Scotland,   Antarctica,  Puffins and More,

  Alaska_2016,   Joshua Tree NP,  Puerto Rico_2019,   New Zealand,   

East Africa,  Nepal,  SW--USA_2008,  Argentina, Central Asia 2024-25

 Svalbard_2008,  Norway-Iceland_2008, Camino de Portugues_2015,  Toolik_2022

               2025

 

Just to clarify, that photo in the upper corner is from when I started this blog thing in 2009.  It has aged much better than I, but I don't want to have to figure out how to change it... so 2009 photo it is.

  Also, I am way behind, but here is 2025... 

 So, this year had some adventures as well.  I hope you enjoy reading about them, and checking out the usual overload of photos.  I have added an album above of my Central Asia trips, so check out all the photos there.

 

Ouray ice climbing

The New Year started with the usual activities like some skate skiing at the local area, instructing snowboard and skiing at Snowy Range ski area, and getting a bit more settled at the new job (started in November 2024) as a Grant Development Manager.  My friend Matt and I also did a bit of ice climbing in  Ouray, CO as well as a day skiing at  Crested Butte -  a first time for me.  

 

February was full of exercising, skiing, snowboarding, biking to work in the snow, and taking a course reading MacArthur award papers, but no big out of town expeditions.  I did something to my knee but it eventually got better with a whole bunch of  PT.

 

 

flying into SLC

March had a nice duel trip to Snowbird to ride in the snow with my brother and family, then directly to San Diego for a conference and to visit friends.  

 

 April-signed up to look for vultures in a citizen science project. Re-certified for Mental Health First Aid

 

May- Took a couple days to visit some WY state parks.  I had won WY State Parks pass, and if you visit all of the parks, and get a stamp, you can get free pass the next year.  So, I visited a few parks on the east side of the state, plus a National Historic Fort, and Scotts Bluff NM.  I also re-certified my Wilderness First Responder as well.

June- I foolishly took a summer class, forgetting that it is super accelerated, but the Physical Geography stuff is pretty interesting.  I did a bit more citizen science work for my old PhD advisor, looking at cheat grass growth after a very large fire, just west of Laramie in the Medicine Bow National Forest:  Mullen Fire.

WY parks, state and Federal

Portland, OR

July- Visited 9 more state parks, completing my "passport" of state parks, and passed through Yellowstone and Teton National parks, as they were on the way. 

 

Went to Portland, OR over a weekend for a friend's celebration of life and got to visit with some old friends from Laramie.

 

 

Hiked near the Flatirons,  Boulder, CO 

 

Elk Mt, Research Station

Got to join a bunch of researchers checking out the renovated atmospheric research station on top of Elk Mt, WY

 

 

                                     Did a few more transects in the Mullen Fire area.  

 

 

 

 

 

Medicine Bow Peak 

The first half of August was several local hiking days, plus an afternoon spent riding my bike and then walking the sweep for the Medicine Bow Rail Marathon race.

 

 

 

 

The second half was a trip to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan via Istanbul.  Unfortunately, my luggage and I did not make the same trip, though I reunite with my luggage in Denver on my way home.

Kyr-Taj 

I took the trip with a tour group out of Italy, and everyone else was Italian.  In some ways it was great, I could just zone out and enjoy the countryside and not have to talk.  Of course, that also meant that at least 1/2 the time I had no idea what was going on.  The folks were amazing, accomplished, interesting, and enjoyable.  The scenery was stunning, and I even got to pretend that I could see K2 in the Hindu Kush, just over that very large rise in Afghanistan, just across the Panj River.  There is all sorts of amazing history in the region from the Ancient Silk Road, several sections of which we followed loosely, to the Great Game of the British and Russian empire building.  For those who know I like to travel to scenery, you will not be surprise to hear that some of it looked rather like Wyoming--huge vistas, big mountains, arid landscape. This area is basically the far Western end of the Himalayas. 

