The Many Faces of Mango

Annika has a great cat named Mr. Mango. He is mostly a lap lover. He is very expressive though and really lets you know what he wants. Today when I came home I walked in the door with my camera in hand. Mango was in one of our red chairs relaxing in the way that only cats can. I stopped and photographed a whole series of just his facial expressions. He's a grand old cat.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

The Start of a Great Meal

Yesterday evening I set out to make some chicken vegetable soup for the family dinner. I grabbed a cutting board, an onion, a knife and placed them on the counter. Then I grabbed some spices from the cupboard and as I turned back to the counter I thought to myself, "Wow! That looks really cool." I grabbed my camera and took several photographs of it from different angles. This is the one I liked the best. The soup was delicious by the way.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Is There Really One Hundred Legs?

You just never no what you will find when you live in the country. There was a centipede underneath my container for bird seed. So here it is. How many legs are there?

Have fun and God bless,

chris

Coastal Farmhouse

Today I spent some time playing with textures. I have a large collection of textures that I continually add to. When I was with Lenore on the coast Friday and Saturday I found quite a few. There is a lot of weather beaten buildings along the coast due to the fog and the salt in the air. This is an image of an old farmhouse created about a week ago of an old farmhouse up by the small coastal town of Westport. I overlayed it with the texture of a weathered white siding on an old shed in Fort Bragg. I like the sensation of waves that it creates.

God's blessings to all,

chris

Miscellaneous Mendocino

Friday Lenore and I took off for the coast. She had a tech training in Fort Bragg so I drove over with her and we had a car picnic on the Pomo Headlands. After our picnic I dropped her off at her training. It was great because I got to play while she worked. I drove up to Mckerricher SP and watched the Ospreys and I photographed some ducks and a Bullfrog. After I picked her up we had a walk along the coast at Pudding Creek and then had a great dinner at "Off the Hook" in Fort Bragg followed by a single scoop at "Cowlicks Ice Cream".

On Saturday we lazed around and had a continental breakfast at the Beachcomber. We went for a short walk down the coast. There were wildflowers everywhere! We then explored some of the pastoral woodlands off of Bald Mountain Road in the car. Afterwards we went into Fort Bragg and took the "Walking Quilt Tour" which involves going into stores and looking at the quilts on display and answering questions about them on a tour guide pamphlet. Most of my time was spent looking for textures to photograph while Lenore went into the stores. Though I did look at some of the quilts which were pretty cool. Lunch was a simple affair at "Jenny's Giant Burgers" and then we headed home to Willits.

God's love and blessings to all,
chris

The Conversation

This morning I was over on the coast and I stopped when I saw this Coopers Hawk dive off of a telephone pole and try to grab a snack from the meadow below. When the hawk came back up and landed on the powerline it was empty handed but a Brewer's Blackbird landed right on the powerline close to it and began to give the hawk a piece of its mind. I would have loved to known what was said.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Reminds Me of the Serengetti

We have all seen the images of Ox Peckers sitting placidly on the backs of Cape Buffalo and the streaming lines of Wildebeasts as they migrate across the plains of the Serengetti. Today my very, very minature version of it took place when I stopped to photograph the Fallow or "White Deer" on my way to Ukiah for a doctors appointment. I saw two groups of Fallow Deer and in the first one there was a European Starling perched on the back of one of the deer as it was grazing. The second group was feeding in a meadow when suddenly they formed a long single file line and moved up and over the hill into another meadow. Not as grandiose as the Serengetti but it was still pretty cool to see.

God's love and blessings to all,

chris

Note: These deer were photographed on the Golden Rule Ranch which is the ranch that was the home to Sea Biscuit the famous race horse owned by Frank Howard. The deer were purchased by Howard from Randolf Hearst in San Simeon in 1949.