From April 22-26, 2026, Ellen and I camped at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ and attended this festival. We attended a couple of great presentations and volunteered for the Family Nature Day on Saturday. The following are some of the images I took of some of the critters we encountred from the weekend. Enjoy!

It's time to finish up my posts on Japan. Here are the last four themes from the life-changing trip, in alphabetical order. It's a bit of a photo dump, so bear with me. For the most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

The people of Japan and elsewhere. THIS is why we travel. We had such wonderful experiences meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. 

This posting wound up being much bigger than I imagined, and it still does not cover it all. Food was such an important part of our six-week experience. 

Here is a quick collection of brooms. I found them interesting because at technologically advanced as Japan is, their brooms have maintained a less modern flare.  

Wow, this theme of buildings took a while to put together. It is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what we experienced on our visit to Japan.  Entire books have been written about temples, shrines, castles and Japanese architecture. I touched on some details and history below but mostly, enjoy the pictures. ;)

On our way from Hiroshima to Kyoto, we stopped at a pottery shop/studio in Bizen and learned about Bizen-yaki, also known as Bizen ware. It is one of the oldest and most revered forms of Japanese ceramics and this shop has been going for ten generations.  The history of this pottery spans over a thousand years. Originating from Bizen Province in Okayama Prefecture, this unique, unglazed pottery represents a profound connection between the earth, fire, and human craftsmanship. For tea practitioners and connoisseurs of Japanese aesthetics, Bizen-yaki is not only a vessel but a philosophy.

Here begins the blogs on Japan. We were there for six weeks. The first four weeks were spent in the northern part of Honshu Island, Aomori Prefecture, in the city of Misawa, with our friends, Kamalene (one of my old student teachers), her husband, Mike, and their daughter Teniya, a high school senior. The parents work on the Misawa Air Force Base as civilians, and Teniya attends school there. 

There was a flock of Forster's Terns on Saturday. 

Our trip to Denver via Montana was fantastic. It was a great big three-week trip that took us north from Flagstaff, through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado before returning home. We had an amazing time with new friends and family and didn't spend nearly enough time in most places. Rather than drag you through the trip day by day I'm going to divide the pictures into sections. The sections are: Animals, Art, Buildings, Camps, People, Mango (the grandson), Scenic and Signs so skip ahead if you want. There are captions and an occasional story in there but mostly, cool photos. Enjoy.

This post of business begins with a walk I did through Flagstaff. I found this mural, painted on the side of Coconino High School. I thought it was cool so I shot it! lol

Let's begin with the 25th Annual Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival put together through Friends of the Verde River and hosted at our beloved Dead Horse Ranch State Park. This is our second time attending and my second year of volunteering my photographic services. The bonus this year? Camping with these beautiful people and having a wonderful mixture of hanging out with framily, volunteering and attending workshops. 

From April 22-26, 2026, Ellen and I camped at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ and attended this festival. We attended a couple of great presentations and volunteered for the Family Nature Day on Saturday. The following are some of the images I took of some of the critters we encountred from the weekend. Enjoy!

It's time to finish up my posts on Japan. Here are the last four themes from the life-changing trip, in alphabetical order. It's a bit of a photo dump, so bear with me. For the most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

The people of Japan and elsewhere. THIS is why we travel. We had such wonderful experiences meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. 

This posting wound up being much bigger than I imagined, and it still does not cover it all. Food was such an important part of our six-week experience. 

Here is a quick collection of brooms. I found them interesting because at technologically advanced as Japan is, their brooms have maintained a less modern flare.  

Wow, this theme of buildings took a while to put together. It is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what we experienced on our visit to Japan.  Entire books have been written about temples, shrines, castles and Japanese architecture. I touched on some details and history below but mostly, enjoy the pictures. ;)

On our way from Hiroshima to Kyoto, we stopped at a pottery shop/studio in Bizen and learned about Bizen-yaki, also known as Bizen ware. It is one of the oldest and most revered forms of Japanese ceramics and this shop has been going for ten generations.  The history of this pottery spans over a thousand years. Originating from Bizen Province in Okayama Prefecture, this unique, unglazed pottery represents a profound connection between the earth, fire, and human craftsmanship. For tea practitioners and connoisseurs of Japanese aesthetics, Bizen-yaki is not only a vessel but a philosophy.