We started in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, stopping at the bazaar for a few things--including all the stuff that was still in my luggage somewhere.  Then headed East, towards the Chinese border, and then the Pamir.  The Pamir Highway is an amazing route through some incredibly harsh and beautiful landscape.  We basically followed it all the way to Dushnabe, Tajikistan.  Along the way we stayed in yurts and hiked up to the climbing base camp for Lenin Peak, a very accessible 7000 meter peak.  That made me very happy, and also very sick: bad water or some food, anyway, I was pretty sick and out of it for a couple days, but then back on my feet to look across the Panj River to Afghanistan and the Hindu Kush mountains that lie along the Afghan-Pakistan border. We visited really ancient fortresses that were part of the Silk Road, a loose term that refers to hundreds of years of history and numerous dynasties, kingdoms, and trading routes.  We also visited Soviet monuments and lovely mosaics in several cities.  It was a fascinating tour through ancient mountain villages and stunning landscapes.  The tour link here 

 

Wedding in CA

September- I attended my cousin Chris's son Austin's wedding, near Palo Alto, CA.  The venue was up in the hills to the south, and was so cute and lovely.  Austin and Val were really fun as I got to hang out with them the night before all the festivities.  It was also great to catch up with my cousin and his awesome wife and some of their kids who I had not met before.  Even got to meet a cousin-in-law.   

Back in Laramie, September saw me doing some more local hikes and playing on a co-ed volleyball team--been sometime since I have played volley ball!  Spent a weekend in Breckenridge, CO on a work weekend with my friend Matt for his membership obligation at a very old ski club.  It was actually pretty fun and we had dinner in town with some old and new friends. Took a class on Forest Dynamics!

October- I decided to spend the money and take a tourist train ride that wanders along the CO-NM border for miles. The Cumbres-Toltec railroad.   It was a really fun day, with a bus ride back to the start.   I met some cool folks and totally enjoyed the warm day in the outside car.  I missed the peak of leaf season but it was still gorgeous.  (there are a  lot of shots of the train going around corners as I was trying to get the perfect shot for my holiday cards.)

Cumbres-Toltec RR

November- was a lot of shots  of my cats and a few day hikes in the area.  I played some ice hockey and put up my Holiday tree--I really love all the little lights.

cats, tree, plants

 

   December- Working at the ski area started up, though the snow has been scarce so far!  Finished up hockey until sometime in the late winter. Also 

 I visited the small botanical garden in Fort Collins, Spring Creek , with a ski school friend,  The Garden sure knows how to put up the lights.

Spring Creek Holiday lights

 

    

 

 

 

Spent New Year's eve in San Diego with friends Larry and Diana, even got to stroll on Ocean Beach with Diana

around Laramie 

 

 

Scotland,   Antarctica,  Puffins and More,

  Alaska_2016,   Joshua Tree NP,  Puerto Rico_2019,   New Zealand,   

East Africa,  Nepal,  SW--USA_2008, Argentina,

 Svalbard_2008,  Norway-Iceland_2008, Camino de Portugues_2015

 

2024

 Well, as usual, I have packed in a bunch of stuff this year.  There have been some reoccurring themes, so this year will be a bit more theme and location oriented than exactly chronological.

So, a big event was that I paid off my house.  All mine now!! Here is the living room from the balcony on a sunny winter day.

 Still working at the Snowy Range ski area- and continue to do so this winter.

I continued working on the UMRB (Upper Missouri River Basin) project installing weather stations in Wyoming (if you want to see the data and field sites, click on the UMRB link).  However, after the field season wound down in September, I started a new job, also at University of Wyoming, as a grant development manager for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.  I just started that in November, so still figuring out how to do the newly created position.  But it does look like it will be super interesting and pretty fun.

 

 

a few nice shots

     Here are some photos from the field work and the travel around  NE    Wyoming this summer.  

     I also spent a few days in SW Wyoming doing some field work in April.

 

  

Alanno, Italy

 

 Went off to Alanno, Italy for a week in January. My great-grandparents came from this small town in East Central Italy.  I found some information about their births and the births of their first 2 children.  My grand mother was actually born in the US, after the family emigrated.  However, I could not find any information on either of the relatives' relatives, but both Assetta and Julianetti are very common last names in the area.  I also made a stop in Rome, coming and going and visited friends there. 

 

 

 

Summit County

Near the end of February, I spent a few days in Summit County doing some day trip back country skiing with friend Matt.  Plus, we spent one night at the 10th Mountain Hut, part of the 10th Mountain Hut Association in Colorado.  The way in was pretty easy, packed trail, and lovely weather.  But a serious snow blow came in overnight and the way out was a lot more route finding, or not, and deep snow!!

 

 

At the end of March, I visited with brother Jeffrey and family at Snowbird for a few days of snowboarding/skiing.   

Then visited a few Wyoming State Parks on my way home. I had won a State Park Pass and found out that if I visited all the parks, I could get a free pass for the next year.  I hit 20/37 this year and plan to hit the rest next year!

