Amazing Sightseeing Experiences ✈️????
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Like many blends of tobacco, natural phenomenon often require some time and contemplation to arrive at the experience you want. For me, it helps to not have too many people around, not that I don't like people, but it distracts. Off hours at anything, whether it is a natural place or a cathedral, really bring up the ghosts. You see what you otherwise wouldn't have seen. Sometimes you only get the full effect in hindsight, in memory.
Gotta admit, the Sistine was pretty shattering. The whole scale of the basilica is meant to remind you how insignificant we are. Trekking around the Colosseum and the Forum was fascinating. Pretty damned good pizza in Roma.
The Louvre, Chartres, Notre Dame, Versailles, all wondrous places, Pigalle also, for different reasons. Taking a train from Milan to Amsterdam took me through the Alps and past amazing spaces.
All of that and much, much more is pretty cool.
But the best are the friendships formed those many many years ago on that pan Europe trip, that I still get to enjoy.
There is no way these could be rated on any kind of scale. They are all magnificent.
Yep. I actually enjoyed the gardens at Versailles more than the palace itself. The palace was over crowded with "selfie" takers. I would also add Sacré-Cœur Basilica.
Today June 25th marks the 145 anniversary of the Battle of Little Bighorn (1876). When there, it's not so much what you see, it's what you feel.
Get there quick before its completely destroyed by social media "influencers"!
That's the essential idea behind much of macro photography:
Frozen water by a kerb:
Locked
A tree didn't wait for the cement to dry to shed:
[url=https://flic.kr/p/apDpJ7]
Concrete Impressions
This one even has my old parish church as a picture in a picture!
O Lord, how all things point to Thee!
A common, mundane stove and a macro lens:
Descensus Averni
And, some oil and water and a macro lens and a flash:
Light of a Thousand Suns
Well, I had to throw in one more for the time being:
Smoke, a flash and a macro lens. No photoshopping or image doctoring of any kind, other than pushing the White Balance value to make the grey smoke blue. The capriciousness of smoke is amazing.
Enchanter
And I didn't have to step outside my door to see that. Hooray for the mundane!
Smoke, a flash and a macro lens. No photoshopping or image doctoring of any kind, other than pushing the White Balance value to make the grey smoke blue. The capriciousness of smoke is amazing.
Enchanter
And I didn't have to step outside my door to see that. Hooray for the mundane!
From an architectural standpoint, the cities of New Orleans and Amsterdam both amaze me. They're not as ornate as, say, palatial mansions or old, high dollar churches, but the consistency of creativity and attention to detail catch my eye. I used to do historic restorations on some old southern mansions and some of the more ornate ones could have kept me busy for hours and hours, examining the fine, handmade trimwork.
Perhaps not as architectural, but still very much so, Cairn Euny in rural Cornwall set me aglow, especially entering the fogou. I'm a rural type at heart, though, so it was kind of a wonderful experience. Witnessing two women speak Kernewek to each other and English to us was a gem of an experience as well.
I have not been to Chichen Itza (not Chicken Itza, Autocorrect, you inbred reject app), but the city of Na Chan (Palenque) took my breath away with its presence, as did Yaaxchilan and Toninah. Hell, some of the earthen mounds throughout the southeast do the same. Pinson Mounds in Tennessee is a marvel of effort.
In nature, I'm the type dazzled by artesian springs in the nearby creeks, a mature patch of ginseng, the smell of fresh-cut hay, and a squirrels burying acorns. I am NOT dazzled by rabbits destroying my beet crop 2 years in a row, ticks, poisonous mushrooms, or goats. Take of it what you will.
Maybe you're just intended to visit the craziest sites on earth until you find that one in Gary, Indiana that wows you and acts as muse to a collection of novels that define the 21st century. I don't know.
Perhaps not as architectural, but still very much so, Cairn Euny in rural Cornwall set me aglow, especially entering the fogou. I'm a rural type at heart, though, so it was kind of a wonderful experience. Witnessing two women speak Kernewek to each other and English to us was a gem of an experience as well.
I have not been to Chichen Itza (not Chicken Itza, Autocorrect, you inbred reject app), but the city of Na Chan (Palenque) took my breath away with its presence, as did Yaaxchilan and Toninah. Hell, some of the earthen mounds throughout the southeast do the same. Pinson Mounds in Tennessee is a marvel of effort.
In nature, I'm the type dazzled by artesian springs in the nearby creeks, a mature patch of ginseng, the smell of fresh-cut hay, and a squirrels burying acorns. I am NOT dazzled by rabbits destroying my beet crop 2 years in a row, ticks, poisonous mushrooms, or goats. Take of it what you will.
Maybe you're just intended to visit the craziest sites on earth until you find that one in Gary, Indiana that wows you and acts as muse to a collection of novels that define the 21st century. I don't know.
Visited New Orleans. And every night I’d take a walk through the graveyard across the street from my hotel. A nice 15-25 minute walk to just relax and work off a bit of dinner.
After night three or four, The consierge asked if I had just come from the graveyard. I said “yes” and told him I had been walking there after dinner for three or four nights. He told me, it’s one of the most dangerous places in the city. Muggings and assaults galore. Then handed me the paper, which detailed an assault and murder the previous evening. I count my lucky stars I’ve an ugly mug and mustn’t look too approachable.
After night three or four, The consierge asked if I had just come from the graveyard. I said “yes” and told him I had been walking there after dinner for three or four nights. He told me, it’s one of the most dangerous places in the city. Muggings and assaults galore. Then handed me the paper, which detailed an assault and murder the previous evening. I count my lucky stars I’ve an ugly mug and mustn’t look too approachable.
Plant Marigolds and Chrysanthemums. They get rid of ticks, mosquitos and rabbits. The Marigolds will be good for Spring and Summer, and once they die, the mums will start to flower in the fall.
I’ve used this two prong approach for years.
Bonus, both types of flowers are easy to grow and plant. And even though most mum types I plant are annuals, I harvest the seeds for the next season... ditto my marigolds.
Had a bit of a fright. Out in Tucson for business. Found this as I entered my hotel room on the floor. First time ever I saw a camel spider. Harmless but don’t want him in my room.
They prey upon brown recluse spiders as well as scorpions. They are good to have around, as they rarely bite.
Visited Russia on my own back in 2002. Took this pic of St Basil's. My hotel was right across the street.
I have not had luck with marigolds repelling anything. I do have a recipe for rabbit repellant that works very well, but of course it has to be reapplied after every rain.
I have gone so far as to interplant the hell out of marigolds throughout the garden. It did not affect aphids, flea beetles, mosquitoes, horn worms, or any rodents. I have seen sprayed pyrethrin work wonders, but the natural aura of several strains of marigold appear to not be strong enough to battle the Tennessee pests.
I drove out there last year, before the local news told everyone how wonderful it was that year, but it was still crowded. This was of course right after the covid lockdowns started, so the reserve itself was closed but there's roadside parking for 3 or 4 miles to the east and another mile or two to the west. I got a lot of really good photos. But I wanted more! I went out the following week, and there wasn't a damn place to park anywhere. If you saw the video I posted above, that was about two miles from our home, in an empty field. Lots of poppies, very few people, and luckily, no rattlesnakes.