Here begins the blogs on Japan. We were there for six weeks. The first four weeks were spent in the northern part of Honshu Island, Aomori Prefecture, in the city of Misawa, with our friends, Kamalene (one of my old student teachers), her husband, Mike, and their daughter Teniya, a high school senior. The parents work on the Misawa Air Force Base as civilians, and Teniya attends school there. 

There was a flock of Forster's Terns on Saturday. 

Our trip to Denver via Montana was fantastic. It was a great big three-week trip that took us north from Flagstaff, through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado before returning home. We had an amazing time with new friends and family and didn't spend nearly enough time in most places. Rather than drag you through the trip day by day I'm going to divide the pictures into sections. The sections are: Animals, Art, Buildings, Camps, People, Mango (the grandson), Scenic and Signs so skip ahead if you want. There are captions and an occasional story in there but mostly, cool photos. Enjoy.

This post of business begins with a walk I did through Flagstaff. I found this mural, painted on the side of Coconino High School. I thought it was cool so I shot it! lol

Let's begin with the 25th Annual Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival put together through Friends of the Verde River and hosted at our beloved Dead Horse Ranch State Park. This is our second time attending and my second year of volunteering my photographic services. The bonus this year? Camping with these beautiful people and having a wonderful mixture of hanging out with framily, volunteering and attending workshops. 

From April 22-26, 2026, Ellen and I camped at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ and attended this festival. We attended a couple of great presentations and volunteered for the Family Nature Day on Saturday. The following are some of the images I took of some of the critters we encountred from the weekend. Enjoy!

It's time to finish up my posts on Japan. Here are the last four themes from the life-changing trip, in alphabetical order. It's a bit of a photo dump, so bear with me. For the most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

The people of Japan and elsewhere. THIS is why we travel. We had such wonderful experiences meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. 

This posting wound up being much bigger than I imagined, and it still does not cover it all. Food was such an important part of our six-week experience. 

Here is a quick collection of brooms. I found them interesting because at technologically advanced as Japan is, their brooms have maintained a less modern flare.  

Wow, this theme of buildings took a while to put together. It is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what we experienced on our visit to Japan.  Entire books have been written about temples, shrines, castles and Japanese architecture. I touched on some details and history below but mostly, enjoy the pictures. ;)

On our way from Hiroshima to Kyoto, we stopped at a pottery shop/studio in Bizen and learned about Bizen-yaki, also known as Bizen ware. It is one of the oldest and most revered forms of Japanese ceramics and this shop has been going for ten generations.  The history of this pottery spans over a thousand years. Originating from Bizen Province in Okayama Prefecture, this unique, unglazed pottery represents a profound connection between the earth, fire, and human craftsmanship. For tea practitioners and connoisseurs of Japanese aesthetics, Bizen-yaki is not only a vessel but a philosophy.

Here begins the blogs on Japan. We were there for six weeks. The first four weeks were spent in the northern part of Honshu Island, Aomori Prefecture, in the city of Misawa, with our friends, Kamalene (one of my old student teachers), her husband, Mike, and their daughter Teniya, a high school senior. The parents work on the Misawa Air Force Base as civilians, and Teniya attends school there. 

There was a flock of Forster's Terns on Saturday. 

Our trip to Denver via Montana was fantastic. It was a great big three-week trip that took us north from Flagstaff, through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado before returning home. We had an amazing time with new friends and family and didn't spend nearly enough time in most places. Rather than drag you through the trip day by day I'm going to divide the pictures into sections. The sections are: Animals, Art, Buildings, Camps, People, Mango (the grandson), Scenic and Signs so skip ahead if you want. There are captions and an occasional story in there but mostly, cool photos. Enjoy.

This post of business begins with a walk I did through Flagstaff. I found this mural, painted on the side of Coconino High School. I thought it was cool so I shot it! lol

Let's begin with the 25th Annual Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival put together through Friends of the Verde River and hosted at our beloved Dead Horse Ranch State Park. This is our second time attending and my second year of volunteering my photographic services. The bonus this year? Camping with these beautiful people and having a wonderful mixture of hanging out with framily, volunteering and attending workshops. 

