Finding Little Treasures - Birthday Edition

Lamb's Ear and Rocks, Boulder, Colorado  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


The velvety softness of Lamb's Ear thriving in a field of granite stones would seem improbable, but the improbable often becomes the probable when talking about Mother Nature. Finding this little treasure near our friend's house in Boulder was pure delight. The Lamb's Ear is likely a naturalized escapee from a neighborhood garden. Coincidentally, Lamb's Ears and rocks are two of my wife's favorite things. Which is why she chose this image for today's post, because today is her birthday!

Happy Birthday Becky!

Forest Realm

Tree on an Island, Crabtree Falls, Blue Ridge Parkway, North Carolina
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Wood sprites and dryads,
Satyrs and water nymphs,
Fauns and elves,
Oberon and Puck...
a vision such as this conjures an imaginary realm of faeries
 who frolic among forest and falls.

The Midas Touch

Portico at Night, Pantheon, Rome, Italy  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Velvia Slide Film)


Columns of the ancient Pantheon, the color of aging florins, adorn the Piazza della Rotonda on a golden Roman night, where everything seems transformed by the touch of Midas.

Fossil

Hood Detail of Old Mercury, Danny's Classic Cars, Elko, South Carolina 
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved



Snaggletoothed-clunker.

Fiery Beacon

Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, Acadia National Park, Maine
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved  (Click on image for larger view)


Even on a sun-splashed afternoon, a lighthouse beacon glows like the blacksmith's fiery furnace. Steady and reliable, it blazes regardless of weather or season, guiding boats safely to harbor and home.

Ambiance

Unitarian Church (foreground) and St. John's Lutheran Church, Charleston, SC
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


On Sunday's in Charleston, the musical sound of bells tolling in historic churches are part of the quaint ambiance of this charming Southern town.

(These two churches are National Historic Landmarks. They are among the 1400 historically significant structures within the Old and Historic
 District of Charleston.)

A Gem of a Window

Stained Glass Window Detail, Sottile House, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved (Velvia slide film)


Little jewels of light and color... elegant patterns of stained glass illuminate this Queen Anne style mansion in Charleston.

Left Hanging

Tree Swing at the Beach, Botany Bay Plantation, Edisto Island, SC  
© Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved  (Velvia slide film)


A rustic swing lolls from an ancient tree by the sea as children's whispers echo on the breeze.

Standing Out at Sea

Shrimp Boat, Shem Creek, Mount Pleasant, SC  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


In a place where the sea's blue horizon meets the blue of the Carolina skies,
 this trawler stands out when it sails out.

Haute Couture

Window Display and Reflection, King Street, Charleston, SC  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on image for larger view)


How will you wear your pinwheel this summer?

*Fashion tip: display it proudly on your lapel,
 on your hip, in your hair, on your hat,
 or perhaps more daringly
 in the middle of your forehead.

Silky Connection

Gate Scrollwork and Door, Legare Street, Charleston, SC
  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


One of Charleston's hallmarks is its decorative ironwork, as seen on this gate. Notice the little cobweb of silky gossamer spun between two adjoining arms of scrollwork... a small example of nature's symbiotic connection with the works of man.

A New Day

Sunrise and Pineapple Fountain, Waterfront Park, Charleston, South Carolina
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Seeming to dangle from the fingers of a fine fountain, a Carolina Lowcountry
sun rises to begin a new day. In that same spirit, I shall begin a new chapter in the story line of Doug's Photo Blog. Shifting the setting from our adventures out West, I return to the Deep South, where Becky and I have lived for
more than 25 years in Charleston.

Every story should offer a bit of drama and intrigue, and perhaps some comic relief. Hence the title of this week's chapter shall be, "A Return to Charleston...  whereupon the leading characters ride a runaway carriage, stroll along the Battery promenade during a tropical tempest, feast on she crab soup while whistling Dixie, shop for pineapple-shaped chocolates at the Market, collect sea shells by the sea shore (even after getting swamped by a salty rogue wave), fish in backwater creeks among cypress knees for stumpknockers,
and dance the Charleston while wearing silly feathered hats." 

