Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Category: Photography
A bit of a compilation for today.
First, a few more of those ‘senior moment’ cartoons continuing from last Sunday.
oooo
oooo
oooo
Now two pictures taken on Christmas Day of a young deer feeding on cob that we put out daily.
oooo
oooo
Then animal greetings to you all …
oooo
Finally, enjoy this short video sent to me by Dan Gomez.
These boots aren’t made for walking.
Happy Christmas to you.
From today until the end of the year, while there will still be a post each day, I will be leaning more towards republishing items that have been sent to me or that, otherwise, have caught my eye. Nothing heavy.
The Gentleman’s Guide to Racing.
Dan Gomez sent me the link to this video a couple of months ago. The description of the YouTube video is thus:
In November of 2011 two amateurs decided their first professional race ever would be one of the worlds toughest- the Score BAJA 1000. The infamous illegal street racer Alex Roy and Skiny begin a journey that will take them around the world to test themselves against some of the worlds most challenging races and hangovers.
There is also a website that includes the video below but also, more usefully, much background information, for example:
DAY 1: THE BEGINNING
Today starts a journey of a lifetime. The decision has been made to turn my forty year-old life over to the pursuit of racing for the next three years, and hopefully inspire some people along the way to take leave of all that is important to seek out the thing that thrills them most. My hope is that the journey will be interesting enough to fill the pages of a book – aptly titled the Gentleman’s Guide to Racing – and to make some friendships along the way with people I already know but just haven’t met.
I wanted to start writing today so as to retain a snapshot of this adventure in its seedling stage. As of right now I have nothing. No money, no car, and no sponsors. But I do have determination, and getting to the race is often the most interesting half of the battle.
Today I commit to sharing my exploits with whomever is interested in the trials and triumphs of a lone man seeking to test himself on some of the world’s toughest and most grueling races.
Steve McQueen famously said “Racing is life, anything that happens before or after is just waiting.”
Here’s the video.
A very local coming together.
This is a very parochial set of pictures. In that they are of one event that took place last Tuesday, the 10th. Jean has been putting out food for the local deer for a few weeks in common with neighbours Dordie and Bill. The wild deer have slowly accepted Jean’s efforts to feed them.
Anyway, last Tuesday afternoon a single deer took the step of feeding on the cob that was put out, with Jean still present. I grabbed my camera and took the following pictures.
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
It was just a magical to be behind the camera as it was for Jean to be accepted by this most beautiful of wild animals. Two or three deer have now become regular visitors in the afternoons when we put out food for them.
Confidence in what you and I can achieve is our salvation.
Yesterday, I wrote about just a few of the things going on in our world that have the power to destroy us. Destroy us in the sense of making us feel powerless, irrelevant and insignificant. Trust me, there were plenty more examples that I could have mentioned.
But so what!
The vast majority of the humans on this planet have control over what they think. Untold numbers of those self-same people have control over what they do with their lives.
Take Dr Peter Pratje. I suspect that you, as with me, hadn’t heard of Dr Pratje before. But he is a Project leader with the Frankfurt Zoological Society and he holds an MSc in Biology and a PhD in Conservation biology. This may be learned not from the website of that Frankfurt Society but from the website of the Orangutan project. Bet you hadn’t heard of that project either. The Orangutan Project (TOP) is described:
The Orangutan Project (TOP) is the world’s foremost not-for-profit organisation, supporting orangutan conservation, rainforest protection, local community partnerships and the rehabilitation and reintroduction of displaced orangutans back to the wild, in order to save the two orangutan species from extinction.
Back to the good Doctor. This is what he says, “What we do for orangutans, we do for ourselves.”
Now settle down for a tad less than twelve minutes and see the power of self, see what we can do for ourselves.
Published on Dec 4, 2013
Peter Pratje, of the Frankfurt Zoological Society, introduces us to our orangutan family and reveals how we, as individuals, can help prevent their imminent extinction.
The eleven minutes long video accompanies Peter Pratje and his team working with young orangutans at the jungle school. The apes have been confiscated after illegally being held as pets. In daily training sessions they now learn the survival skills they need for a life of freedom – how to climb trees, build nests, find food and generally behave like wild orangutans. The project aim is to re-introduce the great apes into the Bukit Tigapuluh national park in central Sumatra.