Once upon a time I was a sports photographer in the Northern Arizona University athletic department. I was shooting film then, 400 Tri-Ex to be exact. I had 36 shots per roll and could rip through 36 images in six seconds if I held the shutter down continuously. Then there was the problem of missing the shot while changing film rolls not to mention the hours in the dark room. Digital changed all of that. Well, most of it anyway. I can still fire off hundreds of shots in seconds but I never have to change the roll!

The ostrich is an interesting bird. In going through my collection it turns out I have several pictures of these dinosaurs. Here are also some interesting facts I discovered about these birds. 

The representation of shadow, and especially of cast shadow, is as old as art itself, for according to classical writers art was born when the outline of a human shadow thrown onto a wall was first traced out in order to capture it in the form of a silhouette. 

 There are around 200 species of Agave, but only about 30 have been cultivated for commercial use. Most of these are from Mexico, although they occur in the southern United States and into South America. Plants are characterized by forming rosettes of fleshy (succulent) leaves which have a sharp point or spine terminally. The leaf margins may be smooth or spiny.

The word mural is a Spanish adjective that is used to refer to what is attached to a wall. The term mural later became a noun. In art, the word mural began to be used at the beginning of the 20th century. In ancient Roman times, a mural crown was given to the fighter who was first to scale the wall of a besieged town. "Mural" comes from the Latin muralis, meaning "wall painting". This word is related to murus, meaning "wall".

Our beloved Coyote Hawk turns three at the end of this month. We drove her home from Southern California on November 29, 2021. It has been three years of wonderful adventures with 227 nights spent inside and more than that parked at people's homes and sleeping in THEIR beds. She has been a wonderful investment. 

Pelicans are my favorite birds. They do so many  cool things. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. 

The other day I took the long lens out to our local wetlands to see what was up. Per usual, it did not disappoint. The red-winged black birds were out in force. 

This week I'm continuing with the transportation theme Air. I was going to make it about hot air balloons. However, I have SO many images that need to be gone through that I got overwhelmed and settled for the Parachutes/Paragliders theme instead. Enjoy.

This is the beginning of a monster series based on the keyword: Transportation. It covers Air, Land and Sea. I'll begin with air and hit on helicopters, planes and hot air balloons. 

On Sunday January 7th, 2024 Flagstaff, AZ had a one foot snowstorm. It began snowing early in the morning and didn't stop until nearly sundown. It by far is not the largest single day snow event but it added enough snow to the previous storm's five inches to allow us a lovely jaunt into the forest on our snowshoes. Flagstaff, Arizona is one of the snowiest cities in the United States, with an average annual snowfall of 102 inches. The snowfall is heaviest in January and February.

I like taking pictures of mailboxes. They mostly look the same but often times are different enough to create a pattern. I love patterns. In gathering images for this post I began to wonder...where did the mailbox come from? In an effort to keep this a quick read I won't go into the complete evolution involving the Pony Express and the telegraph machine. You're welcome. 

Yes, the eclipse was cool and all but our trip was about SO much more than the sun. We began in New Mexico at El Morro National Monument. It is an outcropping of rock with a spring at the base of it. Travelers for centuries have been stopping there because of it's natural spring. Etchings on the wall date back to Ancestral Puebloans, Spanish conquistadors, and American settlers. 

Once upon a time I was a sports photographer in the Northern Arizona University athletic department. I was shooting film then, 400 Tri-Ex to be exact. I had 36 shots per roll and could rip through 36 images in six seconds if I held the shutter down continuously. Then there was the problem of missing the shot while changing film rolls not to mention the hours in the dark room. Digital changed all of that. Well, most of it anyway. I can still fire off hundreds of shots in seconds but I never have to change the roll!

The ostrich is an interesting bird. In going through my collection it turns out I have several pictures of these dinosaurs. Here are also some interesting facts I discovered about these birds. 

The representation of shadow, and especially of cast shadow, is as old as art itself, for according to classical writers art was born when the outline of a human shadow thrown onto a wall was first traced out in order to capture it in the form of a silhouette. 

 There are around 200 species of Agave, but only about 30 have been cultivated for commercial use. Most of these are from Mexico, although they occur in the southern United States and into South America. Plants are characterized by forming rosettes of fleshy (succulent) leaves which have a sharp point or spine terminally. The leaf margins may be smooth or spiny.

