Still Breathing...

Actually...I had a medical procedure last week and am still 

recovering...nothing serious....

I should be back online in a week or so...

In the meantime...we're heading for our special place in Sequoia...

for a family and friends get together...

and lot's of rest for me!!!

(And given that it's about 2000 feet lower than where we are in Mammoth...

easier breathing!!!)

Just Breath...

I'll be taking a breather for the next week or two...

check back in a week...

I'll be visiting other's blogs, but will be away from my computer 

and photo files...

Love to you all!!!

Singin' in the Rain...

If you want to hear good music, and drink a little beer, wine, or even tequila...

Come to Mammoth for one of our awesome festivals in the summer!!!

This weekend was the Mammoth Wine and Music Festival...

Vintners from all over California as well as imports

were available for tasting...

Of course, Mother Nature had another idea...She just wanted to make sure

we didn't get all dusty tramping around on the wood chips in Sam's Woods

while listening to great music and sipping wine...

so she let loose with a solid downpour!!!

The J. Lohr Vintners were great though...they pulled their tasting table into their canopy

so a lot of us could crowd around the tasting table...and drink their wine!!!

(I think it was one of my favorites!)

The best part of the evening though was the final concert...

with Kenny Loggins!!!

He was fabulous!!!  

He was as good as he's ever been!!!  The crowd loved him!!

I do have to tell a little story though...

I was at the Do It Center (now DIY Ctr) at the cash register...

one of the two guys behind the counter asked who was playing at 

the concert this weekend...

(keep in mind, they were both somewhere in their twenties)

The other guy and I responded Kenny Loggins...

The first guy said...Is he famous or something?

The second guy and I laughed and I explained that he

was very famous...in the 60's and 70's!!!

The second guy was laughing and I said I'm impressed 

that you knew who he was...he then told me 

"my dad named me after Bob Dylan"!!!

Winter is special up here...

but summer is awesome!!!

A Silent Moon...

"See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence;

see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence...

we need silence to be able to touch souls."

Mother Teresa of Calcutta

Click on the icon for more fabulous participants in the Weekend in Black and White.

Powder Puff Clouds...

"A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed...

It feels an impulsion...this is the place to go now.

But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds,

and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough

to see beyond horizons."

Richard Bach

These clouds were billowing up above the clouds and smoke from the 

Indian Fire at Mono Lake...taken the same day as the fire shots I posted last week..

For skies all over the world...click on Skywatch Friday!!!

"O yellow flowers!"

"What ye have been ye still shall be, When we are dust the dust among,

O yellow flowers!

Austin Dobson

"Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them."

A.A. Milne

I'm not sure if these are weeds or wildflowers...

but I'm putting my money on wildflowers!!!

Dinner Anyone???

The California Gulls that grace the shores of Mono Lake

do so primarily because those darned alkali flies are so darned tasty!!!

 Actually, as I've mentioned before....

Mono Lake is the breeding ground for about 80% of the 

California Gulls that live in our fair state.  

And yes, their primary food is the alkali fly that hovers above the 

land edges of Mono Lake.

Dinner anyone???

For more birds all over the world, doing the wild thing....
click on Wild Bird Wednesday!!!

Our Little Corner of the World...

"Where light and shadow fall on your subject -

that is the essence of expression and art through photography."

Scott Bourne

Click on the link to visit more little corners of the world...

A Closed Door?

"When one door is closed, don't you know, another is open."
Bob Marley


I saw this shed behind the coffee spot in Bridgeport the other day...
I was taken by the  contrast of the diagonal wood grain in the doors
against the vertical wood grain in the building...
The wood was damp because it had been raining, so the grain stood out all the more...

Click on over to Toby's
Whimsical Windows, Delirious Doors for more!!!

Bright Spot in a Dreary Day...

Today was Friends of Bodie Day...and I had every intention of going...

Kelly and I got a later start than I had planned...

and on my way north, the clouds got thicker and grayer...

it started to rain here and there...

some drizzle, some real rain...

then in Lee Vining, some really great thunder, and of course, lightning...

I decided to keep on going and see what it was like...

well...

it was gray, rainy, thundery...

yep...I kept on driving and headed to Bridgeport!

These flowers were outside the 1881 Cafe coffee spot that 

was open for the first time since I've been going up there!!!

Not too much of a reflection in those windows...

but maybe enough to link to James' Weekend Reflections!!!

A Howling Wilderness...

"Generally speaking, a howling wilderness does not howl:

it is the imagination of the traveler that does the howling."

Henry David Thoreau

Click on the Weekend in Black and White to visit B&W images

from all over the world...

Truly...Fire in the Sky...

"It is not light we need, but fire;

it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.

We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake."

Frederick Douglass

Wednesday, I was on my way up to Minaret Vista in the early afternoon

 when I saw a shaft of lightning off in the distance...in the direction of Mono Lake...

I don't know if that shaft of lightning was the one that set off this fire...

but when I went to Mono Lake to do my volunteer thing...

this is what I experienced...

The fire was south east of the lake...burning toward the South Tufa, 

but still a pretty far distance away...

Do click on SkyWatch Friday to see beautiful skies around the world.

Noticing the Ordinary...

"To me, photography is an art of observation.  

It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place...

I've found it has little to do with the things you see and 

everything to do with the way you see them.

Elliott Erwitt 

A Bird's Eye View...

"I don't ask for the meaning of the song of a bird 

or the rising of the sun on a misty morning.

There they are, and they are beautiful."

Pete Hamill

Our Little Corner of the World...

Our little corner of the world, this past weekend, was filled with fabulous music...

and...oh...

definitely some beer...

It was the annual Mammoth Blues & Brews Fest

better known as

BLUESAPALOOZA!!!

Brought to us by Sean and Joyce Turner and their

Mammoth Brewing Company...

better known as "beer with altitude"!!!

Bluesapalooza began on Thursday with a

few bands, free entry, beer with altitude, 

and some great food....

Friday night the official event began with a rock and roll

style of blues, including such greats as 

Edgar and Johnny Winter...

On Saturday, the Mammoth Brewing Company

hosted a brew tasting day with lot's of great blues...

and lot's of great beer!!!

(I waited til after the beer tasting and went that night for the big bands...

TheChief hung out (in uniform!) to make sure 

the beer tasting stayed under control!)

Saturday night and Sunday we were treated to a great 

selection of blues bands...

My favorites were Betty Lavette on Saturday night...

The great Leon Russel on Sunday...

and Joe Louis Walker on Sunday afternoon...

From Thursday night through Sunday afternoon

the audience was wild...

From Rockin' Babies...

To Bootie Shakin' Granmas!!!

(myself included...and a few gramps too!!!)

This was my world this past weekend...

how about you???

Funnnky!!!

Ok...so it's not quite a macro...it's as close as I could get!!!

This is a street lamp outside the studio where I took the workshop, 

"Chasing the Light"