Season's Greetings from Santa Squirrel!

This year's beautiful, timeless and classic Christmas card. Ha!

I hope Santa Squirrel scurried down your chimney! He clawed his way under my tree and left me this...

A camera is so much better than an acorn. One time, on a street far, far away, our car was broken into and low and behold, a tiny pile of acorns was found on the driver's seat. True story. It must have been Santa's naughty elf.

I can't wait to take souvenirs with my new camera. I hope you'll be back for many visits in 2018 to discover mementos of Guatemala, Florida, Utah, and more. (Maybe even Minnesota!) And speaking of Minnesota, Santa Squirrel brought me two new books by award winning author Peter Geye. The Minnesota-nice writer is critiquing my novel. He's also the subject of my latest blog post over at The Chorus of the Crows  Be sure to stop by...

Meanwhile, I'm heading into the kitchen to make my traditional, messy and delicious, Christmas Lefse. Click here for a tutorial from my very own kitchen.

Merry Christmas 

and

Happy New Year!

The Leftovers

Leftover photos from my sunny November sabbatical...

The beginning.

Splendid skies. 

Tiny tulips. 

Fish Hawks

I'm rich!

A gentle Grebe.

Horse shoe crab.

A kinky snake. 

Wild wood.

Broken boundaries. 

Offerings. 

Bark.

Birds of a feather.

A rare sand-gater. It even has teeth!

A beautiful beach butterfly!

This live shell was bigger than a man's hand. 

Osprey feathers perhaps?

I didn't expect to see chickens in the parking lot of remote Rookery Swamp. 

Wild and weathered Lover's Key. 

The fallen. 

The slanted and sparkly. 

The glorious end!

The Awesome Links:

Wild Bird Wednesday

Wednesdays around the World!

Tanama Tales

Our World Tuesday

Budget Travel on Thursday

Sky Watch Friday!

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Duluth on Prisma!

Jay Cooke State Park.

Jay Cooke State Park on Prisma! The St. Louis River was boiling back in September. Along the gorge, massive slate formations pepper the riverside like porcupine quills. The pointy rocks make Jay Cooke a Minnesota must see. We always stop by in September when my husband skates the Northshore Inline Marathon.

In Duluth, we inspected the tiny rocks along the shore. This one was occupied.

We always see Carins. The artistic Prisma App really brought out the detail of this stack.

Color in Canal Park.

The key group. I love the weathered and colorfully striated wood. 

The keys in Canal Park are a must see. The group looks even cooler on Prisma!

I love how the Prisma App added so much drama to this harbor photo. And the basalt rocks look as dark as coal. 

Duluth rocks!

The Awesome Links:

Wild Bird Wednesday

Wednesdays around the World!

Tanama Tales

Our World Tuesday

Budget Travel on Thursday

Sky Watch Friday!

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Street Scenes from Leon, Nicaragua. Part III

Yesterday, I was reading my travel log from our colorful trip to Nicaragua last year. In Leon, entries were all about life on the streets - every morning we would take a photo safari. In Leon, life is sultry, vivid, smelly, gritty and a combination of fast and slow. It's definitely the year 2017 as most people own smart phones. And yet, many people still travel by horse. The smell of charred wood is always adrift on the breeze. Wood is fuel. Wood is even used to sweep! (I posted a photo in a previous Nicaragua post of a man sweeping the Central Park square with a tiny broom made of sticks) 

Food in Central America is outstanding. If you order soup, they aren't going to open a can or use something from the freezer. No way! (freezers are for ice) Most likely, you'll hear the cooks chopping the vegetables and making it right on the spot. Chicken - its dusty and short feathered life free of a cage - can be a revelation. Other food, is literally left out standing on the street. Baking in the sun. Yum. We simply shake our heads and hope we don't get food poisoning simply from looking.

Next stop is Guatemala!

Coming soon.

he Awesome Links:

Wild Bird Wednesday

Wednesdays around the World!

Tanama Tales

Our World Tuesday

Budget Travel on Thursday

Sky Watch Friday!

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