The word mural is a Spanish adjective that is used to refer to what is attached to a wall. The term mural later became a noun. In art, the word mural began to be used at the beginning of the 20th century. In ancient Roman times, a mural crown was given to the fighter who was first to scale the wall of a besieged town. "Mural" comes from the Latin muralis, meaning "wall painting". This word is related to murus, meaning "wall".

Our beloved Coyote Hawk turns three at the end of this month. We drove her home from Southern California on November 29, 2021. It has been three years of wonderful adventures with 227 nights spent inside and more than that parked at people's homes and sleeping in THEIR beds. She has been a wonderful investment. 

Pelicans are my favorite birds. They do so many  cool things. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before swallowing. 

The other day I took the long lens out to our local wetlands to see what was up. Per usual, it did not disappoint. The red-winged black birds were out in force. 

This week I'm continuing with the transportation theme Air. I was going to make it about hot air balloons. However, I have SO many images that need to be gone through that I got overwhelmed and settled for the Parachutes/Paragliders theme instead. Enjoy.

This is the beginning of a monster series based on the keyword: Transportation. It covers Air, Land and Sea. I'll begin with air and hit on helicopters, planes and hot air balloons. 

On Sunday January 7th, 2024 Flagstaff, AZ had a one foot snowstorm. It began snowing early in the morning and didn't stop until nearly sundown. It by far is not the largest single day snow event but it added enough snow to the previous storm's five inches to allow us a lovely jaunt into the forest on our snowshoes. Flagstaff, Arizona is one of the snowiest cities in the United States, with an average annual snowfall of 102 inches. The snowfall is heaviest in January and February.

I like taking pictures of mailboxes. They mostly look the same but often times are different enough to create a pattern. I love patterns. In gathering images for this post I began to wonder...where did the mailbox come from? In an effort to keep this a quick read I won't go into the complete evolution involving the Pony Express and the telegraph machine. You're welcome. 

From April 22-26, 2026, Ellen and I camped at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ and attended this festival. We attended a couple of great presentations and volunteered for the Family Nature Day on Saturday. The following are some of the images I took of some of the critters we encountred from the weekend. Enjoy!

It's time to finish up my posts on Japan. Here are the last four themes from the life-changing trip, in alphabetical order. It's a bit of a photo dump, so bear with me. For the most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

The people of Japan and elsewhere. THIS is why we travel. We had such wonderful experiences meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. 

This posting wound up being much bigger than I imagined, and it still does not cover it all. Food was such an important part of our six-week experience. 

Here is a quick collection of brooms. I found them interesting because at technologically advanced as Japan is, their brooms have maintained a less modern flare.  

Wow, this theme of buildings took a while to put together. It is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what we experienced on our visit to Japan.  Entire books have been written about temples, shrines, castles and Japanese architecture. I touched on some details and history below but mostly, enjoy the pictures. ;)

On our way from Hiroshima to Kyoto, we stopped at a pottery shop/studio in Bizen and learned about Bizen-yaki, also known as Bizen ware. It is one of the oldest and most revered forms of Japanese ceramics and this shop has been going for ten generations.  The history of this pottery spans over a thousand years. Originating from Bizen Province in Okayama Prefecture, this unique, unglazed pottery represents a profound connection between the earth, fire, and human craftsmanship. For tea practitioners and connoisseurs of Japanese aesthetics, Bizen-yaki is not only a vessel but a philosophy.

Here begins the blogs on Japan. We were there for six weeks. The first four weeks were spent in the northern part of Honshu Island, Aomori Prefecture, in the city of Misawa, with our friends, Kamalene (one of my old student teachers), her husband, Mike, and their daughter Teniya, a high school senior. The parents work on the Misawa Air Force Base as civilians, and Teniya attends school there. 

There was a flock of Forster's Terns on Saturday. 

Our trip to Denver via Montana was fantastic. It was a great big three-week trip that took us north from Flagstaff, through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado before returning home. We had an amazing time with new friends and family and didn't spend nearly enough time in most places. Rather than drag you through the trip day by day I'm going to divide the pictures into sections. The sections are: Animals, Art, Buildings, Camps, People, Mango (the grandson), Scenic and Signs so skip ahead if you want. There are captions and an occasional story in there but mostly, cool photos. Enjoy.

