Beautiful but Dangerous

Yesterday was a "stay at home" day. Overnight Saturday the temperature dropped enough that the rain we had been getting since early Friday changed to freezing rain. In the process, it coated everything with a damaging layer of wet, heavy ice. There was no wind, thankfully, or things could have been much worse. As it was, the main sound of the day was the sound of branches breaking, falling and covering the ground with fragments of ice.

The best place to be was definitely inside in a warm and cozy place. But ultimately the splendor of all that shimmering, transparent ice covering everything drew me out with camera in hand to record the very real beauty of another of nature's many faces. Without further comment, I will just post some of the shots I got within yards of the house.

I have to admit I almost didn't bother to go out. I could just imagine all the cameras out there clicking away and didn't see why I should add to the deluge of "ice" shots. Well I'm sure they were and a lot of them have already been appearing on facebook. More ice pictures probably didn't need to be taken. But I'm glad I got off my duff and went out. It's, happily, not all that common an occurrence and it was an undeniably wonderful photo op. And I also almost hate to admit that these are the first pictures I've taken since getting home from our trip - almost three weeks ago. That's just too long to have the cameras sitting idle. They (I) need the exercise and constant practice to keep the eye and the head in shape. 

It's now Monday morning. The temps have drifted back up to above freezing and overnight last night the ice disappeared from the trees. The driveway is still a bit treacherous, but the trees are much less burdened. Rumor has it that we're looking at sub-zero temps before Christmas. Ah, winter in the North Country.

Photography by Burdette

2013 Travel Dispatch #21 (Diving GBR: Post 1)

Today was a travel day. We finished our business in Australia yesterday with a lovely drive up into the Atherton Tablelands (more later) and this morning (way early) we headed to the Cairns airport for our two flights to Bali (we did Cairns to Brisbane and then Brisbane to Bali.) So here I am in a truly delightful accommodation in the Ubud area of Bali and still trying to get caught up.

Without question, one of the special and most anticipated events of our grand adventure was the time we spent diving on Australia's Great Barrier Reef. If you dive, it's one of the "must do" dive sites in the world and I must say we were not disappointed. Since we were out there for the better part of three days and did eleven separate dives with me doing photography on most of them, it's not really practical to try to squeeze the whole thing down to one measly post. It just deserves more attention than that and if you non-diver types get bored with underwater pics, so be it.

Just so you know, because I'm sure you were dying to, the fish pictured above is a Titan Triggerfish -- it's also my new homepage image on the website, but more about him/her later.

The composition of the dive party was interesting and quite unexpected. As you can see from the pics below, it was a very young group. We were, with no close competition, the most chronologically mature, in the group -- by decades in most cases. Prodive's boats carry a maximum of 32 divers plus instructors and crew. The boat was full to that limit, but most of the divers were on board to get their diving certifications. As a result, the already certified divers (thirteen of the thirty-two) were left pretty much to ourselves and dove essentially unguided - a new experience for us.

The abundance of nubile young females in bikinis did nothing to detract from the enjoyment of the trip. And, we were the only Americans in the group. Most of the young people were Swedish, Danish or Finnish and there were also Spaniards, Italians, Canadians, Croats, Scots and one Brit -- and the crew, of course, were mostly Australian. A very international group to be sure. We noticed early in our Australian peregrinations the abundance and variety of languages we were hearing. The experience on the dive boat reinforced that in spades. 

But this post is about diving and to international relations. This is a shot I got of one of the class groups down below us as we were descending.

They're novice divers and their air discipline is not all that good. But it does make for an interesting photo.

There's tons of stuff to see and pay attention to underwater, but one of the most interesting has to be the fish. On the GBR we found no shortage of them in all shapes, sizes and colors. 

If I'm not mistaken, which I could well be, this is an Achilles Tang as it swims past a little clump of coral. I'm at least certain about the coral.

Here's a nice little trio that managed to line up for me as I swam past with the camera. I think the bottom one is a goat fish. Have no idea what the other two are except cute.

A Moorish Idol, one of my favs, and a Spotted Sweetlips. Ya gotta love the names and the fish are pretty fun too.

Here's a nice shot of a batfish. This one is unusual because they are usually swimming away from you, or from me at least.

Another fun one, even if it is swimming the other direction. A Clown Tang.

In addition to the fish, which were in plentiful supply and variety, we chanced on some giant clams. This one was probably about tree feet wide and very much alive. In person, the lips along the shell edges look like velvet.

And then there were the sea cucumbers. The reef floor was littered with the things in as much variety as the fishes.

Here's Miss Inquisitive checking out a Pineapple Sea Cucumber. Luckily, she put it back where she found it and didn't try to incorporate it into a salad or on any sandwiches.

That's round one of our dive pics. If it looks like fun, it is. 

Photography by Burdette

2013 Travel Dispatch #13 (Great Ocean Road, Port Fairy)

And we're on the move again, but this time our mode of transport is the more pedestrian and user friendly automobile. We're traveling down the Great Ocean Road with friends Hugh and Jo after spending a couple of nights at their home en route to a few days of exploration of Kangaroo Island.

After a few hours of driving through rural Australia to get to the coast, passing through farm and ranch land that is unbelievably and uncharacteristically green and lush, we hit the Ocean Road just a couple of kilometers from a coastal formation known as the Twelve Apostles, great spires of rock thrusting out of the ocean. But now it is really more like Eleven Apostles because one of them just recently succumbed to the ravishment of the waves. Like pretty much all of our earth, it is an evolving, living landscape.

