Flowerama

A few favourite flowers (and a prehistoric bug) in panoramic mode

Missile Phenomenon

I was out behind the garage the other night and just happened to look up to see this...what the!!!
Looked like a scene from Independence Day...the beginning of an alien invasion...but it was just
a missile launch...

August Storm

There is always a huge August storm in the works to see us off at the end of August. This year it was a good one. It announced itself with thunder and lightning. I went down to the beach to have a good look at it and snapped some shots of the dark clouds moving in. The storm front was drifting toward Savary from Vancouver Island. Off in the distance I could see wind and rain whipping around, so I ran to the house to put away the camera and down again to check the solar panels and kayak. When I reached the beach again (a matter of a few minutes) all I could see and feel was a huge wall of wind and rain coming toward me, obscuring everything from sight. Everything beyond a hundred feet from me had vanished...and it was coming closer at a good speed. I turned and ran back to close the windows with the storm right at my heels...got back just in time to close everything but did not keep from getting soaked. If the windows had been closed I would have stayed on the beach to feel the storm come in...wonder if I could have stayed on my feet though it...
and get a load of that weird rectangular cloud!!!

Out and about on Savary

Summers on Savary are always wonderful. We all enjoy being there. It's a small island, but there is plenty to do and see in walking around the various trails, along the long expanses of sandy as well as rocky beaches, or all around the island.
There is plenty of wildlife to see and observe, from eagles to otters, from seals to seastars, as well as nudibranchs and anemones in the pools and, if one is lucky, even a killer whale or two. The starfish are plentyful. Of course the most common purple stars dominate, but there are also plenty of others such as the leather star, the sun star and, depending on the tides, a variety of other species.

An odd visitor to the seashore is the snake. There are always plenty of snakes slithering among the rocks and around the tidepools. Every once in a while one might even be seen skimming along in the water. They obviously feed on sea life...most probably on the small crabs, the odd sculpin, and possibly the anemones. Hard to know. I've never seen one feeding. And as to what type of snake they might be...some say a variety of garter snake, others say bull snakes...they range from the common garter snake colouring to jet black to a rattlesnake type of colouring...the black and the latter are often very aggressive. One of them, a little one, jumped at me as I walked along the rocks.

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WALNUT CANYON

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GIULIANO WITH TRINLEY AND VAJRA

G and P on the road

Well, we've been gone for about 10 days now...travelled through a LOT of desert to Vegas and then into Utah and Colorado...very very hot all the way except for a couple of times as we climbed into the Rockies...G took everything quite well and we stopped at Super 8 Motels with pools to cool off in the evenings and mornings before we hit the road again...
At Shambhala Mountain Center for a week now...weather is up and down with a lot of wind but mostly hot during the day and at times very cold at night...tents are comfortable but full of pollen that blows from the trees costantly with the wind...so there's a layer of yellow dust on everything...
G's Shotoku camp is going very well...they are making masks, they've put on a play, he is doing cave drawings for a portion of the classroom wall, and last night we had a fire and marshmallow roast for the children in the camp...the food is another matter...his habits are taking quite a while to die off and he sometimes goes with very little food...especially since so much of it here is meat based...and I must say that I find that a little hard to take as well...
The Center is wonderful...a valley in the mountains...but there is too much traffic at the Center itself...more traffic in front of our tent than in front of our house in SD...not just staff, which is necessary to cover distances, but also residents and visitors (all of whom could very well do without driving...and most are one per car)...that could be one of their goals for the future here...reduce traffic...
in any case...things are going well and I'll post more later...
haven't posted any photos or voice logs because there is no cell reception here...we lost it way back as we headed into the valley last sunday morning...but as soon as we get out you'll see our faces again...
For our way back we might go down to Santa Fe and then across...see some Native American sights on the way home...

greetings to all
soon

PV

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Fruita dino museum

Photo36

Toward Green River

Photo32

Photo26

Wo guts

Wo guts
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

The interesting interplay of signs and symbols, icons and objects, constantly expanding the possibility of meaning and interpretation.

Man, alone

man, alone
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

Dangerous Animals

DangerousAnimals
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

PYRAMIDS

To the top of pyramids
I will not go
with a broken rewind crank
and a necropolis to explore.
Deep into the opposite shape
cut into the earth
are of no interest
to the dogs who follow us.
The sun is a stretch for them
the surface more of interest.
Barking is reserved
for matters of suspicion;
growling as a definition
of proximity.
Tall shapes are not for dogs
low shade is ideal, a place
to nod with them
in the projection of negative shape
as sand flattens to sleep.

Cactus flower

cactusflower
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

Garden
Beautiful thing
Flowers blooming in spring
I sit relaxing and dreaming
Nature

Poem by Giuliano (10)

Chai

Blend together the spices listed below, by either grinding them yourself in a small grinder or with a mortar and pestle, or by purchasing them already ground. Begin with small amounts of each, favouring your preferred taste in the blend. You will have to experiment with various blends until you find the one you find most palatable and appealing:

Cardamom
Cloves
Cinnamon sticks
Pepper corns

grind, blend and mix into hot black tea and milk...common teas such as darjeeling and orange pekoe are fine blends.

Enjoy!

Designer Attack

DESIGNER ATTACK
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

A precious jaguar broach prowling the designer mall in Bologna ready to pounce on distracted shoppers.

An island in the Salish Sea

An island in the Salish Sea
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

Savary

I am on
an island

I see islands
sometimes clear

or as muted shapes
through haze

and
sometimes water

so flat
to walk across

seems possible
here we are

surrounded
by ourselves

the sea
and the house

residence
in pieces of us.

Bench, Savary

Bench, Savary
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

This bench is in front of our house on Savary. It looks out over the beach and the boulder pictured in the next photograph. Sit and rest a while!

Solitary boulder

Solitary boulder
Originally uploaded by pverdicchio.

Every summer we spend a few weeks on the island of Savary, a few hours north of Vancouver, B.C. This boulder is on the beach right in front of our house. The colour of the sea and the stones changes with the changing light of day. It goes from a stark gray to a bluish tint on some days to a more golden red during certain sunsets.