Taking matters into their own hands, the young orangutans were most supportive – snatching the small and robust cameras and filming themselves climbing up and down trees.
Music Courtesy of ExtremeMusic, http://extrememusic.com
Special Thanks: Frankfurt Zoological Society (http://www.zgf.de)
December is here!
Last Sunday I published a set of pictures from Dan Gomez showing a wonderful collection of clever things you can do with snow. The post closed with a weather warning that Oregon was set to experience some wintery weather before the week was out.
Thus a small collection of photographs taken on our property last Friday afternoon offering proof that the snows did arrive.
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
Finally, the picture above represents a delightful way to find your Christmas Tree, or Noble Fir in tree speak! We discovered that if one goes to the local office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) you can purchase a $5 permit allowing one to go into the forests and cut your own Christmas Tree. The red permit can be seen in the above photograph attached near the top of the tree. So last Thursday we took our Jeep filled to the brim with blankets, spades and tow chains and other paraphernalia to allow us to safely drive some miles into the forest and 2 hours later had our tree.
oooo
Wherever you are in the world, you stay warm and dry this Winter.
A dip into this remarkable State.
Just fancied a change from two days of Democratic Deficit. So today’s post is a brief overview of the US State that Jean and I live in, together with our animals, the State of Oregon.
Now it’s easy to look up a Wikipedia reference to Oregon but what really caught my eye was as a result of a recent visit to the local Grants Pass office of the Bureau of Land Management. We had gone there to purchase a $5 permit that allows us to go on to BLM land and harvest our own Christmas Tree!
In the Grants Pass office were a number of brochures of scenic attractions in Oregon and we picked up one describing the Rogue-Umpqua National Scenic Byway. Just a quick browse reminded us of Oregon’s stunning and dramatic scenery. Just wanted to share some images.
Mount Thielsen
The Mount Thielsen trail is described here.
Crater Lake
At a depth of 1,932 feet Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States. It was formed more than 7,500 years ago when the Mount Mazama volcano erupted and then collapsed back in on itself.
As Wikipedia describes the lake,
The lake partly fills a nearly 2,148-foot (655 m)-deep caldera[1] that was formed around 7,700 (± 150) years ago[2] by the collapse of the volcano Mount Mazama. Human interaction is traceable back to the indigenous Native Americans witnessing the eruption of Mount Mazama. There are no rivers flowing into or out of the lake; the evaporation is compensated for by rain and snowfall at a rate such that the total amount of water is replaced every 250 years. At 1,943 feet (592 m), the lake is the deepest in the United States, and the seventh[3] or ninth deepest in the world, depending on whether average or maximum depth is measured.[4]
Watson Falls
The website EveryTrail describes Watson Falls:
Watson Falls is the third highest waterfall in Oregon at 272 feet. It is the most beautiful waterfall along the North Umpqua River Valley. You will cross a wooden bridge below the falls that will put you right into the lower rapids with an amazing view of the falls as they roar over the basalt lava cliffs ahead.
Someone who goes under the handle of HikingTheWest posted this video on YouTube about 6 weeks ago.
Oregon Caves
These caves are an Oregon National Monument with full details on the US National Park Service’s website. That website explains:
Nestled deep inside the Siskiyou Mountains, the caves formed as rainwater from the ancient forest above dissolved the surrounding marble and created one of the world’s few marble caves. The highly complex geology found on the Monument contributes to the unusual and rare plants and animals found nowhere else but here.
There are many good videos of the Oregon Caves on YouTube so do have a browse if you want to. This one caught my eye, especially as it was filmed in January, 2013..
Rogue River
Final sight for today, the Rogue River runs close by Grants Pass, our nearest town to where we live. Again there is a Wikipedia entry from which one learns that, “Although the Rogue Valley near Medford is partly urban, the average population density of the Rogue watershed is only about five people per square mile (12 per km2).”
