bird lineup

This photo reminds me of that song, I think it was on Sesame Street - "one of these things is not like the other, one of these things does not belong." If you look closely you'll see that all the other birds seem to be turned away from the white one. Is it just a coincidence that they look like they're all talking about him and wondering what in the world he's doing on THEIR lamppost? And right in the middle of it too, how dare he?

the beach at night

There's something magical about the beach - the softness of the sand, the rhythmic roar of the waves. And on a clear dark night with a full moon, the magic intensifies.

My grandmother had a house a half a block from the beach and hated sand - whenever we took a walk at night she's always ask if we went up to the beach. If the answer was yes, we'd have to take a shower outside before coming into the house - so the answer was always "no." This photo was taken in July, a few weeks after she passed away; but had it been any other summer it would have been on one of those walks when we "didn't go to the beach."

a tree falls in the forest

I don't know if anyone heard the sound when they fell, and I don't know just when it happened, but you can't escape the fact that these are some pretty awesome trees. This photo is from Vancouver, taken during the same trip when I took the cloud photo I posted a few days ago.

mountains and clouds

And now for some clouds in the mountains! This photo was taken on January 1, 2000 at Chamonix, France. The clouds were just spectacular and I stopped to take this photo. Then I put my camera away, grabbed my ski poles, and skied down that slope right into the clouds. I wish I could say I came out in one piece, but what I'll say instead is that when you ski on steep hills with moguls, it's really better if you can see well. At least I like to think that's what caused my fall. What I do know is that if you have to break your leg and need surgery on New Year's Day, Chamonix is a good place to do it - excellent doctors put me together almost as good as new. The week stay in the hospital would have been a little better had I taken French rather than Spanish in school. But all's well that ends well - I can still ski.

hills - something you don't see in Chicago

I take lots of photos from the car... here's another one, taken a few years ago on our way to see friends in North Carolina.

This photo was taken somewhere around the North Carolina/Virginia border. Another foggy morning, you can see it just starting to lift off the hills.

Don't get me wrong - I love living in the midwest, and especially love Chicago.  I've lived here almost exactly half of my life now.  But the FIRST half of my life was spend growing up in the mountains of West Virginia, then the hills of western Virginia. And no matter how long I live in the midwest, I don't think I'll ever be completely used to how unnaturally flat it is here.

sunset

Our latest trip to Indiana started before sunrise on Monday, and ended after sunset on Tuesday - this photo was also taken from the car window (again, while I was a passenger, not while I was driving).

sunrise

This is really yesterday's posting - I was too wiped out last night to post it.  This photo is from Monday morning's drive to IU; taken from the car window while driving down 65. (It's ok, I wasn't driving, photo taken from the passenger seat!)

I'm really not a morning person so when I'm forced to be up early I see all sorts of sights I'm not used to - like sunrises and spider webs in the early morning dew.  It's *almost* enough to make me want to wake up earlier, but maybe not quite.