This is actually not part of the Twelve/Eleven Apostles but a bit further along the coast. But I'm putting it here because I just posted it as my new homepage photo.

The Apostles area looks pretty similar and was just as interesting to photograph. 

Our gracious hosts and guides, Hugh and Jo.

As you can see, the cliffs/bluffs at the ocean's edge are quite high and steep. And, as mentioned, the whole thing is still a very active and dynamic environment. Which led to the sign below being prominently posted.

No polite, carefully worded warnings or subtle requests for the Ozzies. They don't mince words.

I'm trying not to over do it and some would say, "You've seen one Apostle, you've seen 'em all." But I think you can get different feelings for the same place by looking at it from different perspectives. So, a couple more shots. Actually, the day was hardly ideal for taking pictures and I'm pretty happy with how well they come out despite the grey, cold, wet and windy conditions.

From there, we continued down the coast and finally reached our destination for the night, a little coastal town called Port Fairy. We are comfortably billeted in what claims to be the oldest inn of the area is proving to be a wonderfully cozy haven on a blustery night.

Another day of promise tomorrow in all regards but the weather. Shower chances are slightly diminished, but the wind and cool will persist. After several years of serious drought conditions, no one here is complaining about the rain and the area is looking great.

Photography by Burdette

2013 Travel Dispatch #5 (Empuku-ji, Kyoto)

And we're back! Well, back into a part of the world where we have internet access again. We have just had the most amazing experience at a most amazing place. I can't relate it nearly as well as Fran could, since it's really her story, but I will try to give a sense of my spin on the past couple of days. Sit back, this may be a lengthy one.

This is the entrance to where we have just come back from. It is a Buddhist monastery that has it's origins in the 12th or 13th century. It is a training ground for monks. Fran's grandmother studied Zen Buddhism there exactly 80 years ago, nearly to the day actually, from when we arrived. The monastery is a very private place and not generally open to the public, I was indeed privileged to be able to take the pictures I took in and around the entire compound. Because of Fran's connection through her grandmother and the papers and photos she brought to share with the monks, we were very warmly received. In fact, we were treated as very special guest and afforded every courtesy and consideration. Very impressive considering that the primary focus of the monastery is the difficult and rigorous training of the monks.

The abbot of the monastery, Tokumon Roshi, was a most gracious, engaging host and honored us with an inordinate amount of his time. And, we really liked him. The above is the entrance of the main building.

The interior of the main building. The entire place was immaculate and extremely well kept. There were very old parts and some very new parts. It was difficult at times to know which was which.

This is a view, across a little pond and garden area, of the building we stayed in. Actually, we had pretty much the entire ground floor.

The interior of our room, with sleeping palettes in-place. We were guests there for two nights and two full days plus.

The grounds were littered, hardly an appropriate verb, with artfully arranged and beautiful objects. It was a heavenly place for a photographer to wander around. And again I felt very honored to be allowed to do so. I could append a unseemly number of examples, but will spare you that.

But ultimately, a monastery is not really about the place, beautiful and special as it is, it is about the monks being trained there. They were a wonderful group of devoted young men, though a couple were into their 40s most of them were in their 20s. They treated us wonderfully and tolerated our intrusion into their monastic lives with grace. Their days start at 3:30am with an exercise session and then proceeds to prayer and meditation. Fran joined them one morning, I did not. They have two breaks, at 9 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon. The above is during one of those breaks. It is the only time I observed them to act somewhat unmonk-like.

Both Fran and the Roshi had copies of a picture of Fran's grandmother with the Roshi and monks of her time. The above is a present day, as of today actually, recreation of that photo taken in exactly the same place. The only things different are that the trees are bigger and the group of monks is smaller. The picture Fran is holding is of her grandmother. (A show of hands if you want to see the original pic from 1933.)

And now for a closing bonus for the foodies in the crowd, we know you're out there.

We had lunch at the monastery and dinner on the 11th floor of Kyoto Station after we got back. The lunch was with the Roshi and dinner was with a lovely young lady who served as translator the whole time we were at the monastery. (Maybe more about her later.) But the food....  Below are the foodie pics.

A most excellent monastery lunch. . .

. . . and our decidedly un-monastic dinner. But both were delicious. The Japanese do do food well, in both taste and appearance.

Photography by Burdette

2013 Travel Dispatch #3 (Kyoto and many Temples)

We did some Temple touring with a guide today and are feeling just a bit Templed out... so we'll do it all again tomorrow but on our own. These things are quite amazing and I'll mostly just let the pictures speak for themselves. We lucked out on the weather today with the rains ending during the night and while the skies didn't exactly clear we stayed dry and even saw a few glimpses of sun. Unfortunately, those glimpses were pretty rare and the light for most of the day was pretty flat and uninteresting. The temples, on the other hand were fascinating. The things are HUGE and they've been around for a long, long time.

The above image is from a walk of 1000 Torii Gates that are part of the Fushimi Inari Shrine. The things go all the way up the mountain -- not all as closely spaced as in the picture, but they do go on.

Pics from other temples explored today follow without comment cause I'm tired and ready to see if sleep comes more easily tonight than it did last night. The brain and body still seem to think we're on NY time.

Photography by Burdette