I posted clouds yesterday so I thought I'd do the same today. These clouds are much less threatening. In fact some have looked at this photo and said they don't look real. But they really are clouds - over Tavira, a small town in southern Portugal.
Our part of the state was in a "tornado watch" yesterday when our daughter-in-law Katie called our attention to the clouds that were visible through our living room window. The bulges are evidence of turbulence but fortunately all we got was heavy rain for a while.
Deb and I were waiting to catch a train in London this summer and I was struck by this group of businessmen on the way to work. One of the things that strikes me about mass transit in big cities is that it is oddly intimate but not gregarious - like being in an elevator full of silent people who all seem to be pretending that the other people aren't present.These gentlemen seem oblivious to each other, and because they have the luxury to do so in this setting, they have each carved out their personal space.
Because one doesn't worship democracy, I'm thinking that calling Mt. Rushmore "The Shrine To Democracy" is somehow a misnomer. Plus, if we really made Mt. Rushmore into a shrine, the ACLU would be all over the possibility of blurring the lines between church and state. I think we need to confine our worship to churches, synagogues, mosques, mega-malls and Apple stores.Instead of worshipping it, I would say we "practice" democracy. Let's hope they're right when they say, "Practice makes perfect." Someday. . . .This photo, incidentally, was taken from a spot not too far from our cabin in the Black Hills.
If you read yesterday's post, I know what you are thinking: Is this person real or is she made out of polyester and resin? Answer: She's real. This is Deb and she is sitting in the central plaza in Tavara, Portugal, checking her email on our iPad.Without trying to make it so, our iPad was often the center of attention as we traveled this summer. The fact that it had just been released in a few European countries clearly made it an object of intense interest. People in Europe and back home have asked me if it is good as the hype makes it seem and I say that "it's better. Especially the 3G version which I have."But this blog isn't about the virtues of technology, is it. . . . ?
Deb and I were in Lisbon on the last day of our visit to Portugal when I noticed these two people pondering something off in the distance. I was immediately reminded of a famous work of art by Duane Hanson called "Tourists." And so I snapped the photo. I'll have to admit that my wife and I come closer to looking like Hanson's tourists than this Lisbon couple does, though I think my wife is much more stylish.You might be interested in knowing that Duane Hanson casts his fiberglass and resin figures from real people. Most of the people in my photos are real, too.
I am fascinated by these fuzzy red flowers growing in my wife's garden. I believe they are called bee balm. I suppose they are so named because they nourish the bodies and souls of the bees that visit them. I think the flowers are past their prime right now and so they look a little bedraggled. Thus the title today. They look a little like my kids looked when they woke up when they were little - hair all over the place.I took this photo with my Canon 70-200mm zoom and was once again impressed with its ability to smoothly blur things in the background - especially when I'm shooting with a 2.8 aperture.I'm not sure this is a good photograph, but I like the fading red flower. If it had a face, it would probably look a little confused.
When I took this photo, I saw a single pink rose. But, as is often the case, I saw other things as I began to process it. I don't know how your broswer behaves when you look at my photos in this blog but on my computer when I click on the photo, I get a bigger view. And when I hover my cursor over the bigger view, it turns into a magnifying glass with a "+" sign on it. Try clicking on the photo then and you get an even bigger view.When the photo is fully magnified to full resolution, you might be able to see what I saw and understand why I called this post "Another World." While you are here, how about taking a look at the Crab Nebula and looking for similarities between it and this flower which is no bigger than a US quarter (or a 2 Euro Coin). The Crab Nebula has a diameter of 11 light years, by the way. I guess I've given away one of the differences.Canon 5DII 1/60s f/2.8 ISO320 100mm
To someone from the US (and much of the rest of the world), one of the many endearing idiosyncrasies of England is that they drive on the "wrong" side of the road. One would think that this would have little impact on the pedestrian but that would be wrong. For example, which side of the sidewalk do you walk on? How about people movers at airports? Escalators? Etc.As a pedestrian in London for the first time, I appreciated the courtesy of the warnings painted at many crosswalk because more than once, I looked left as I would at home, stepped into the crosswalk and then was aware that traffic was bearing down on me on the "wrong" side of the road.Incidentally, without trying to sound pedantic, 34% of the world's population drives on the left. The French used to drive on the left but Napoleon changed it. I don't know why.
Because we typically go on vacation at the end of May and the beginning of June, this is all Deb and I normally see of the Iris that she has planted in her garden. But there is something attractive and stately about an Iris that is ready to bloom.
