“Gee,” I yelled in the wind, and Hickory, my lead sled dog, guided the team to the right across the lake and northward toward the mountains. We entered the forest and began the ascent, steep switchbacks, dogs pulling hard. “Easy, Easy,” I said as we approached a left turn with a steep drop at the right side of the trail. We were hundreds of miles into the snow and silence of Alaska. Continue reading
Lake Champlain region offers memorable sunsets
Everyone says that travel is educational, so Barbara and I began to think about what we learned on our winter trip to Vermont. As it turns out, we think we learned things that can help other retirees.
Here’s what we learned: Continue reading
Dogwoods in Georgia
After spending three months in Vermont, it is good to be back home in Georgia. When we drove into our place, forsythias were blooming, redbuds and dogwoods were opening, and our azalea’s looked ready to pop. Continue reading
Ice, forest, fog
I have not posted recently because I’ve been skiing and taking pictures. I return from skiing exhausted and can barely function. If I sit at the computer, I fall asleep. I take some ibuprofen, eat, and do whatever is absolutely necessary before getting into bed where I sleep like a rock. Then I go skiing again. I’m 68 years old and haven’t skied through a winter in 42 years. Besides being older, I’m 80 pounds heavier.
If not skiing, I go out looking for aspects of Vermont to photograph. Continue reading
Here are a few photographs of the Christmas season. Hope they help you remember what a wonderful season it is.
A working Maine Farm, with barn attached to house, selling pumpkins.
I write tonight while most everyone else is likely watching election returns. After the votes are counted, let’s break away and go to Maine. Continue reading
My wife, Barbara, and I traveled to New York City on October 22, and we left a few days before Sandy hit. We were on a “retirement vacation,” which is a vacation from retirement, and we visited a friend who lives in New York.
Some images of New Yorkers follow. The photos show people doing ordinary things, and they offer a contrast to the images now on television. Ordinary things offer a goal toward which New Yorkers now work.
An age-old group
Along the Blue Ridge Parkway
People often wonder what they will do when they retire, and many delay retirement because they feel uneasy about striking out anew. Jim Keighton, a retired middle-school science teacher, has solved the problem for himself. Jim has doubled-down on birding, especially with hawks, a hobby he started as a boy. As I wrote about hunting, retired men often return to activities from their youth. Continue reading
[A week or so ago I mistakenly published this post for a few minutes. Emails were sent out to subscribers, but the post was not available except in the email. It was supposed to be published October 2, as it now is. Sorry for the confusion.]
In later life it seems memories occupy our minds, crowding out missions, goals, and objectives. Recalling the past is a worthy enterprise especially if we bring to mind hopeful experiences or beautiful images.
Fall is here—temperatures are cooling—and winter is surely coming. Continue reading
The smothering heat of summer is gone, and from a cooler vantage point, we can look back to one element of summer that has special charm—the southern magnolia. The magnolia is a large tree with dark green, leathery leaves and spectacular white flowers.
Today we look back a few weeks and view images of magnolia blossoms at their most beautiful, from their beginning as flower buds to the end as fruits with developing seeds. Continue reading