 

In late April I took a weekend trip to western Kansas to check out a couple state parks, Little Jerusalem Badlands, Monument Rocks, with cool rock formations.  I stopped at one of the last battlegrounds for the Cheyenne, plus a few other private areas of cool rocks.  Keystone Gallery was a great fossil shop as well.  It was also exciting to see that I was directly in the path of incoming tornadoes, that fortunately never quite formed.  But exciting nevertheless.  I had brought a SUP board to use on the little lake where I camped in Lake Scott SP, but decided that paddle boarding during a tornado was not a wise choice. 

Kansas Parks

In May a science tech working for US Fish and Wildlife moved in for the season.  It was great to have someone to occasionally share a meal with or chat.  Jo, not to be confused with Jo the cat, also helped out a bunch with house and cat sitting while I was gone.

 

At the end of May, Caroline, also trying to hit every state park, did a bike race in Sheridan, and I joined her for some state park visits. 

 

In July, I spent a weekend in Lander, hanging out in Sinks Canyon and visiting friends, hiking and camping.

 

 

In late July I won a free entry to the local EPIC mountain bike race.  A 30 mile loop or 2x loop.  I opted for the "1 and done" option.  It started out OK, but about 7 miles in I managed to catch a pedal on the trail and fly through the handle bars.  Pretty impressive contusion / hematoma on one elbow, that I actually did not notice at first.  However, the really impressive part was the 8 holed chain-ring impression left in my right calf.  Pictures only by request  😀

 

 

Wyoming Sr. Olympics

Two weeks later I headed to Cheyenne to compete in the Wyoming Sr. Olympics.  Unfortunately, the chain-ring bruise was not yet healed so I did not do the running events, just the shot put and 3 swimming events.  I got a bronze in shot put after coaching a competitor to a much better put.  Oh well, she was pretty happy!  Then, another bronze and 2 silvers in swimming.  Apparently, getting 3rd or better gets you an invitation to the Nationals!  Of course all my places were "last", there just happen to be only 2-3 people in each event.  😆 So, not planning on attending, though I have been trying to actually go swimming regularly, so maybe.

   

Over the course of the spring-summer-fall, I took several hikes in the general Laramie area including Vedauwoo, Sheep Lake Trail, Pilot Hill, and Medicine Bow Peak.  Here are some choice photos from those trips.

hikes near Laramie

At the end of August, I took a group trip to 4 of the 'stan countries in Central Asia.  It was with Atlas Obscura.  It was a really well run trip, excellent logistics, great trip leaders and guides.  I think I would call it a "suburban" trip.  We spent most of our time in cities or on the road to the next site, but we also did a bit of nature with a great overnight at a high altitude herder camp.  The mosaics and tile work, not to mention the amazing mosques and associated madrasahs, were pretty amazing.  Really a fun trip.

Kazakhstan

 

 

We started out in Almaty, Kazakhstan which was a bit of an adventure getting there for me as my first flight from Denver to Dallas got delayed.  So an overnight in Dallas then off to a quick layover in Doha, then Almaty at 2 or 3 am...  We spent a day or so in Almaty, then traveled to a lovely National Park, Charyn Canyon, on the east end of the country then over the border to Kyrgyzstan.

 

 We spent more time in Kyrgyzstan, including the lovely overnight at the summer yurt camp on Song Kul where I got a ride a horse for an hour or so.  We started on the east end of Issyk Kul, a large lake with  mountains both North and South of us, and continued our travels along the southern shore, check out small towns, and Soviet monuments and even a few iconic bus stops.  We eventually headed all the way to Bishkek, the big city, then flew to Tashkent, which is the capital of Uzbekistan.  We had to fly there as the border crossing we were going to use to get to Tajikistan was closed.  We spent only a day or so there, before heading into Tajikistan. 

Kyrgyzstan

 

Tajikistan

Tajikistan has some really cool ancient (12-15th C) --restored-- ruins and lovely scenery.  It also has really high mountains, like 25,000', though we did not get that far south. But we did see some very pretty lakes and great open air markets!  I hope to get back to check out the mountains a bit closer. 

Uzbekistan

We then returned to Uzbekistan, by a road crossing.  All of the ground border crossings were interesting, with long no-man lands between customs on each side.  And they seemed to prefer open land, where it would be hard to sneak across.  I am glad it was not raining anywhere as we had longish walks dragging our luggage.  We went to Samarkand and Bukhara, both old Silk Road cities with amazing architecture.  Samarkand is working on attracting more tourists and has done an amazing job of renovating many of the mosques and madrasahs to the "original" tiled glory!  Bukhara still has much of the ancient city center full of amazing buildings, but not quite as much restored tile work. Both were absolutely stunning! 

