Middelburg Harbor

Here's a 1976 photo from Holland of a harbor near Middelburg, Holland. My note indicate it's Paal Harbor.

It's my entry for the fun at Vintage Weekly.

Smoky Sunset

Here are some photos from last Wednesday of a smoky sunset. This time the smoke was from a fire in the southwest part of our state, but it was smoky enough at our house that we kept our windows closed. It made for a bright orange sunset.

These are straight out of the camera, I did no editing of any type. They're for the Skywatch Friday meme.

Los Angeles

From our vacation to California last month, here are a couple of photos from Koreatown, near downtown Los Angeles. First up some flowers from near where my wife's mother lives; they're climbing up a wall.

And a skyward shot of a nearby church.

Although they're technically from May I'm linking to Tina's PicStory for the theme of June flowers, and of course to Our World Tuesday.

Only In California

Here's a sign I saw walking around downtown San Luis Obispo, one that doesn't inspire confidence...

Ironically it was on the tourist information building! For those who use the translate function on the blog, it says: "Earthquake Warning. This is an unreinforced masonry building. You may not be safe inside or near unreinforced masonry buildings during an earthquake." Visit Signs, Signs for more interesting signs of all types.

Aspen, June 1995

We're back in our house and everything's fine, we suffered no losses. Many weren't so lucky as almost 500 homes were burned in the wildfire. Rain Friday afternoon was a big help, and we're getting a little more rain now. Many thanks to those who sent thoughts and prayers this way.

It's back to regular blogging. Here's a photo for Vintage Weekly and Scenic Weekends of one of the Maroon Bells near aspen. It's scanned from a 1995 slide.

Terrifying Skywatch

This was the view from our house yesterday afternoon. It's a classic pyrocumulus cloud from the local wildfire.

And here was the view as we evacuated this afternoon.

Homes were burning a few streets from us this afternoon. We're all safe, but I won't be responding to comments on the blog this week. Visit Skywatch Friday for more sky photos.

Scenes From Drive Home

There's a wildfire burning near us, we're on the edge of the evacuation zone. Here are some photos I took driving home today with an old Cybershot.

After last year's disastrous Waldo Canyon fire this area doesn't need another wildfire. Wish us luck. If you leave a comment on this post I will not be able to respond.

The Crags Trail

It's hiking season again, and last weekend a friend and I hiked the Crags. It's a very pretty trail with lots of photo opportunities.

There are nice views up the valley.

It's fairly high altitude, topping out at 10,808 feet (3,294 meters) above sea level according to my GPS watch, and there was still some ice along the creek.

But I love being in the forest.

Visit the Our World Tuesday meme for more photos of different parts of the world.

Strange Sky Photo

Before reading further, can you guess what and where this is?

In case you can't figure it out, I won't leave you in suspense. It's the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, one of the places we visited on our vacation a couple of weeks ago - you probably haven't seen it like this before! I'm leaning out, looking straight up a support cable, which is actually four cables close together. It's my Skywatch Friday entry this week, and I'm also linking it to the Ein Stück Himmel (a piece of heaven) meme, and to the Sunday Bridges meme in a few days.

Middelburg Swinging Bridge

Here's an old scanned and cropped slide from 1976, of a swinging bridge in Middelburg, Holland. It would swing out of the way for boats to pass.

I'm linking up to Sunday Bridges and Vintage Weekly with this post.