A flowering Yucca_gloriosa in our front yard. I don’t think that I have ever seen flower at this time of year. I associate them with Spring.
Photographs
The unexpected rain last night - at least I saw no forecast for it - brought faint rainbows in the smattering of clouds that were in the sky this morning. 🌈
I took this photo a couple of Sundays ago. Coffee was in the mug. The table was sitting outside our front door in a place that it does not normally live. The night before friends had been over for dinner and we had moved the table to escape the wind. I still hadn’t returned the table to its usual home.
Unlike the evening before, the morning was still, no wind. I’d opened our sliding doors to air the house and just sat at the table with my coffee, looking out on our front garden, the ocean in the distance. The quietness of the scene rested me.
…and it still does as I look at the photograph and remember that morning.
Saturday, September 27, 2025 →
Looking out over Maui.
Thursday, September 25, 2025 →
With autumn now officially here, I asked @andycarolan@social.lol to create another seasonal owl for me. This will be the fourth version of the owl that Andy has created. Thank you to Andy for your work. As ever it has been a pleasure working with you.
Here are the four owls that Andy has created for me, with the most recent in the top left. I’ve now placed this new avatar across my online presence.
If you are curious as to ”why the owls”, I have explained that here.
The Bunker: Wednesday 24th September, 2025
Wednesday, September 24, 2025
All credit to the artist(s) 🎨
Heading into town this afternoon I passed the cliffs where The Bunker sits. I noticed a change to its face and so pulled over to take a photo.
Wednesday, September 24, 2025 →
This morning’s double rainbow 🌈
Yesterday evening we had a rain shower. The skies darkened quickly, the rain fell and with that, as the sun set on the other side of the island, a rainbow formed. 🌈
The rainbow started off as just a part rainbow sitting in a cloud,
and then it formed a complete ark across the sky.
With the return of the rains, it looks as though the rainbows are returning. I saw a couple of partial rainbows nestled in clouds while out driving yesterday. Then this rainbow greeted me this morning. 🌈
I think, I hope that the rains are slowly returning to Maui. More clouds. More short showers. We have had a couple of sprinkling showers already today. Next I would like to order a heavy downpour and then an overcast day peppered with plenty of rain.
At the end of last week one brief evening shower produced a very faint rainbow. You might have to look hard to see it, but it is there. I’ll claim it to add to the collection of rainbows on this blog. 🌈
Sunset view one evening on Pico Island, looking across the water to Faial Island and Pico Gorda (3,422ft/1,043m), The Açores.
Wednesday, September 3, 2025 →
When I am traveling, out on the road, and the busyness and run around of travel gets too much. When I find myself tired and in need of a rest. When I need to get away from the crowds and I pass a church that is open, from my experience most are open, I like to go inside and just sit quietly by myself. To meditate, regroup and come back to myself. I can then leave feeling refreshed.
This church is in Sete Ciades, on the island of São Miguel in the Açores.
My grandson has suddenly taken a keen interest in jigsaw puzzles, so I brought up this one that I had at home to do with him. He was doing well with it, but in the end it proved that little too advanced for him. I went ahead and finished it anyway. 🧩
While I was studying for my Masters I wrote a paper on lichen and moss. Sadly I remember very little about the contents of the paper except a couple of points,
- Lichen are multi organism, or multi species of plants. This from Wikipedia,
is a hybrid colony of algae or cyanobacteria living symbiotically among filaments of multiple fungus species, along with bacteria embedded in the cortex or “skin”, in a mutualistic relationship. Lichens are the lifeform that first brought the term symbiosis (as Symbiotismus) into biological context.
- Both moss and lichen (I think lichen especially) like clean air to thrive.
I took these photographs yesterday of two tree trunks in our back garden. I am taking their coverage in both lichen and moss as a good indication of the good air quality that we have here.
Nighttime.
Shadows.
Sunbathing on the rocks near Madalena, Pico Island, Azores. Across the water is the island of Faial.
A view of the eastern most edge of the south shore of the West Maui Mountains, taken as we approached the island on returning to Maui a couple of weeks ago.
This morning’s rainbow. There was a double rainbow, but the second one disappeared before I found my camera. 🌈
The rainbows seem to be making a slow return. This morning one started to appear but then thought better of it. Yesterday morning we were blessed with this rainbow 🌈
I don’t know what is going on here, but I spotted these four characters in a shop window in Lisbon last year.
The first morning rainbow since my return. A little morning shower followed by sprinkling of sunshine did the trick. 🌈
A Susuwatari on a wall in downtown Kingston, NY.
On Taking Photographs
Thursday, July 31, 2025
I can take a lot of photographs, probably more when I am on the move than when I am at home, but I notice that I have a tendency to do little with them. Occasionally I’ll go back and look through them, maybe edit one or two, but otherwise they just sit there. What might I do with them? Thoughts that come to mind include, share them with family and friends.
Taking in the view.
Dinner at sunset.
Tide out on the Sado River estuary. I find it so relaxing and peaceful there.
The Netflix series of Patricia Highsmith’s book The Talented Mr. Ripley
Moon over the rice fields around Alcácer do Sal. Part of the remains of the old castle in the foreground.
To Infinity And Beyond (Atlantic version).
Pacific versions here and here.
