Lights , Action, Carnival!

Every year during the end of June through July Fourth Willits, Ca throws a big celebration with the "Willits Frontier Days" as a major fundraiser for community organizations. It's a very big deal for a small town. It includes gymkhanas, rodeos,singing contests, dances and a big parade down Main Street on the Fourth of July with a big BBQ. Like many small town celebrations it includes a carnival with rides and a midway. Last night I went to the carnival to photograph the rides. I came prepared with a wide angle lens and some extra batteries for my camera. Mid way through the evening my batteries died. I immediately popped in a new set only to find them dead as well. So much for my preparedness! I headed home only to find that my cable release had fallen off of my camera.I texted my son Jay about it and to my amazement he found it trampled into the dirt at the last place I had been photographing. Thank you Jay! It was a fun evening and I got to talk to a number of friends and acquaintances through out the evening. God's light and love to all, chris

Relatively Speaking

Recently I was given an old handbill form San Francisco that was from 1892. The bill was in pretty bad shape so I thought it would be best to digitize it before it's completely lost. So I did clean it up quite a bit.It's an ad for the United States Watch Company that has a little boy on it.The little boy on it was my Great Uncle Henry Schwerin who was just shy of three years old when he modeled for the handbill. He went on to live a pretty colorful life. He market hunted for ducks on San Francisco Bay and fished for sharks during WWII as a commercial fisherman.Family rumor has it that he won his common in law wife in a poker game. I'm sure that has got to be stretching the truth a bit! He eventually did marry her when they got him drunk and flew the couple up to Reno in my Uncle Bob's plane. Another wild story. It is also said that on family dinners when he was present the wine always got spilled.He was quite the character. God's love to all, chris

Rush of City Life

Sometimes I just want to record my abstract impressions. Today I spent some time going over some of the images from last weekend in San Francisco. One image that really jumped out at me was this one of a bicyclist riding down the street on the edge of China Town. It symbolized the rush of the big city. The city is just abuzz with activity so very different from the small town where I live in Northern California. God’s love and blessings to all, Chris

Gift of the Rain

Yesterday morning when I walked out into the front yard I began noticing patches of fungi around the yard. These are a beautiful gift of the late rains we received earlier this week here in Northern California.For those of you unfamiliar with California weather it is uncommon to get rain in the summertime except up in the Sierra Mountains.We had four days of rain resulting in some fungi sprouting up in the front yard as well as weeds that I

thought we were done with in the backyard. Looks like it's back to weeding! God's light and love to all, chris

Remembrance of Days Gone By

Last weekend in San Francisco Lenore and I were walking back to the Fairmont Hotel and we passed by a brand new Jaguar parked in front of the hotel. It caught my attention immediately as it had a classy feel to it with the hotel in the background. It also flooded my memories with a Jaguar XKE I used to see as a young teen in Colorado. In the morning waiting for the bus several times a month a dark green Jaguar would purr by our bus stop. During that time period in a small town at the foot of the Rockies a car like that or in fact any sports car of any type was a pretty rare sight to see. Now as an adult I could appreciate the silver Jag sitting here before me. A good memory of days gone by. God's light and love to all, chris

GBH

Today did not go as planned. It was our intention to kayak up Big River near Mendocino,CA on the the coast.When we arrived at the river access was blocked with traffic cones and a large orange and black sign that read "Exam in Progress". What in the world is that? I haven't got a clue. Because we couldn't launch the kayaks there we headed down the coast to the Albion River. We paid our five bucks per kayak to launch and headed upstream against the outgoing tide. We were pushed along by and onshore breeze so it wasn't too bad. Just a little past the harbor I came across a great Blue Heron GBH feeding in the Eel Grass on one of the river flats. Much to my great surprise it didn't fly off at my slow approach like they usually do.I felt like I was in Florida where the birds don't fly away from you! I watched and photographed it for about ten minutes or so. The lighting was terrible but I felt excited to just be able to photograph a GBH.I moved on upriver and photographed some seals. I kept paddling upriver and was amazed at how many GB Herons were feeding along the river. But none of them would allow me to get close to them at all. The return trip down he river back to the harbor was pretty unpleasant and I'm going to be sore tomorrow. The onshore breeze combined with an incoming tide were pretty hard to deal with. Somehow I must have pulled up the wrong tide table.Next time I'm going to double check the times and location. Still it was a great trip. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Kiss of Rain Drops

This morning we were awoken to the soft patter of rain in the forest outside our bedroom window.It has been raining off and on for four days now. It's really never been a down pour just a steady drizzle. This morning after it had abated somewhat I ventured out into the backyard and photographed the raindrops sometimes looking like crystal orbs hanging onto the plants. As much as I like the rain it has put a damper on my plans for a kayak trip up one of the coastal rivers today. Perhaps tomorrow? God's precious love to all, chris