 

Bookfest and Zoo

 

In late September, right after leaving my weather station job, I visited with 2 folks who I met on the Central Asia trip for the Brooklyn Bookfest, Brooklyn, NY.  The day before the Fest I visited the Statute of Liberty and Ellis Island.  The Fest was pretty neat, bought some books, got very wet as it rained all day, listened to a talk in a lovely church. Then before I left, had a very tasty breakfast, then headed over to Prospect Park.  I was disappointed that the Botanical Gardens were not open, but Prospect Park Zoo was open, so I wandered around. I got a short video of a Sand Cat and saw some other cool critters.

 

 

Tetons

In early October, I joined friend Matt in Jackson Hole for a lovely dinner at the historic Jenny Lake Lodge and a great hike the next day.  Unfortunately, the day after that the wind shifted and blanketed Jackson Hole with all the smoke from the Pack Trail Fire.

Spent a couple days in Summit County in November, snowboarding at Breckenridge to get my CEUs to maintain my snowboarding certification with AASI.  

Grand Canyon R2R2R

The first week of December I joined Tanya, Tish, and Tage for a 4 day R2R2R (rim to rim to rim) hike of the Grand Canyon.  We headed down the South Kaibab Trail, which was in pretty rough shape, and it totally kicked my butt, to the Colorado River and  Phantom Ranch,which was closed due to a water pipe break.  We then hiked to Cottonwood Canyon Campground, during which my legs felt much better.  The next day we hiked up to the North Rim and back down, over-nighted again at Cottonwood.  Next morning, we headed back across the canyon towards Phantom Ranch, which was still closed.  We side tripped to Ribbon Falls, which are just lovely!! Got to see another water pipe break with a huge spray! Then we started up the South Kaibab again to get us closer to the top before nightfall and shorten our final hike out the last day.  The weather was terrific the entire time, blue skies and lovely temperatures.  I did not curate, so lots of photos--even one of me.

Did a bit of cross-country skiing in mid-December with Caroline and Cindy, back in Summit County:  Frisco Nordic Center and Keystone Nordic Center.  Really like the trails along Dillon Reservoir; the Keystone trails were a bit more up and down.  We were all pretty tired and headed home.

more cats photos than anyone needs

  And my cats Amy, Beth, and Jo, of course.

   Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for an awesome New Year!

       🎄🎉🎊⛄

 

 

 

2023

 

Scotland,   Antarctica,  Puffins and More,

  Alaska_2016,   Joshua Tree NP,  Puerto Rico_2019,   New Zealand,   

East Africa,  Nepal,  SW--USA_2008, Argentina,

 Svalbard_2008,  Norway-Iceland_2008, Camino de Portugues_2015

 

 

2023 

 (quick caveat: I did not curate my photos so you got all of them, good and bad)

 

Zulu and Pele

Started the year with 2 lovely foster kittens who headed off to a new home.

February had a fun couple of days at the Wyoming Sr. Winter Olympics.  I got 5 gold medals, alpine skiing, swimming, hockey goal shots, and 1 silver in skate skiing.

5 Gold medals Sr. Olympics

 

 

Then I got my next batch of 3 kittens, nearly 10 months old, and have failed at fostering by keeping them:  Amy, Beth, and Jo.  Beth managed to break her foot, probably jumping off my loft railing.  There are far too many photos in this folder, but they are cute kitties.
 

3 kitties, now mine

 

Walks around Laramie

 March saw some great skiing at Snowy Range ski area, where I have been teaching snowboarding and skiing all winter.  As well as back to a full-time benefited position installing weather stations in NE Wyoming for a Army Corps of Engineers project on the upper Missouri River basin.

I did some walking in the neighborhood and got this lovely shot of a sunset. There are also lots of photos of walks in the area.

April was off to Snowbird to ski/snowboard with family and a quick weekend trip to Summit County for CEUs for my snowboard certification.

 

 

 May started the weather station installations in NE Wyoming.  I worked with a great crew of folks and we got very efficient along the way.  We installed 11 stations which each took a few days.  First we had to auger 3 holes  for concrete footers, each 5 feet deep, then we poured concrete.  After it set for at least a few days, we returned to put up the tower, solar panel and precipitation gauge.  We finished installing the last station in early August.  Since then we have been working on the comms, via cellphone, back to campus... it has been a bit challenging.  

