Grandkids and Giraffes

Each summer each of our two grandchildren get to come and visit us on the coast for a few days by themselves. A treat for us for sure and hopefully a treat for them. Our 16 year old grandson Logan just left but while he was here we went down and visited an interesting place in Pt. Arena called the B. Bryan Preserve. We saw 3 species of antelopes, 3 species of zebras and 6 young male giraffes of the most threatened species in Africa, the Rothschild giraffe. It was a treat to able to see them fairly close and, in the case of the giraffes, to hand feed them leaves and pieces of carrot.

The preserve is not a zoo but a 100 acre private preserve dedicated to helping threatened and extremely threatened African hoof stock species continue to exist. They offer jeep tours for small groups to see the animals close up twice a day at feeding time. Reservations are required. For all the details check out their website at B. Bryan Preserve
Below are some pictures of our visit.

Deer Surprise

 When we lived out in Caspar, in the country, deer were often an everyday occurrence in the yard sometimes as many as three at a time and a few times as many as 5 or 6. Yes, the babies are cute but it can be frustrating when they eat everything that's not behind a fence and sometimes even jump a fence that is 6 or 7 feet high. I did learn though in the 17 years there the plants that they never or rarely eat.
When we moved to Ft. Bragg I naively assumed that deer wouldn't be around. Wrong. I've seen this little buck with velveteen covered antlers almost every day for the last week, jumping fences into yards, scooting along alleys and walking across the street like here. I saw him and a doe near where we live this afternoon. We're close to Pudding Creed, at the north end of town and it is a fairly wild wide area running east and west and like a freeway for traveling animal life. I haven't seen any here but last year a black bear came up from Noyo River canyon a little south of here and walked into the automatic door of the local hospital looking for food. Surprise.

I was out running errands this afternoon and was driving along a street and got a glimpse of this. I drove half a block past and had to turn around and go back and I shot about 20 pictures out my van window of which these are two. What a picture. It was late afternoon and the window was facing west so the late sun was shining in the window, I guess it was enjoying the warmth. The blinds look like this might have happened before. I was really taken with color of the cat in relationship to the blinds and black background contrast. Another gift from my photographic guardian angels.

Pictures of my Neighbors

 It's the time of year when I start taking more pictures of the creatures in my neighborhood and as I travel. I like to watch them live in the moment but have found that I really enjoy being able to look at the pictures later of these guys in their environment. Gives me a rich feeling of kinship with them. These little guys to the right were part of a group of 5 babies being watched over by both parents at a boat ramp/picnic area in Lucerne on the northern shore of Clear Lake. Whenever we travel to Chico and Nevada City we stop there and eat lunch and use the facilities. They were moving fairly fast so I took a lot of pictures with the camera in burst mode and was rewarded with this shot.

  As more and more flowers make their appearance bees and other pollinators come out in greater numbers. This was taken in front of the Mendocino Art Center where shoulder high bushes flourish with a multitude of flowers and there are often dozens of bees and other flying creatures flying about capturing the nectar. I like the clumps of pollen that are trapped on this fellows legs.

From the same image but blown up to see more detail. Quiet a visually striking fellow. Working hard for the hive.

Exploring the alleys of Ft. Bragg

We've been living in Ft. Bragg, California for about 3 months now and have been enjoying exploring this small coastal town. It's the only town I've ever lived in that has functional alleys in between most streets. We've gotten into a great deal of walking since it's great to be able to walk not only to the ocean at Glass Beach but to the post office, coffee shops, food stores, hardware stores, thrift stores and many other places. When we lived in Caspar, a small place just south of Ft. Bragg we walked a great deal on various forest trails around the rural area where we lived but are actually walking more

since we have been living in town. We often walk the alleys as we go around town, they are quaint and less busy than some of the streets. I've gotten in the habit of taking pictures of things that interest me as we walk and want to share them with you.

Graffiti is in evidence on fences and walls here and there, some of it is interesting to look at. I'd be curious about the story behind the hand prints in the picture to the left.

The sunflower wall is about 30 feet or so and is fun to pass by. Took someone a goodly time to create.

Many small apartments and dwellings have been created from garages, sheds and so forth and some built as apartments from scratch in the alleys. Giving affordable housing to many town dwellers and income to house owners.

I guess these are alley cats, quite a few seem at home there. These are a few. On the streets and in the alleys cats are easily spooked and run away but on the times that we've walked at night the cats we come across are braver and more aggressively curious about us.

Lots of barking dogs also, can't see most of them because they are hidden by fences and hard to get pictures of because they are usually jumping and moving fast. I'll keep trying but here is one.

I got a shot of this one as he jumped so that his head was above the level of the fence.

Lots of little odd elements here and, wooden carvings like on the left, details of fences and
gates.

