Feather River Snake

Feather River Snake, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Here's a small snake we found on a hike along the Feather River near Lake Oroville. The lake was very low - the area where we were hiking would normally have been submerged. Anyone know what type of snake this is?

Vernal equinox

Calm skies and a calm sea at Portobello beach for the equinox on Saturday. The landmarks on the horizon are, from left to right, The Bass Rock, Cockenzie Power Station, and North Berwick Law

Piping in the rain

It didn't start out wet at Peebles Highland Games a couple of weekends ago. But they're hardy stuff, Scottish pipers. It rains - they put on their big black capes.
To begin with it was shirt-sleeves weather - as here, with St Andrew's tower in the background.

The first drops of rain appear, below, on one of the T-shirts that was being proudly worn by the members of my daughter's school pipe band. It is rather a nice litany of championship wins. The balloon - I think it's to do with practising squeezing the bag of the actual pipes.

The umbrellas come out, and the dancers get under a gazebo. Well, some of them do. I'm not sure why some are at the mercy of the elements.

The shot-putters follow with their umbrellas. Glenfiddich is a suitable sort of umbrella to have at a highland games, but Johnson & Higgins? My Google search brought up results as diverse as a brokerage firm and a cosmetic dentist in Lexington, Kentucky.

Still, not everyone is convinced by the rain. Among the lusty blowing, below, there are still some shirt-sleeves.

But eventually it's a cape-clad tramp through the streets of Peebles, and rather a nice umbrella to finish off with.

Oops - photo credits to my daughter! I'm in danger of taking my staff of roving reporters for granted.
And another oops - my photo of the shot-putters with their umbrellas somehow fell off the post. I'm getting rather frustrated with Blogger's photo manipulation at the moment. Perhaps it's my lack of technical skills - can anyone who has upgraded to the new Blogger set-up tell me if it's more amenable to things like adding photos and moving them around?

A Classic View

Fog rolls through the Golden Gate.

Paved with gold

What's this? Bank notes littering the streets of Edinburgh?
Big ones, too.

Sadly they're only leading the way to the Museum on the Mound.
This being Scotland, someone's tried to peel one off the pavement, just in case it might be real.

California Newt

California Newt, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

While hiking, I came across this interesting California newt, right in the middle of a relatively dry trail. The newt's eyes were surrounded by an amazing green.
The stream in the ravine 100 feet down from the trail contained many newts, as well as their young.
Anybody else seeing amphibious creatures around?

Coming Into Clarity

This excerpt is from the book From Clutter to Clarity by Nancy Twigg: "In my years of being a Christian, I've learned something about making time for God. I believe we are supposed to find God in all things. Although quiet time with God is essential, I now feel it is equally essential to see God in the midst of our busyness.
Am I busy with meetings today? Then there is probably someone in one of those meetings whom God is calling me to meet--someone who needs to be acknowledged or needs to see my example of being fed by God. Are there errands I need to run? As I buy groceries, pay bills, pick up clothes from the cleaners, I take that opportunity to thank God for my abundance. I don't wait until my quiet time. I do it minute after minute throughout my day.
Our digestive system works to deliver nourishment to our bodies between our meals. Likewise, I have found that acknowledging God keeps me sustained between my conversations with Him." Adela from Aurora, CO
I also find this to be true, and when I've walked with God all day long, then I find it so much easier to pay attention in church on Sunday. But if I've sped through the week with no thought of anything but my to-do-list, I find my mind still in that mode as I try to worship on Sunday. I just can't do it.
The photos were taken on Fripp Island, SC. We had a condo on the third story which pretty much hung out over an inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. The bird traffic was superhighway status. They were zooming right and left. I was standing on our balcony aiming my camera at the sky, but I had the settings wrong.
After taking photos for several minutes, I stopped long enough to look at what I had taken. It wasn't until I put them on the computer and could view them much bigger that I gasped in surprise. I loved them! They looked so ethereal and dreamlike. And if you know me and my photography style, you know that that's the look I mostly go after.