The Stare Down

The buffalo in Oklahoma aren't as skittish as the elk are. They also seem to be a little more scarey just because they are so big and they don't scare easily.

Why did the elk cross the road?

Apparantly because they didn't want their picture taken! I came across these elk while in some mountians in southwest Oklahoma. They were moving pretty fast and didn;t give me a lot of time to compose the shot.

Thank you PhotoShop

While rumaging through pictures from our trip to Oahu in 2006 I came across a poorly exposed picture of something... Out of curousity I opened the picture in PhotoShop and lightened it up enough to see just what it was. "Hum a fowering plant of some sort, maybe I can bring this picture to life" I thought to myself. About 20 mnutes later the once unrecognizable picture turns out to be quite presentable after all. Thank you PhotoShop!

Murder of Crows

Groups of birds are refered to in differn't ways depending on what kind they are. Geese are a "Gaggle" when on the ground and a "Skein" when in flight. Magpies, A "Tiding", "Gulp" or"Charm". Nightingales, A "Watch"... the list goes on and on Crows are for whatever reason refered to as a "Murder" when in groups. Who would have known?

Turkey Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

Power to the people!

These pictures are quite dark as the repairs to the power lines up to Quatse Lake were in poor light.

I have a new respect for the fellows who keep the electricity working. These fellows were out at first light in the snow. Also keep in mind that the fellow in the bucket with the chainsaw has no place to run or hide if things get out of hand... Long and short of it is that within an hour or so the trees were cut off the line. Two poles were straightned up, wires were tied back to insulators and power was restored. Then off they went to the fix another problem area next town over.

Smoke but no hotdogs.

Every morning my two dogs run up the gravel road to Quatse Lake with me following in my pickup truck. Several mornings ago we rounded a corner in the road to find this! Already the dogs were half way between me and the downed lines! While honking the horn I put the truck in reverse and got the heck out of there. Fortunately the dogs followed as they hate to get left behind. Kinda leaves the prickley little hairs on your neck sticking straight out...

Santa has a new ride

I came across these two yesterday in a little town a few miles from me. It was pretty cool outside so I think Mrs. Clause was probably a little colder than Santa since she was in a short skirt!

Lazy or Smart?

I came across this in a town in Missouri. The city had widened the intersection and put in new power poles at the same time. Instead of reconnecting the lines from the old pole to the new they simply took a chain saw to the old pole and then made an extra connection from the new pole to the left over piece of the old pole.

This looks like something I would do and not something that should have actually been done!

From the "Big City"

There are definitely things in the big city you don't see out in the country. The architecture is one of those. This is the top of a building on the "Plaza" in Kansas City, MO. It looks like a big fancy lightning rod to me!

Modern day vagabond

Found this interesting fellow with his moterized bicycle and trailer on the streets of Vancouver. I'll bet you could get from one side of the country to the other on less than 10 gallons of gas with this rig! Always interesting going to the city... Never know what you're going to see.

A Slow Ride

Taking a slow ride down the Mississippi River, trying to get all of the tourist dollars possible.

Next street over.

Some times when you least expect it a potential picture presents its self. Quickly you scramble for your camera, and start shooting. This was one of those moments. Took this during last trip to Vancouver.

60,000 people!

Here's a picture of my Wife and I at the U2 concert. We're on the right side about a third of the way up... We're both waving... LOL

Dog Day Afternoon

I ran across these three in the park the other afternoon enjoying a romp in the water while it was warm. The St. Bernard might not have cared if it was warm but I'm sure the little black dog thought twice before heading into the water.

Hanging out...

Found this big fellow hanging out at the local grocery store parking lot, likely waiting for his people... Couldn't resist, had to take a picture or three. Look at the size of him! That's a full size truck he's in not a half sized Japinese pickup. After I took the picture I went over and scritched him around the ears, he loved it!

A Corny photo

We finally had a dry spell of about a week and the farmers have been frantically trying to get the crops in. I had to shoot from the top of a hill looking through a tree to be able to see into the trailer and the corn. It's not the greatest shot in the world but I thought it had a good context to it.

