B&W Retrospective

As we take care of business here in Snohomish and deal with doctor and dentist visits, I've looked back in recent folders and reprocessed a few shots in B&W. I like the leaves above for the 3-D effect due to the separation of the leaves and the background.

Bottles

One of the shops in Snohomish sells a variety of bottles. The ones shown above made a nice image, I thought.

Snohomish Farmer's Market

The seasonal Farmer's Market here in Snohomish has started. It is filled with plenty of folks you only expect to see in the Seattle area.

The Random Stuff Sold in Stores

I'm sure that you, loyal follower, have noticed that I frequently include shots of random things that I find in the local stores. I have found that I just enjoy photographing these collections of oddments that have been placed as commercial tableau. They are interesting because they are curious and not found in any homes I ever visit, and because the types of things assembled together are often not things you'd see together anywhere but in an antique store.

Seamus is Really Walking Now!

Seth and I took Seamus out of a walk around the block the other day. I thought you'd appreciate a few images of the little man walking about.

Tulip Town

Leaving Mt. Baker, I drove west to catch I-5. This took me to Bellingham and then I turn south on the expressway. A short way south of Bellingham, I saw a cloud bank in front of me as I drove, clearly rolling in from the west. It was a combination of fog and cloud and seemed to cover everything. Indeed it did. From that point onward, I was in clouds for the next 5 days until the sun finally came out.

But a stop along the way at a tulip farm called Tulip Town not far from Mt. Vernon (about midway between Bellingham and Everett) once again brought a bit of sunshine into the day.

Nooksack Falls

While on my tour of the now deserted-for-the-season Mt. Baker Ski Resort, I found an odd bit off to one side of a parking lot. This small hut is located here beside a giant tree for reasons I cannot fathom. Perhaps people came up here to hunt in the summer 50 or 75 years ago. It certainly makes no sense now.

After seeing this curiosity, I headed down the mountain and found a turn out to see Nooksack Falls.

Mt. Baker

After breakfast and filling up the car for climb up the hill, I started the drive up to the highest place I could drive, the Mt.Baker Ski Resort. The highest altitudes, all the mountains around are covered in snow. This is a new things to this littl' ol' southern boy, but it was pretty cool. I picked the perfect time to go. The clear blue skies and the warm temperatures made this a pleasant and safe trip. The roads were clear and dry.

Nooksack River

I too a couple days to drive north to see Mt. Baker. I stayed in a condo in the small settlement of Glacier. The condo is located right alongside the North Fork of the Nooksack River.

Taking photos in the forest is always a challenge since the dynamic range required to get both the shadows and the highlights included is very wide. I handle this with HDR. But, of course, it is fun and visually pleasing to have a long exposure to smooth the water a bit. So, to get the best of both worlds, I made a series of images with exposure time ranging from 15 to 60 seconds. This gave more than enough (too much?) smoothing to the water and a wide range of exposures to work with. The result is above.

A Few Scenes from Shopping in Snohomish

On another trip to wander 1st avenue in Snohomish, I found a few interesting things in the many antique stores.

Mission Beach, Tulalip Bay

Another day with sunshine! I am at a loss for words.

While E was doing a bit of shopping for clothes, I drove to Tulalip Bay to have a look about. This is just near the Tulalip Reservation and, as a result, the cemetery is an interesting place to visit.

The engraving of the image on the marker above, makes a very compelling memorial to this young man.

Stevens Pass

We've been have an extended period of serious rain. Usually, rain in Seattle is a mist or light rain that a jacket and hat will repel. Off and on for the last two weeks or more, we had intermittent "toad stringers" as we say back home. It just won't stop.

We'll we finally had a break in the weather and we took advantage and hustled off to Stevens Pass for a quick look before all the snow was gone.

Forever Family Day

Every year we celebrate Forever Family Day to commemorate our growing family. This year we went to the local fish and chip shop here in Snohomish. At the end of the meal, while mom and dad had a plate of cream, Seamus enjoyed sharing. It is clear that he knows what is  coming...his rapt attention is a definite signal.

Checking out the New Camera

Now that we are in one location for a while, I've been doing some photography housekeeping and getting things in order for our next round of travels. Part of this has been to put the Nikon 1 V3 and the Fujifilm x100s on eBay to sell. Now that this has happened, I have purchased the replacement: the Fujifilm X-H1. It arrived yesterday and today I took it downtown for a stroll about to try it out.

At the Nursery Between Showers

Nothing terribly new or exciting to report today, but at least we got out of the house between showers and saw a few things. We're in the changeable times of springs now. It rains had for a while, then the sun comes out. Next, it blows before settling down to a clear, cool sunset.

