Dreams, Moments, Travels
Again this year Caroline and I attended Asha Gopal’s Arathi School of Indian Dance recital. And again this year our friend’s daughter Hemu performed, here she is with two friends following their performance. To see my photo from last year’s dance recital, click here. To view and maybe purchase some really nice professional photos from this and other recitals check out Steven Potter’s website at www.stevesphotos.photoreflect.com – look under Sunnyslope HS 2006 for this particular event.
The saguaros are blooming. Getting a photo is not an easy task though, as these flowers tend to be at the very top of the cactus and its arms. Occasionally, I might spot a saguaro with a malformed arm bent down towards the ground with flowers in bloom, but then I’m probably speeding by with no safe spot to pull over and snap a photo. I found this rogue flower on the side of a saguaro, and with an 8-foot ladder, I was able to get just high enough to take this image before these beautiful flowers drop away under the crushing summer sun.
These hands took care of my grandfather 84 years ago when he was just a little boy and his sister was only 11 years old. They held my mother when she was a baby and her father was a young man fresh from the military after his service during World War II. In the 1960’s they cradled me, just a young baby 43 years ago. Today my Aunt Eleanor’s hands are a little more wrinkled and maybe not as strong as they had once been, but still, her gentle touch is as sweet as ever.
It’s getting late in the day and the sun still burns hot, the clouds do little to ease the heat.
As my wife makes the long and grueling 15-year transition from jeans, black t-shirts, and orange hair to feminine jewelry, skirts, and long braided hair, there are moments when she really catches my eye. Yeah, I know, she’s supposed to to that every day for me as we ‘are’ married. But, there are times when to me, she just looks extra wonderful – this was one of those days.
High winds and blowing dust preceding a thunderstorm kicked up this sheet of aluminum into the power lines cutting electricity to our neighborhood for nearly three hours. Typically this kind of storm activity doesn’t begin until July – the beginning of our monsoon season.