A Photo that I will keep

Christine proposed the theme "A photo you decided to keep" and there are many. Because there are many reasons to keep a photo. Some are those perfect images you managed--perfect composition and perfect colors. Impressive events. Magnificent scenes.

And others---well, can you just tell here how excited Kate is at her graduation from sixth grade?

Back to Basics

I thought and thought about how basic you could get and we live in a society where basic is NOT basic. I have gone back to some overseas trips to show some REALLY basics.

Basics in school in India.

with a basic classroom.

Laundry basics

Should I call this one Basic Hospitality? After visiting an isolated Russian town we were taken for a cruise on the river. We stopped on an island for a basic meal.

Basic commerce--low overhead. (also in Russia)

Basics of breakfast. Our B&B host in Scotland.

I have two very similar, but this picture was taken in London at the Sherlock Holmes Museum

--Mrs. Hudson's sewing machine.

And the basics of mystery fiction--Sherlock Holmes's sitting room at 221B Baker Street (the Sherlock Holmes Museum.)

Hope you enjoyed my basics.

Silhouette

Silhouette is our theme this week and I searched my photo files for some shots that would meet that idea. I don't do silhouettes for the sake of being a silhouette, but there are often shots that live up to the theme--especially at sunset.

This is my view at home now--well, not now as those trellises now have hop vines climbing at least half way up.

 Waiting for the ferry at Vashon Island a few years ago. We had just missed the earlier ferry and had to wait an hour enjoying this sight.

 Long range view one sunset at Longmire in Mt. Rainier National Park.

 And here the view when we visited the dragon festival near Phoenix a couple of years ago.

 Not quite a silhouette as you can, if you look carefully, read the words on the "rudder" blades of this windmill.

 We camped at Goose Lake on the Oregon-California boundary and saw this display.

My choice for my header came from this picture, which was not a sunset. I'll always try for a shot of a dragonfly, and his delicate wings show so nicely against the light.

Other headbangers can be found by their links in my sidebar near the top.

Something Old

So it occurred to me while I was thinking of something old that I could use pictures of the ghost town Bodie California, or older still  maybe Edinburgh Castle from our Scotland trip, or even Hadrian's Wall which was constructed in the first century A.D.

Then while in Arizona for my grandson's graduation we made a road trip to a cooler part of the state for the day. Cooler as in it was 91º F. instead of 107º.

Along the way we passed among a forest of saguaro cactus.

I have read in more than one source that the saguaro does not grow any arms until it is about 70 years old. So these guys are roughly my own age.

And this one, a bit older--though only an adolescent in cactus years.

As we passed many many multi-armed specimens  it made me wonder. If the cactus has fifteen arms, how old could it be? There were some like that.

How old, for example is this guy?

I count ten arms, though I could be mistaken.

So this ridge, then, is a veritable old age home for saguaro.

My friends among the headbangers, may very well have things older than mine in their headers this week, but count on me to be way outside the box with it.
 Their links are in my sidebar near the top.