Finally all in the right time zone

We have reached the end of the blog post queue and are now living in real-time. Since early October last year, I have been two to six weeks ahead with the posts because were we so busy running around snapping photos of things. I figured out early on from watching the stats that Blogger kindly provides that multiple posts in a day doesn't help and may actually hurt since people appear to looking no deeper than one post a day. That's fine. And, I've now trained everyone to expect exactly that by queuing the posts one at a time.

But now we've caught up with reality. This means that there will now be days where they are no new posts to read. Don't be discouraged and leave me. Posting will continue. For example, it if ever slows down on the rain, we'll head to the Cascade mountains for a look about before all the snow is gone (we get rain, the higher elevations get snow). We are beginning to slow our frenzied conversion of our living space (mostly because we can spend money faster than we bring it in) which means there is more time to explore and sightsee. Frankly, I glad to slow the pace of settling in for a bit. I've made more trips to the recycle center with collapsed box than I can count.

We're still living a life that couldn't be better for us so stay tuned to No Better Life and we'll bring you some of our fun.

Along the River

I finally got a chance to take a walk along the riverwalk in Snohomish to see what I could see. We've had rain for several days (!) and there was finally a break in the weather so I jumped on it.

March for Our Lives

Seth, Anna (behind the camera) and Seth's sister Hanna joined the March for Our Lives on March 24. We prepared our signs with the greatest of care (well, some of us did), we hopped on the number 11 bus from Madison Park (where we were house sitting), and headed out to join the crowds.

Adventures in Moving

We've had quite an interesting adventure obtaining our driver's licenses. On our third trip to the Driver's Licensing Office, we finally struck paydirt.

A few Impressions

Since we've been back on the same side of the Pacific as most of our readers for a while, It seems appropriate to share a few thoughts and impressions of what it's like to come back to the US after an extended time away.

A Spot of Shopping in Shohomish

When E is the mood for browsing the antique (and junk) stores about town, I pull out by camera and tag along. There are always interesting bits to be seen along the way.

A Few Vistas

According to the all-knowing GPS in the car, the large flat area just south of the Snohomish River is very near sea level. We live on a hill at the glorious altitude of about 115 ft.

But out in the flats are barns, more of which you'll see later, and some interesting vistas of the Cascades to the east.

Woodland Park Zoo

When our friends, the Alvoords, visited Seattle on business, there was time for a collective visit to the Woodland Park Zoo. This is, not a huge collection of animals, but a respectable one. There are, I believe, just over a thousand animals in 300 species living here. The first one encountered at the entrance to the zoo is the Humbolt Penguin, seen above.

The Local Scenery

We finally had a day with a little sun peaking out at sunset, so we jumped in the car and rode across the Snohomish River to the marsh lands. These seem to mostly be for farming now and most likely the reason the city development hasn't engulfed Snohomish...can't build in the floodplain.

Seamus: Man about Town

I'll try not to bore you with grandson pictures, but you have to give me a little time to settle down.

We dressed Seamus up in his best winter clothes, put him in his car and headed for downtown Snohomish.

Our Arrival in Snohomish

After a summer of heat in Sydney in an apartment with only a fan, we came to Snohomish WA to the joys of snow. However, it is unlike snow in Virginia or the middle of the country. We get the fun of watching the snow falling, but miss the labor of shoveling it. the light dustings seem to mostly disappear by noon the next day.

Sailing a Tall Ship

To take in the full Sydney experience, we booked ourselves onto the wooden sailing ship Soren Larsen. She was built in 1949 as one the last cargo carrying wooden ships Soren Larsen & Sons in Denmark. She was chosen to be the flagship for the First fleet re-enactment for Australia Day in 1988 (200th anniversary).

Lounging about the Eastwood Market

We took another turn about the local market area to buy a couple things and exercise little Fox. No visit to a place filled with asian food would be complete without a vide of duck and chickens hanging in the window.

Fox

Its been a while since I brought you photos of one of little charges, so I thought it time to introduce you to Fox the little doggie we are caring for while in Sydney.

Blue Mountains

Sydney has a wonderful light rail system and great regional connections. We took advantage of this to ride out to Katoomba to see the Blue Mountains.

Eastwood Market

A short shopping trip closer to home took us past a few places here in Eastwood that were interesting. Above is the local fish market filled with fresh fish. I know they were (mostly) fresh since the smell was much less than I expected.

A Night at the Opera

We splurged and bought some good seats to see The Merry Widow at the Sydney Opera House. It just so happens that our visit coincided with Elizabeth's birthday. Imagine that happening!

Hop-on Hop-off Tour of Sydney

On a warm summer's day, we took the train to the Circular Quay and bought ourselves tickets for the Hop-on Hop-off bus tour. There are two routes visiting different parts of the city. By changing buses a couple times, we rode the entire route and simply watched the city scroll past us.

