Early Past Life Memory?

An older doodle drawn in staff meeting a few years ago, which I just happened upon:

Sailor Pig

This was something I drew during a staff meeting at work a couple of weeks ago. I think he must come from a past incarnation of mine where I was a sailor (or a pig?) . . .

click on image to view larger

Hail Storm in June!

Today we had a big hailstorm here.
It was exciting!

50 Years Ago Today

Here is a photo of me taken a few minutes ago (the cats put that scarf on my head- they like it, because it makes them laugh, so I left it on for the photo.)



And here is what I looked like 50 years ago, as shown in my first passport photo.

That passport was obtained when I was two years old, before my family moved to Istanbul, Turkey, where we lived for a little over a year. It was exactly 50 years ago today, June 18th, 1958, that we sailed away from the United States, on the SS Saturnia, seen below.

I had my third birthday on the ship, and, according to a note written by my mother in my baby book, I was taken swimming in Palermo, Sicily.

Ears Are Strange...

They are like alien fungi, growing out of the sides of our heads. This is one of mine:

Mudding The Church

Just south of the town of Taos, New Mexico is Ranchos de Taos, and that is the location of a very special church, the San Francisco de Asis Church.

It may even look familiar to you, as it became a famous image after it was painted by the artist Georgia O'Keeffe. And since then, many artists and photographers have been drawn to the potent beauty of this massive adobe structure.

Around this time of year, the adobe walls of the church are given a fresh coat of mud and straw. This is smoothed on by a crew of volunteers, and then baked hard in the New Mexico sun. It is an act of love that takes a couple of weeks to complete.

This past weekend I stopped by and took some photos of the annual mudding. In the first photo below, you can see the erosion of the previous mud coat that has occurred during the past year:

And here you see the moist new mud, below the older dry and cracked mud:

Volunteers at work, applying the new mud:

Hands lovingly apply the mud, as it has been done now for almost two hundred years.

Henry's Lazy Day

My cat Henry, who I adore, is usually a pretty busy fellow, out and about, exploring the territory. Below you can see him coming down out of one of the huge trees in the front yard:

But yesterday Henry had a lazy day, spending much of the day just lying around on the foot of my bed. He opened his eyes and lifted his head briefly, when I took this first photo, but then he dozed right off back to sleep. You can also see that he's injured his nose. I don't know how he did that, but it's healing up.

Strange Days

It's strange on Planet Earth these days. This image reflects how some days are feeling to me lately. Maybe you too can relate to this?

Boo Better

Boo, on left, climbing into bed with Fieldsie (top) and Rexie (right)

A quick update on Boo. He went to the vet to have his teeth cleaned last week. As I thought, he did have some bad teeth, and the vet did four extractions. Boo was a bit groggy for a while after he got home, but had a quick recovery and was quickly able to eat again. He seems just fine now, although perhaps a wee bit apprehensive, when he sees me, that I might take him back to the vet's again. I'm glad I was able to get him the care he needed.