And the one to the right on the top of a fence post, a guard
creature no doubt.










And I couldn't resist capturing the one below, a mobile couch, what a great idea.

I'll keep taking pictures of the things around me in Ft. Bragg. Chick back.

Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix

 We often travel to Arizona in the springtime to sell our mixed metal jewels at the Scottsdale Arts Festival and while we are down there in the usually wonderful warm weather we look for fun and interesting things to do after the art fair. At other California fairs in the summer and fall of 2012 we had several visitors to our booth tell us about a new museum in the Phoenix area called the Musical Instrument Museum that was started by a former CEO of Target stores and had opened in 2010. Everyone who mentioned it to us gave it a variety of rave revues so we decided to check it out on the Monday after the fair.  We now have our own rave review to share with you and we recommend that if you are ever in the Phoenix area you take the time to visit it. It's in north Phoenix just off the Pima Freeway (Highway 101) and is easy to find and get to. The website for the museum is http://mim.org/
The base guitar pictured at the left is the biggest I've ever seen and the player has to stand on a platform in order to play.

 The wonderful building that houses the museum has a series of large rooms upstairs, each of which is devoted to a continent of the world and features instruments and exhibits for a multitude of areas and cultures of each continent and the peoples that inhabit it. Visitors wear headphones that sync with a video player that is located in each of the small exhibit sections showing the instruments being played and broadcasting the sound of them. Some of the actual instruments displayed are featured in the videos. There were some really interesting and creative use of recycled and found objects used in some of the instrument construction such as these guitars at the right.

 One of the first rooms one walks into when first entering the museum has an entire wall of guitars some of which are amazingly fascinating. This double necked one was on the wall. I took a lot of guitar pictures to show my teenage grandson who is becoming a collector of them.

 Here, to the right is a shot of the guitar wall from halfway up the stairs to the 2nd floor.

 I took a great many pictures on my journey through the museum and have made a couple of collages. Drums are featured in this one. The rattlesnake rattles were really cool, I hadn't seen many of those rattles since my early days in Texas as a kid where there were many around. I still have a couple that different uncles gave to me when I visited their farms on summer vacations.

This is a collage to give you an idea of the variety of stringed instruments on display. I think I read that they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 instruments, some thousands of years old. There is also a room where you can play some instruments and that was fun to explore. There are also some gallery spaces that have ever changing displays.
And there is a restaurant where the food we had was really delicious.

Our visit was fun and inspirational although we are planning to go back on our next trip south because it got a little overwhelming after being there for 6 or 7 hours with so much input. Let us now if you get a chance to visit and what your favorite part was.

The Davis Whole Earth Festival

 On Mother's Day weekend, May 10th through the 12th we will be selling our mixed metal jewels for the 37th year at the Whole Earth Festival on the quad in front of the student union on the campus of the University of California at Davis. It's a fun, interesting and photogenic event that we do well at and enjoy a lot. I got my first digital camera in 2001 and have been taking a lot of pictures at the event every since then, up to a thousand a year now. I've been going through the archives and have picked out some of my favorites and will be posting a number of them between now and the festival.

 The festival features about 200 booths of
arts & crafts, wonderful festival food, 3 stages with continuous live music and dance presentations, alternative lifestyle exhibits, speakers, kid's activities and interesting surprises ever year. Free admission.

The little guys

I've become enamored of the idea of taking pictures of all the creatures that live in my yard and currently I'm focusing on the smallest of my neighbors. These little tree frogs have been hanging out on a plant in a half wine barrel just outside my kitchen door on the deck. I've been spending a lot of time each day I'm home seeing what kind of creatures live on this flowering plant and have found it to be a whole little ecosystem. There are three of these frogs spending time there, they vary between 1/2 and 3/4's of an inch long. I'm assuming

that they are waiting for insects to come close so they can have a bite to eat. I haven't seen them catch anything but they seem very patient. Bees, wasps, various flies, moths, butterflies, and many unknown little bugs visit these flowers each day.

I've seen four different types of spiders so far and they are very successful hunters like this jumping spider with a bee. 

It was late evening when I got this image of a hummingbird, It seemed like it might have been tired and perhaps cold. It let me get up to within a couple of feet to take pictures and it's feathers were fluffed out. Someone told me that they fluff out their feathers to help create more of an insulating layer around themselves to help conserve body heat when they are cold.









                      
I like the way this images shows the wasp bridging the two flowers.












I was driving down the street in Ft. Bragg when I saw a raven on this railing out of the corner of my eye. I like the color of the banister and the building as a backdrop so I stopped and got out to try and capture some pictures but it was scared away by someone walking by. I got in the van to drive away, disappointed at missing the shot but then it came back and I was able to get a few shots. Just after I took this one it flew away.