Thursday, August 16, 2007

Photos from the garden. August 2007







We have watched this family of deer for the past two years. The little one in the blackberries is the newest generation! They are in the front field, NOT in the garden. So far, these deer are respecting are garden fence. My eggplants are my prize veggies this year! As big as footballs and up to 15 on one plant alone! I have spent a lot of time and care on my veggie garden this year, and I have only just begun to reap the fruits of my labor!!

Photos fram Alans trip to New Zealand




Friday, August 10, 2007

Human Family

I note the obvious differences
in the human family.
Some of us are serious,
some thrive on comedy.

Some declare their lives are lived
as true profundity,
and others claim they really live
the real reality.

The variety of our skin tones
can confuse, bemuse, delight,
brown and pink and beige and purple,
tan and blue and white.

I've sailed upon the seven seas
and stopped in every land,
I've seen the wonders of the world
not yet one common man.

I know ten thousand women
called Jane and Mary Jane,
but I've not seen any two
who really were the same.

Mirror twins are different
although their features jibe,
and lovers think quite different thoughts
while lying side by side.

We love and lose in China,
we weep on England's moors,
and laugh and moan in Guinea,
and thrive on Spanish shores.

We seek success in Finland,
are born and die in Maine.
In minor ways we differ,
in major we're the same.

I note the obvious differences
between each sort and type,
but we are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.

We are more alike, my friends,
than we are unalike.
~ Maya Angelou

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Tashilunpo hike...view from the saddle



...looking back down toward the Tibetan quarter of Shigatse, where we began our hike.

Tashilunpo hike...prayer flags and rock altars in the saddle

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Tashilunpo hike.in the saddle

Tashilunpo hike..hiking up to the peak


After climbing the intital ridge line and crossing a wide sadlle, this is the backside of the peak that lies directly over Tashilunpo Monastery. Climbing up this hill was not as easy as it looks... it was very loose rock, criss-crossed with sheep trails which may work great for agile little sheep, but aren't the easiest for gangly humans. The last bit to the top was a literal scramble... but the view on the other side, AND what awaited us at the top was so phenomenal!!

Tashilunpo hike..cuddled up in the prayer flag shelter




We weren't the only people who ever had THIS idea! The thick layers of flags provided the only shade for at least an hour in any direction. The soft, padding provided by the bottom layers of flags was a bonus! We could not resist taking a nice, long rest here...

Tashilunpo hike..Tashilunpo itself, through the prayer flags...

Tashilunpo hike..prayer flag web

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Tashilunpo hike.looking back down the initial ridge


The first portion of this hike was climbing the ridge in this photo. We started off walking up to the Shigatse Dzong (big fort), which you can see at the bottom of that first ridge. Our hotel was just in front of the Dzong, down-hill to the right.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Tashilunpo hike..wall of prayer flags from the east side

Tashilunpo hike..wall of prayer flags, from the West side


Several hundred extra large strands of flags were tied off to this pedestal on a peak overlooking the Monastery...

Tashilunpo hike..Tashilunpo Monastery


A closer view into the complex...

Sunday, June 24, 2007

Tashilunpo hike..Shigatse view

Looking directly below into the Monastic complex of Tashilunpo...

Tashilunpo hike..Shigatse view


Shigatse is the second largest town in Tibet. Notice Shigatse's version of Lhasa's "Red Square". Every town of any size in Tibet and China had their own version of a "Red Square", with a memorial celebrating Communism and a large, flat, empty square. In Shigatse's Square there was an enormous movie screen.... creepy.

Tashilunpo hike..prayer flag nesting

Tashilunpo hike..the Friendship Highway


A view looking down over the West side of Shigatse... the side that has been left to the Tibetans. The long, straight road headed off into the distance is called the Friendship Highway... it goes from Lhasa to the border with Nepal, and is the road that all must take to get from Lhasa to the Everest region.