Just reflecting on that last paragraph, a simple calculation reveals that the State of Oregon has a population of around 3.9 million people with an land area of 98,300 square miles. Thus the population density of Oregon is 39.6 persons per square mile. To put that into perspective, our neighbouring Californians to the South enjoy a population density of 238 persons per square mile!
Jean and I are very lucky to be living in such a beautiful part of Southern Oregon.
Entire set courtesy of Dan Gomez.
Oh, and don’t forget to read the final item!
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooo
oooOOOooo
What a delightful set of photographs.
Coincidentally, rather timely with what is most definitely not a delightful weather warning for next week. As in the latest Special Weather Statement from the National Weather Service (NWS). Note we are living in Josephine County, just a few miles from Grants Pass:
SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT…CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MEDFORD OR
404 PM PST SAT NOV 30 2013
ORZ023>026-020015-
CENTRAL DOUGLAS COUNTY-EASTERN CURRY COUNTY AND JOSEPHINE COUNTY-
EASTERN DOUGLAS COUNTY FOOTHILLS-JACKSON COUNTY-
INCLUDING THE CITIES OF…DRAIN…ELKTON…ROSEBURG…SUTHERLIN…
GREEN…MYRTLE CREEK…CANYONVILLE…GLENDALE…GRANTS PASS…
CAVE JUNCTION…STEAMBOAT…TOKETEE FALLS…MEDFORD…ASHLAND
404 PM PST SAT NOV 30 2013
…VERY COLD WEATHER THIS WEEK WITH LIGHT SNOW POSSIBLE IN THE VALLEYS…
A STRONG COLD FRONT WILL MOVE THROUGH THE REGION ON MONDAY.
PRECIPITATION IS EXPECTED TO BE RAIN IN THE VALLEYS THROUGH MONDAY
AFTERNOON, HOWEVER BY MONDAY NIGHT AND TUESDAY IT WILL BE COLD
ENOUGH THAT SNOW MAY FALL ALL THE WAY TO THE VALLEY FLOORS.
THE AIRMASS WILL THEN DRY OUT AND BECOME VERY COLD TUESDAY NIGHT
THROUGH THE REST OF THE WEEK. LOW TEMPERATURES WILL BE WELL DOWN
INTO THE 20S OVER SOUTHWEST OREGON VALLEYS WITH HIGHS IN THE LOW
TO MID 30S. THURSDAY MORNING IS EXPECTED TO THE BE THE COLDEST
TIME WHEN LOWS IN THE MID TO UPPER TEENS ARE POSSIBLE.
IT IS CERTAIN THAT VERY COLD WEATHER IS COMING TO SOUTHWEST
OREGON THIS WEEK. CONFIDENCE IN SNOWFALL IS LOWER, BUT RESIDENTS
AND TRAVELERS SHOULD ALSO BE PREPARED FOR THE POSSIBILITY OF
LIGHT SNOW EARLY TUESDAY WHICH COULD IMPACT TRAVEL.
STAY TUNED TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FOR UPDATED FORECASTS
AS THIS STORM SYSTEM APPROACHES.
$$
Our local Grants Pass Weather website is predicting a low around 20 for Wednesday Night. (-5 deg C.) B’rrrr!
Winter on its way.
We have had a run of cold days here in Southern Oregon going down to the mid-twenties Fahrenheit at night (-4 deg C.)
So this first picture sent in by John H. seemed appropriate for today.
oooo
Then continuing with the series that started last Sunday.
oooo
Wise words indeed.
oooo
oooo
oooo
Finally, to a short but inspiring video sent to me by Dan Gomez.
This is a video of a homeless man in Santa Barbara and his pets.
They work State Street every week for donations.
The animals are pretty well fed and are mellow.
They are a family.
The man who owns them rigged a harness up for his cat so she wouldn’t have to walk so much (like the dog and the man himself).
At some juncture the rat came along, and as no one wanted to eat anyone else, the rat started riding with the cat, frequently on the cat.
For a few chin scratches the dog will stand all day and, let you talk to him and admire him.
So the Mayor of Santa Barbara decided to film this clip and send it out as a holiday card.
Happy Thanksgiving in so many ways!
Learning from Dogs 