This post of business begins with a walk I did through Flagstaff. I found this mural, painted on the side of Coconino High School. I thought it was cool so I shot it! lol

Let's begin with the 25th Annual Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival put together through Friends of the Verde River and hosted at our beloved Dead Horse Ranch State Park. This is our second time attending and my second year of volunteering my photographic services. The bonus this year? Camping with these beautiful people and having a wonderful mixture of hanging out with framily, volunteering and attending workshops. 

To begin the hot air balloon segment I'm going to divide it into three sub catehories; Hot Air Balloons, Racing Balloons and Hydrogen Balloons. To begin with, the history of hot air balloons dates back to the 18th century. The first successful human-carrying flight technology was the hot air balloon. The first untethered manned balloon flight in the world was performed in Paris, France on November 21, 1783. Balloons used for passenger flights today were developed in the United States during the 1960s.

My keyword of Transportation covers any item a person might use to "get around". It ranges from wheelchairs, skateboards, paddle boards and bicycles to the obvious planes, trains and automobiles. This is clearly not an exhaustive list but, you get the picture. Probably my current favorite form of transportation is the bicycle. I'm always so impressed with people's ingenuity to such a simple machine. So we'll begin there...

From April 22-26, 2026, Ellen and I camped at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, AZ and attended this festival. We attended a couple of great presentations and volunteered for the Family Nature Day on Saturday. The following are some of the images I took of some of the critters we encountred from the weekend. Enjoy!

It's time to finish up my posts on Japan. Here are the last four themes from the life-changing trip, in alphabetical order. It's a bit of a photo dump, so bear with me. For the most part, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

The people of Japan and elsewhere. THIS is why we travel. We had such wonderful experiences meeting new people and reconnecting with old friends. 

This posting wound up being much bigger than I imagined, and it still does not cover it all. Food was such an important part of our six-week experience. 

Here is a quick collection of brooms. I found them interesting because at technologically advanced as Japan is, their brooms have maintained a less modern flare.  

Wow, this theme of buildings took a while to put together. It is the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of what we experienced on our visit to Japan.  Entire books have been written about temples, shrines, castles and Japanese architecture. I touched on some details and history below but mostly, enjoy the pictures. ;)

On our way from Hiroshima to Kyoto, we stopped at a pottery shop/studio in Bizen and learned about Bizen-yaki, also known as Bizen ware. It is one of the oldest and most revered forms of Japanese ceramics and this shop has been going for ten generations.  The history of this pottery spans over a thousand years. Originating from Bizen Province in Okayama Prefecture, this unique, unglazed pottery represents a profound connection between the earth, fire, and human craftsmanship. For tea practitioners and connoisseurs of Japanese aesthetics, Bizen-yaki is not only a vessel but a philosophy.

Here begins the blogs on Japan. We were there for six weeks. The first four weeks were spent in the northern part of Honshu Island, Aomori Prefecture, in the city of Misawa, with our friends, Kamalene (one of my old student teachers), her husband, Mike, and their daughter Teniya, a high school senior. The parents work on the Misawa Air Force Base as civilians, and Teniya attends school there. 

There was a flock of Forster's Terns on Saturday. 

Our trip to Denver via Montana was fantastic. It was a great big three-week trip that took us north from Flagstaff, through Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado before returning home. We had an amazing time with new friends and family and didn't spend nearly enough time in most places. Rather than drag you through the trip day by day I'm going to divide the pictures into sections. The sections are: Animals, Art, Buildings, Camps, People, Mango (the grandson), Scenic and Signs so skip ahead if you want. There are captions and an occasional story in there but mostly, cool photos. Enjoy.

This post of business begins with a walk I did through Flagstaff. I found this mural, painted on the side of Coconino High School. I thought it was cool so I shot it! lol

Let's begin with the 25th Annual Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival put together through Friends of the Verde River and hosted at our beloved Dead Horse Ranch State Park. This is our second time attending and my second year of volunteering my photographic services. The bonus this year? Camping with these beautiful people and having a wonderful mixture of hanging out with framily, volunteering and attending workshops.