Thursday, October 11, 2012

Valley of Fire State Park

Yesterday Adam and I went to the Valley of  Fire State Park (the first in Nevada), about an hour's drive from Blue Diamond.  It's amazing how different the topography is just a short distance away.  We drove home through the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  Because of more rain than usual this time of year the vegetation is still very lush.  It rained on the way home and is raining as I  write this.  The last thing I removed from my luggage before I left home was my umbrella!
 
 
 
 
 






Friday, September 28, 2012

Road Trip to Ithaca

 
Maribeth and I made a quick weekend trip to visit Sarah and Keith
It was so much fun, as it always is!
 
 
Cool flowers.

 
Nature doing her thing.

 
The wetlands next to Sarah and Keith's house. 
It was beautifl!

 
One of my favorite trees.

 
Little boy in big body.
Some things stay the same.
 
 
Jonas doing his job.
 
                                                                 
                                            The botanical gardens were absolutely beautiful....
                                                       of course, so were Sarah and Keith.


Saturday, September 22, 2012

Family & Friends

With the marriage this past summer of Ian & Eleftheria, our list of new family and friends has grown exponentially. What a wonderful thing to happen. Karen and I are so fortunate to be able to be a part of this event. Enough writing. Just enjoy!
 
 
 
 
 

 




 







 
 
 
 
 





Sunday, August 19, 2012

Calendar pictures


Some time after Ian decided to work in Greece, I started looking at the calendars
in the bookstores that had pictures from Greece.  They all seemed to look like the one
above and most were taken in Santorini.  Surprise, surprise, on our first trip, to visit Ian,
we didn't see anything like this in Thessaloniki!  This summer, however, we visited our
first "blue" island.  Astypalea is like Santorini, sort of like Outter Banks is like Hilton Head.




Most of the buildings are painted white with blue trim on the doors



...and garden gates.  And on any given day you will find someone, usually several,
people out whitewashing buildings or walkways.




The village is located between the port and the top of a hill where
the castle ruins are located.


 

So, no matter what you need to do, you will either need to walk up the hill-


 

or down the hill...generally several times in any given day.
On a hot day, you needed a couple of showers and changes of clothes.


 

This was a doorway near our apartment - not blue - but really pretty.


When I reached this spot on my walk up the hill, I knew I was going to make it
to our apartment.  The geraniums were beautiful!  One of the 365
churches on the island is in this picture and the balcony
is ours.





All over the island there are artifacts imbedded in the buildings and
obviously ancient pots and urns sitting on steps and porches.

More to come....


Saturday, August 4, 2012

Shall We Dance!

My pictures are exactly in the reverse order of what I wanted.  I am blaming it on the heat.
Please start at the bottom and work up, OK?


 
The Bride and the Groom
Well into the evening-
The Bride, having changed into more danceable attire
and
The Groom, having somewhere, lost his coat.
What Fun!!

The Aunt of the Groom and the Mother of the Groom
The music was GREAT!!

The Groom dancing with his Grandmother.

Dancing in the Street
waiting for
the Bride and the Groom

Dancing the Dress -
The Groom's Father is tripping the light fantastic!

Dancing in the street
the night before the Wedding Day


The Ladies practicing some tricky dance steps.

 Bella thinks it is getting a little late for all this dancing!

Nikko, Evangalina and Eleftheria show us their best dance steps!