Queen Victoria Building

Our latest trip into the city took us the the Art Gallery of New South Wales to see a traveling exhibition from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Lots of really great paintings on display. I must say it was way better than the MONA in Hobart. That was just weird.

Afterwards, we headed to the Queen Victoria Building. On the way we passed the Unknown Street Performer.

St. Mary's Catholic Church

After leaving the shopping district, we headed down toward St. Mary's Catholic Church. Along the way we passed the old mint building. This is the oldest public building in Sydney. Clearly, it is no the mint today but you can tell it is old from the wooden shingle roof.

Shopping

Our trip into the city took us again to the Central Train Station. The main hallway above seems to be the main exit to the street. Perhaps this used to be the waiting room in days of steam trains.

Haymarket and Chinatown

Not far from the Central Train station is the Haymarket market. This large covered market is a combination of produce, T-shirt, and junk sellers and a multi-story mall. Very interesting.

Sydney

Once back in New South Wales and settled into our house sit in the Sydney suburb of Eastwood, we bought a couple train passes and headed into the city.

Not far from the Central Quay train station is the famous opera house and the cruise ship port. up the hill a bit from the water is George Street and the oldest pub in Sydney, the Fortune of War.

Cattana Wetlands

Just north of Cairns, we stopped in to have a look at the Cattana Wetlands. This is a park of several small lakes set aside for the wildlife. here we saw a few feathered friends.

Above is the Green Pygmy Goose.

Mossman Gorge

After our private trip along the Daintree River, we headed back toward Port Douglas. Along the way we stopped in Mossman and investigated the gorge created by the Mossman River.

Daintree River Cruise

On our second full day in far north Queensland, we drove to the Daintree River for a sunrise cruise. This was really special. There was only the two of us with the pilot, his wife, and dog in a solar powered electric river boat. A glorious morning on the river looking for wildlife.

One of early finds was the 9 month old saltwater crocodile seen above. One of the great things about touring with a person passionate about the river and who is on it everyday, is we learn who the animals really are. There's no way to know the age of this creature except by watching it grow.

Great Barrier Reef

Our first full day in far north Queensland (Jan 4) included a trip to a portion of the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Port Douglas. We traveled about an hour from the marina to a small island call Low Isle. Along the way we enjoyed some remarkable vistas.

Trinity Bay Lookout

This part of Australia is called the wet tropics. As you can see, the clouds forms over the hills near shore and the flora is tropical and lush. This location is pretty much what most people think of as paradise...warm, lush, on the water. Pushing all the right buttons.

Rex Lookout

Up the road a bit from the beach we stopped at earlier, we found the glorious Rex Lookout. I don't know who Rex was, but he found a great place. The sea was so calm and blue this day that it really took your breath away.

Ellis Beach

After we left Tasmania :(, we spent two days driving from Melbourne to Sydney. We spent the night in Wagga Wagga. Like Walla Walla it was so good it was named twice.

Upon arrival in Sydney, we went directly to the airport and put the ute in long term parking and headed north to Cairns. After a night in a Cairns hotel, we took our rented car north about an hour to Port Douglas. On the way there the road took us along the coast. We stopped near Ellis Beach to have a look at the Coral Sea. It is very impressive.

Leaving Tasmania

On our last day in Tasmania, January 1, we decided that our trip back to the ferry should include an excursion toward the west to see a little of that wild portion of the state. We wound along country roads that took us along rivers and through tiny towns. Above is a view of the cricket pitch in a place called Gretna Green. The mountains and clouds in the distance are interesting.

Tasman Island Cruise - Birds

After we saw the Black Faced Cormorant, above, as we were leaving Port Arthur, we rarely got close to a bird on this trip. But we did see them.

Tasman Island Cruise - Whales

Our cruise also including sighting of Humpback Whales. This fellow was swimming near our boat and made several dives.

Tasman Island Cruise - Seals

When we arrived at Tasman Island, we were greeted by a modest collection of Australian Fur Seals lounging about on the rocks. This fellow, and most of the seals were male we were told, is about to slide off into the water for a forage.

Tasman Island Cruise - The Land

In the distance above, you can see Tasman Island with its flat top sitting just off the coast. Although you cannot see any in this photo, we did see a few of the sailboats that had rounded this eastern corner of Tasmania on their way to Hobart and the end of the Sydney-Hobart Race. Of course, the really big, fancy, fast boats finished the day before, but these guy are doing amazing stuff.

St. David's Anglican Church

St. David's is a real landmark in Hobart. Much to surprise, it is filled with stained glass windows. After seeing St. Paul's in London filled with clear glass in nearly all the windows, I never expected to see such extravagance in an Anglican church.