P.S.  Please note that Doug's Photo Blog may be a work of fiction.
Names, characters, places, yaks and incidents could be the product of
my imagination or a condition of delirium brought on by eating too much
she crab soup. Any resemblance to actual persons, events,
yaks or locales are likely to be entirely a fluke.
 Thank you.
Doug

Go West XXXIX - On Safari?

Giraffe, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on any image for slideshow)

Gorilla, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Elephant, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Zebra, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Rhinoceros, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

King Kong, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved

Putt Putt Golf, Woodstock, Georgia  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Becky putts her ball in before I do.
She wins, again.

Go West XXXVIII - Golden Grains

Grain Field, western Kansas  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on image for larger view)


Although western Kansas seems an endless wave of golden grains, these high plains were once the realm of immense prairie land. Vast herds of buffalo roamed the plains, and prairie grass stretched for hundreds of miles. It was a scene my ancestor James Butler Hickok (aka Wild Bill) was no doubt familiar with, having worked as a stagecoach driver in the territory of Kansas, and later as gunslinging marshal in Hays City and Abilene. But the Old West is gone, along with the unspoiled prairie.

Today the vast lands of Kansas are a bread basket for the world, producing wheat, oats, barley, milo, soybeans, corn, and sunflower seeds for backyard birds,
and binocular-slinging birders, like me.

Go West XXXVII - Pueblo Style

Visitor Center Patio, Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado
© Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


The decorative architecture of the Great Sand Dunes National Park Visitor Center accentuates a brilliant blue sky. Its color and design suggests a Native American influence, especially that of the ancient pueblo style.

Pueblos were buildings made of adobe mud and wood, often constructed one on top of the other to form apartment-like villages. Spanish explorers in the West were the first to use the term pueblo, which means "town". The Anasazi were thought to have begun building pueblos around 750 - 900 AD, although this Visitor Center is considerably more modern.

Go West XXXVI - Book Cliffs

Clouds and Book Cliffs, Grand Junction, Colorado  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Afternoon clouds build above Book Cliffs in western Colorado. These cliffs are an arid escarpment of layered rock that span about 200 miles. They are an excellent example of stratified geology, and provide a consummate study model for scientists. The sandstone layers seen here are the remains of an ancient sea that stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to the Yukon during the Cretaceous period, roughly 100 million years ago.

This vast, largely undeveloped desert area contains a protected Wild Horse Range and is one of the few places in the country where bands of Mustangs roam free. The Book Cliffs also harbor coyotes, mountain lions, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep and American bison. But alas no yaks.

Go West XXXV - Quirky

Garden Sculpture, Boulder, Colorado  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved



Boulder has a reputation for being a bit quirky. But that's not a bad thing, especially when imaginative and fun-loving oddities like this are on display in neighborhood gardens.

Go West XXXIV - Silverton

Main Street of Silverton, Colorado  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved
(Click on image for larger view)


The small town of Silverton began as a silver mining camp in the 1870's. But the past evolves into present and instead of mules and horses tied-up in front of these establishments, pickup trucks and SUVs park. Instead of communicating to the outside world via telegraph, there is satellite TV, and instead of mining for silver, they mine for tourists (the area is now a National Historic District). To add a bit of local color denizens dress-up in period costumes,
playing their part of the Old West.

Go West XXXIII - Chilling Out

Little Blue Lake, Mt. Sneffels Wilderness, Colorado  © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Growing weary of this exhaustingly hot summer?
This alpine lake looks like the perfect place for a cool dip.
Burrrr!
 Ahhhhh!

Go West XXXII - Tenacity

Sage and Red Rock Formations, Palo Duro Canyon, Texas
 © Doug Hickok  All Rights Reserved


Life is ever persistent,
 taking hold even in the least hospitable places.