Latest

Urban Entrances.184

At the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, one follows those white curvey white lines of paving stones to go through the high entryway next to the downward spiral slide, then walks through one of the rotating glass doors below to enter the indoor space, which when we visited early last month was hosting one of the most captivating exhibits I’ve ever experienced, called “Amazonia.” (Along with a personally-moving photo exhibit from a gay NYC artist active in the 1970s and 1980s, and an exhibit on the long history of commercial sex work which, for me, was actually the least captivating of the three.)

County Views.184

All from a wonderful hike in what I still think of as my ‘home park’ in Santa Rosa – Sonoma County, back in early January.

From the Air.105

Above, you’re seeing the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan (not far from a city called Türkmenbaşy, according to my in-flight map), as seen out the window during my long Bangkok to Amsterdam flight yesterday. Below, you’re seeing photos of the Turkmen desert as we flew west towards the shot above, and any photos I took during out flight over the sea, including when we flew over its western shore above Azerbaijan, fairly close to Baku. (If you’re on a bigger screen or in ‘full view’ mode, the photos are in order from east to west; if on phone simple mode, top to bottom should be east to west.) This was fun for me, because it was by far the clearest weather I’ve had when over-flying the Caspian sea, so as you’ll notice, I enjoyed looking out the window :-).

City Views.284

The pyramids of Giza it’s certainly not, but Steve and I were both quite happy that we disregarded the guidebook’s casual dismissal of this “pyramid of Tirana,” on our last-afternoon stroll around town.

Small Wonders.304

A workshop recently got me back into this newly-renovated, 1638-founded Amsterdam institution, of whose newly-remodeled greenhouses I recently shared one photo in another series. 10 (imaginary) bonus points to anyone who can guess which beloved institution in the immediate neighborhood of our office we’re showing you here. Hint: it’s one of the world’s oldest of such institutions, yet somehow never makes the cut for most of my visitors, when weighed against other even more famous Amsterdam institutions…

Small Wonders.303

This particular plant truly lights up if I time my morning bike commute via Vondelpark so as to catch the moment when the rising sun first hits it, as I did on of the two days of shots you’re seeing here.

Small Wonders.302

Eetbaare kleine wunderen, bij ons taaltafel aan het Regina Coeli Instituut, Februari van dit jaar. 🙂

Small Wonders.297

Small Wonders.294

This time of year, I tend to accumulate a lot of lovely small-wonder-worthy photos, so we’ll be dedicating the next set of posts to such macro beauty :-). Starting with these from a lovely late-Feb& early-March weekend in northern Germany.