The Weekend in Black and White

My daughter Kate (that's her in the picture)
and I both loved the umbrella pines
in Rome's Borghese Gardens when we 
were there in February.

[To see more b/w shots, visit Dragonstar's meme.
Also linking back to Shadow Shot Sunday.]

ABC Wednesday—R is for "Radio Flyers"

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden held its huge
annual plant sale last week.  And to
help you buy even more than you had planned
to, they provided these little red wagons
that you could take as far as the garden's exits.  
After that, you were on your own!

My daughter Katie and I managed
to fill one up—no problem.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Weekend Reflections

Had a celebratory dinner recently at NoMad.
The ambience was hip, the food was
delicious, and the main room has a glass ceiling.
So, when someone told me that we missed running into 
Kanye, Kim, and North there by one day, was
I disappointed or relieved?  What do you think?

[To see more Weekend Reflections, visit James's meme.]

Thursday Challenge—"happy"

My girl Kate looks pretty happy, doesn't she?  
She's probably looking forward
to celebrating her birthday tomorrow.
Happy b'day, Katie!

[To see more of the Thursday Photo
Challenge, go here.]

Happy Halloween

Each year my daughter Katie has a 
pumpkin-carving party, where everyone
has a good time and goes home
with their own jack-o'-lantern masterpiece. 
(I just stopped by for wine and photo ops.)

[Linking back to "Anything Goes" Pink Saturday.]

Thursday Challenge—"sign"

I've borrowed this photo from my daughter Katie,
who took it when she was in Alaska—and
must sheepishly admit that its meaning was
not instantly apparent to me.  (My initial thought:
 Why would anyone park their car under
a coal chute in the first place?)

[To see more signs, visit Dale's Thursday Photo Challenge.]
 

ABC Wednesday—V is for "vole"

This one up in Alaska had to watch out for
all kinds of predators—including raccoons, owls,
 hawks, coyotes, snakes, foxes, dogs, and cats.
But apparently it knew it had nothing to
fear from my daughter Katie's friend Amelia.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

ABC Wednesday—T is for "tracks"

This photo was taken by my daughter Katie,
when she was up in Alaska.  If I had
been hiking in the wilds and come upon
fresh evidence of a bear in the vicinity, I might
stop to take a picture.  Oh, who am I kidding?
Of course I'd take a picture.  But then I'd
be beating a very hasty retreat—which she did not! 

[To see more ABC Wednesday posts
for the letter T, go here.]

Trick or Treat!

My daughter Katie and her friends had their
usual pre-Halloween pumpkin-carving party.
After last year, Kate decided to keep things
more simple—that's hers on the left.

[Hey, Orange You Glad It's Friday?  I am!]

ABC Wednesday—K is for "Kodiak bears"

She was busy digging for clams while he was taking it easy.
My daughter Katie (also starts with K, and these are her pics),
her friend, and the sea-plane pilot who flew them to
Kodiak Island were standing much closer than I would have been!
(The pilot was armed with mace and a gun with rubber bullets, just in case.)

Seriously—he is one big boy!

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

ABC Wednesday—I is for "ice"

In June, my daughter Katie took this shot of 
one of the ice caves in the Mendenhall Glacier, 
which is about 12 miles from Juneau and is part of 
the Tongass National Forest.  A month later, some of the 
roof of one of the caves collapsed (not sure if it was
this very one).  The ice had thinned out due to 
you-know-what.  Even here, you can see 
how much the ice is melting at the entrance.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

ABC Wednesday—D is for "Dall sheep"

And also for Denali National Park,
in Alaska—which is where my
 daughter Katie took this shot of a
mama and her sweet little baby in June.

{Can you guess what's coming when 
we get to the letter K?}

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

Skywatch Friday

This big blue sky is compliments
of my daughter Katie and her recent
trip to the wilds of Alaska
(hiking and rafting and bears—oh my!)

[To see more skies from around the world, go here.
And it's the first of the month, so I've posted to my Paris blog.]

Smokey says . . .

My daughter Katie took this shot when she
was up in Alaska recently.  Ironically, they were
having a problem with forest fires there at that time.

[Linking back to Ruby Tuesday and Our World Tuesday.]

My kid went to Alaska

and all I got was . . . this awesome image!

She hung halfway out of the train to capture
this,  just so her mama could use it here.
Thanks for fueling my obsessions, Katie.


[For more Skywatch pics, go here. And to see
more Weekend Reflections, visit James's meme.]

The Weekend in Black and White

This photo of my shell collection makes me
think of strolling a beach where the weather is toasty.
One of my kids is returning today after a month
in the warm, sunny Caribbean.  She'll be leaving
temps in the 70° to 80°F range and coming back to
wind chills of below 0°F.  And we're due to get
a bit more snow today too.  Welcome home, Katie!

[To see more monochromes, visit Dragonstar's meme.]

Orange You Glad It's Friday?

I have to brag a bit on my daughter Kate, who has some 
mad pumpkin-carving skills.  She's used stencils in the past, 
but this year she decided to execute and carve her own design.
It took her +/- 10 hours (with wrist rests).  Unfortunately, that's 
also about how long this masterpiece lasted before it imploded.  
(At least she got a decent picture of it!)

[To see more OYGIF posts, visit Maria's meme.
And it's the 1st of the month, so I've posted to my Paris blog.]

ABC Wednesday—P is for "penguins"

Credit for this one goes to my daughter Katie,
who shot it from a speeding boat (!) when she and
her sister were in Antarctica last January.
Most of the Adélie penguins they saw were
gathered together by the hundreds—I guess this
couple was looking for a little alone time.

[To see more ABC posts, go here.]

How do you like me now?

Imagine if men went to these lengths to
impress women—who, following the example
of the peahen, wouldn't have to try at all.
Actually, with humans, it seems to
work the other way around most of the time.

(Thanks to my daughter Katie for letting me borrow
this pic of a California peacock trying to get a date.)

[To see more Blue Monday posts, go here.]

Brooklyn Sunrise

I asked my daughter Katie if I could
use this one.  She told me she woke up at
5 a.m. the other morning and wasn't
too happy about it, until she saw this
spectacular sunrise over the Brooklyn rooftops—
which only the early risers got to enjoy.

[It's Skywatch Friday; to see more, go here.
And Orange You Glad It's Friday?  I am!]