A Few of my Favorite Things ♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸ ¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

Raindrops on roses

 

and whiskers on kittens

 

bright copper kettles

 

and warm woolen mittens

 

wild geese (and tame--sort of)

 

that fly with the moon on their wings

 

These are a few of my favorite things.

 

Those are Maria von Trapp's favorite things.

I would say that my favorite things are traveling and hiking.

 

Made even better with hiking while traveling.

 

Gairloch, Scotland with our hiking tour.

What are the favorite things of our headbanger friends?--check out their blogs on my (right) sidebar links.

We are walking for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society this coming Saturday. While not a hike as such, it could be included in our favorite things. A link to our sponsorship page is in my left sidebar.

 

 

 

 



Forced Perspective

It's those trick pictures--you know the ones where you line things up just right so that little Jimmy is sitting in the goldfish bowl staring at the fish or the Chihuahua is bigger than the Great Dane. That's the theme Craver gave us this week.

So we went off to the Balloon Rally with the intent of creating some forced perspective shots.

They aren't as easy as you might think. Especially since the balloons move once you get your shot idea lined up. We  had quite a few fails.

 

And some close calls.

 

before we gave up and decided to go chase the balloons.

 

So I went back to the two trick shots from my archives.

 Alaska 2009 and Seattle 2008

 

I am still not sure which I will choose for the header. You can see what the other header challengers have chosen by clicking their links in my sidebar.

Header Challenge--Nature

I have a bit of a challenge with this challenge. The challenge is not finding a picture to use in my header. The challenge is that I have hundreds--even thousands of images that fit the theme.

 

From this evening's meditation from Fr. James Martin, as he ponders the wonder we had about the world when we were kids:

"Tonight think of something that captivated you today by its beauty or strangeness or mystery. Then thank God for the ability to be amazed."

 

Should I choose one from far, such as this one from India...

 ...or my favorite picture from our trip to Siberia. I have a poster sized copy of the taiga forest on the wall near my desk.

 Should I look closely in my  Scotland files?

 Should I go green?

 ...or zoom in over the sea?

 Do I go north to Alaska?

 ...or south to Arizona?

 Should I look to the skies?

 ...to the treetops?

 to the top?

 ...or the bottom?

 right in close? 

My Headbanger colleagues will have their nature Headers up soon.

Check them out from their links in my sidebar.

What captivated you today?

Don't Rock the Boat

One evening toward the end of our first cruise, while sailing through Alaska's Inside Passage,  we joined a trivia game in the lounge. Before giving one of the questions, the emcee admonished the crowd not to shout out the answer to the next question or the ship would tip. I don't remember the exact wording of the question, but the answer was that Prince Charles is the Prince of ...

W(h)ales

...and everyone would run to the rail to try to see them.

Outside the box on the Headbanger theme of "Don't Rock the Boat". What will the others do? They are linked in my sidebar.

In a box of old snapshots somewhere, I think I have a picture of five or six first graders seated on a big piece of bulletin board paper, rocking away vigorously. They were reenacting the Gospel story of Jesus calming the sea.

That would have been a good one as well.

Wild Animals

Wild Animals? Oh, Christine you have unleashed a monster. Don't you know that I live in the Wild West, hike, and love to travel?

Christine has given us the theme of "Wild Animals" for this week's header challenge. Well may the others in our little cadre of competitors come up with some great critters, but they probably will not have come from as far flung as mine. You can find their choices from the links in my sidebar.

Just to the left of the tree to the left of the redhead--there--do you see them?
ELEPHANTS

No?

Well, those little lumps on the ridge are elephants--a delightful treat on a cruise on Lake Periyar in Periyar National park and Tiger Reserve in India. Ah well, we did not see any tigers--I've only seen tigers in the zoo and featured one when we did "Boxes" a few weeks ago.

I've been to zoos in, let's see, four countries, and national parks in seven. I did say I travel, right? Or at least I have in the past been privileged to do so.

The mama monkey and her baby were at a Hindu temple we visited.

Back at home we have spent much time in our closest National Park, Mt. Rainier, where this marmot was curious about who we might be. These guys come out of hibernation skinny in the spring and eat, eat, eat, and then eat some more so that they will be nice and fat for their next winter's nap.

 On one hike about five years ago we rounded a bend and encountered this young chap. What a delight. We hadn't seen one in the park for nearly 30 years. We've seen lots since.

 This American White Pelican we saw at Pelican Bay when we cabinned at Crescent Lake in Idaho. We have a flock of them that summer here in the Yakima Valley, and it is a wonder to watch them as they fly in formation.

Are Scottish frogs friendlier than those in other locations? 

In Denali National Park this Grizzly was on his way away. That was fine with me.

 I was less concerned about these Dall Sheep, though I wouldn't want to get in the way of those horns.

 

Or this moose.    Of course all three were photographed from the bus.

Our whale watching tour out of Juneau gave us sights of some of the largest of wild critters.

 Alas the tallest and my favorites I've seen only at zoos--in fact I had the chance to feed one a few years ago at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. It was a birthday present.


Oh, yes, my camera! it's not one of the fanciest, but I fancy the awesome zoom lens that is one of its features.

Would I come so close to these wild critters otherwise?



The giraffe and the gorilla were in San Francisco.

 

 
 
These guys were all in Phoenix. (Love the Meer cats!)

I chose this Alaska Brown Bear from the Alaska Wildlife Center for the header. That he is rescued and rehabilitated does not make him any less wild.

 

And so, for now, I'll go, good bye.