Devil's Tower

 

After that, I started working on getting new sites and landowners lined up for the next set of installations for next year.  We will eventually have ~60 stations, all about 25 miles apart across the entire upper Missouri River basin, plus another 580 (640 total) across MT, ND, SD, WY, and a bit of NE.  Still working on the last batch of those sites including driving out to see the sites in person.  I have gotten to see a great deal of NE Wyoming this year.  It is amazingly beautiful with incredible open spaces and wild landscapes.

 

 

 

Jelm Peak

      Did some hikes in the local

 Medicine Bow Peak

       mountains on weekends.

 

 

 

 

 

In August, I headed for Rapid City to visit a friend I had not seen in ages.  It was a great little trip, and I enjoyed the drive as well.

Over Labor Day weekend, I headed for Jackson Hole and the Tetons to hike and hang out with another friend.  We had a lovely time walking around Jenny Lake and then another hike on Black Tail Butte.

Teton NP

 

 

MI Trip

 

 I also got to spend a weekend near Marquette, MI supporting two friends who decided to do a 100 mile mountain bike race, the Marji Gesick, "the hardest 1 day race in the US". I'm  really happy I went for the Support Crew t-shirt and not the race.

In mid-October I headed east to visit my brother in New Hampshire, yep, drove there so I could come back with apples and cider and cider donuts and apple butter and horseradish cheese and maple syrup and King Arthur Flour products and maple shortbread cookies from Dan & Whit's...  basically is was just a really long trip to get groceries, and it happen to be near my brother  :  )

But I did help him chop some very green Ash for his fireplace, and got to see a Women's soccer game between Dartmouth and Columbia.  Also caught up with some Hanover friends I have not seen in years.  Unfortunately the apple blossoms were all killed in spring so no apples in New Hampshire, detoured to Massachusetts to get my apples, and then there was so much rain during summer that the maples dropped their leaves early so no lovely colors in the area I was staying.

 

November has been mostly stay in the neighborhood, talking long walks in the National Forest and our local Open Space.  Enjoying my 3 kitties, reading books, and that sort of thing.  

 

December will start up with teaching snowboarding and skiing at Snowy Range again.  Not too much new to add.  Over the holidays I taught skiing and snowboarding and had a couple Fort Collins folks stay over so they would not have to make the long drive every day.  Before that I got in a few days of xc skiing on our local RailTrail.  However, the snow is pretty thin so far.  Here is hoping for a lot more snow this new year.  I also plan to travel a bit more in 2024.

Happy New Year to all!!  More like Happy February now  😄

 

 

 

 

2022

 

Scotland,   Antarctica,  Puffins and More,

  Alaska_2016,   Joshua Tree NP,  Puerto Rico_2019,   New Zealand,  Argentina,  

East Africa,  Nepal,  SW--USA_2008,

 Svalbard_2008,  Norway-Iceland_2008, Camino de Portugues_2015 

2022

 

 

Sea World, San Diego

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spent the New Year with friends in San Diego who made me work in the yard for room and board--I thought it was a great deal.  Took time for an afternoon trip to Sea World as well as various hikes and strolls.  

My poor truck was broken into and the jerks took a bunch of really random stuff--including my hiking boots which fit perfectly.  There was a bunch of other stuff, which added up pretty quickly, but only the climbing gear was probably worth anything to them.

 

We also went to the Sistine Chapel exhibition which was absolutely amazing.  I highly recommend it if you have a chance to see it. 

 

SW national parks

 I headed off for a few days to visit with a friend from the East who was in Tucson then continued to travel to Scottsdale to visit some Anchorage friends who were hanging out there.  The musk ox lasagna was terrific.  Then I stayed at the Grand Canyon for a couple days and then to Joshua Tree.   Lots of lovely hiking.    

 

From there I headed to Rohnert Park, CA--wine country--to do some cat sitting for an old friend.  It was a pretty easy gig, hang out and pet 4 kitties and make sure they were fed and brushed.  Took one afternoon to head out to the headland near Guerneville, which was also quite lovely!  Got to see a very large river otter.

From there, I headed back to Laramie for about a month which included some job application stuff and then packing for a Yoga Teacher Certification class in Colombia.  It was a terrific experience with Akasha Yoga School near Barranquilla. Lila and Pablo were awesome and I highly recommend their school!!

