sunshine" rolled down from a cafe with a shade arbor under which sat a light-skinned, bearded man sipping tea and talking with a berber man. We had found Garren. We relaxed for a while sipping tea and just absorbing the setting before Garren joined us on our trek to the desert, beyond Zagora, where we ended up in Tinfou and spent the night sleeping in the courtyard of the Auberge du Repos de Sables. After our adventure in the desert together we brought Garren back to Tamezmoute where it happened to be the day of the weekly market. We walked with him as he did his shopping for the week. View Larger Map

Seasonal Shortcut.

Following the snowmobile tracks across Harrisville Pond to the village center. Harrisville, New Hampshire.