Back to normal...

All good things must come to an end... Our long hot beautiful summer is now a distant memory and things are back to normal. I guess that's what is to be expected when you live in a rainforest! One consolation is at least you don't have to shovel rain...LOL

Fossels in sandstone

Went for a hike yesterday on a favorite beach. Found these clam? fossels in a big chunk of sandstone. Kind of leaves me wondering what this place would have been like when the critters living in these fosselized shells were actually alive.

Big Bird

Speaking of gold, I ran across this huge bird head setting on the side of a mountain in Arizona. The boulder has been shaped into the bird head and he overlooks a spot where an old Spanish gold mine is located. There is supposed to be a treasure hidden inside or very near the mine. One of these days........

Pot of Gold!

Except for resizing this picture no other changes have been made to it. Found this very bright rainbow yesterday while out to Quatsino by boat. Usually when I take a rainbow picture the rainbow is difficult to see... Not this time though!
Have to get a metal detector and poke around behind the cabin in this picture, who knows may find my pot of gold yet! LOL

Layers of sun

I was outside last night enjoying the unseasonably warm temperatures and this was my view of the sunset. Normally I would try to get to the top of a hill or a lake to catch the colors but there was something about the bare trees being silhouetted against the color that made me want to take a photo.

English Bay

View of English Bay from Stanley Park. The Port of Vancouver deals with ships from all over the Pacific Ocean. It is not unusual to see 6 to 10 of these large vessels anchored in English bay waiting their turn to deliver or take on a load at the port facilitys in Burrard Inlet.

Looking for lunch

Here's a couple of more from my hike in Oklahoma. I came across this critter scrounging for something to eat. He was so busy looking he didn't even hear me coming.

Jake and a Humboldt Squid

Normally the Humboldt squid only range as far North as California, recently however a number of these squid have been found in Hardy Bay on Northern Vancouver Island. Several theorys for this exist. One theory would suggest that golbal warming and envirnomental changes play a part in this while another theory speculates that the squid were chasing "Pilchard" a small species of fish recently returned to the West Coast.

New bike

Check this out, Brand new Kona "Dawg" dual suspension mountain bike. Picked this up while down in Vancouver!

Most fellows get to middle age have a mid life chrisis, revert to 20 year old mentality and buy the sports car of their dreams. Not me I reverted to my early teens and bought a bicycle... LOL

A balancing act

I was hiking in Oklahoma and came across these two rocks. Yes, these are two completely separate rocks that are wedged between two other rocks with the force of gravity holding everything together. I couldn't believe it and hiked to the top of the hill to check it out. I even walked across the two rocks and checked to make sure they were separate.

In hindssight that may not have been the smartest thing in the world to do!

More fall colours

Here are a couple more pictures. This time from Stanley Park in the heart of Vancouver. Interesting side note... Stanley Park was named after Lord Stanley who I believe donated the land which now is the Park. This is the same man who donated his silver cup as a prize for the hockey teams of his day... Thus the name Stanley Cup! If I'm not mistaken he was also involved in or paid for the construction of the famous Lions Gate Bridge which spans Burrare Inlet linking Vancouver to North Vancouver.

Fall colours in Lynn Canyon

Lynn Canyon is a jewel of a Park in North Vancouver. I only wish I had more time to explore around and take additional pictures. The light that day was good for pictures and all the fallen leaves added colour to the shots.

U2

In my last email I stated that my Wife had purchased some tickets to see some Irish dance troupe or other coming to Vancouver and that I would be allong pretending to enjoy myself... I was joking of course. This is the second time we have been to see U2 in concert, the first time was in Honolulu a couple of years ago. We were not dissapointed, it was an excellent concert, these guys are quite the performers! Photograph by Jacob McCabe (my step-son).

A Bloomin Cactus

That makes me think of a bloomin onion and that makes me hungry! For those of you that have never eaten at an Outback Steak House you may not understand that reference. Sorry about that!

I had to climb half way up the side of a mountain in Arizona to get this shot. It was good exercise but it reminded me how out of shape I am!