Colombia

Afterwards I did some traveling near Santa Marta, hiked to La Cuida Perdida and then visited with friends near Medellin.  Unfortunately, I showed up with covid and did not realize that is what I had until I gave it to everyone.  Fortunately, it was not too horrible, though it was not totally mild either.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dalton Hwy

After a short delay in Colombia, due to the covid, I came back through San Diego overnight, then back to Laramie.  While I was in Colombia, I was offered a full-time position with the Toolik Field Research Station.  It is on the north side of the Brooks Range, not too far south of Dead Horse-Prudhoe Bay and the Arctic Ocean.  It is on Toolik Lake and just off the Dalton Highway also known as the Ice-Haul truckers road.  Generally, the job was about 4 weeks on and 2 weeks off, so, since I started in May, I have been up and down highway several times,  When I arrived, it was snowy, then starting to be green, then full green, then starting to change color and finally back to white.  The photos were taken across all those various trips.   

 

 

Fairbanks

Additionally, I spent a number of days in Fairbanks, sometimes in Quarantine and sometimes just hanging out, so here are some photos from Fairbanks across the seasons.

 

 

 

 

 

Toolik area

At Toolik, I was a science tech meaning that I carried soil cores from the field for a science group, measured stream flow, troubleshot a meteorological station, changed out filters on several long term projects, or counted flowers.
  There were also station tasks like packing and shipping samples left by researchers or replacing computers that had died, or simply helping folks find the equipment they needed on station and showing them how to use it.  We often set up and took down various experiments as the researchers couldn't get to the Station.  

 

 

 

flowers +

  The tundra absolutely bursts with flowers so here is a full album of just flowers, berries, and a few fungi and lichen. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wyoming Truth site

My first break, in July, I returned to Laramie to grab stuff from my garage, make sure my renters were starting to pack up to leave, and generally enjoy the area.  It was beautiful with cactus flowers in the prairie and great scenery in the Snowy Range  I did a bunch of hiking and mt biking and visited friends, even went on a bat walk in Cheyenne.  See the entry below for all the photos from the Laramie areas.   Wyoming Truth website posted this photo of mine

 

 

Ketchikan and Creek Street

 

 

 My second break was to Ketchikan where it rained--a lot!!  But I got in some hiking and biking and wandering around the cute little town, sometimes with hundreds of folks from HUGE cruise ships.

 

 

Shortly after returning to Toolik in September, my boss terminated my contract.  Guess we were just not a good match.  I was quite annoyed, but probably much happier now anyway.  

 

lichen album

 

 

There were some amazing lichens in the tundra so here is an album of just a few of the varieties I saw there and elsewhere.

 

 

 

I returned to Laramie and my old boss asked me to immediately start working on a new project setting up weather stations as part of a Mesonet network on the Upper Missouri River Basin.  Over the next 5-7 years we will be installing ~60 station across the NE part of Wyoming, where the rivers all eventually flow into the Missouri River.

T. rex, adding atmosphere

 

In mid-November I headed to Philadelphia to attend my nephew's wedding.  They held it in the Natural Sciences museum, which was soooo cool!  They said their vows right under the T. rex skeleton, and we ate surrounded by fossils and dinosaur bones.  Then, if you wanted to get away from the dancing and music, the rest of the museum was open for viewing.  They have some really lovely animal dioramas, mostly of mammals, from around the world.

Schuylkill River at sunset

     I also spent some time walking and running in the neighborhood while hanging out at my brother's  house for a week or so.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I headed to California for some kitty sitting (no, I did not sit on the cats...) and a quiet
Thanksgiving... and got to do some lovely hiking in the Sonoma area.  Here are a few photos. 

 

From the top of Jack London State Park.

 

In the midst of various trips and work, I did manage to get in some hiking in Wyoming and here are some photos of day hikes and the like. 

 

hiking around Laramie and the Snowies

 

It is now the end of the year and I am still getting to play and adventure.  I have been in the field working on some beautiful winter days; and, since I am back instructing skiing and snowboarding at Snowy Range, I gotten more time in the snow.  A bit of cross-country skiing and ice hockey are keeping me busy outside.  Inside, I am putting my house back together, putting up colored light everywhere, and now fostering two kittens:  Pele and Zulu.  Soon they will be ready for adoption.

 

Pele

Zulu

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Holidays to everyone and all the best for a Happy New Year!!