Slimey, Smelly, Fresh

Steam Mist, Cool Falls

Sinuous, Furry

Prickly, Cottony

Burble-ey, Gurgle-ey

Peaceful Smoothness, Sharp

Liquid Heat, Crystaline Snow

Rough and Soft

Bubbles and Falling Darkness

Eruptive Hot, Silky

Mist Refreshing, Wildly Frothy

Spikey, Sticky Sap

The culmination of a marathon TransAtlantic flight finds me grinning away, propped up against a sign that turns out to be about body hair removal. Hey I do not speak Catalan.

Wacky spires of Gaudi's Sagrada Familia. I was lazy to drag around my camera so most of these shots are from Marcel.

The colour and quality of light inside the temple is stunning.

I love this ceiling because in my mind, it maps perfectly onto the starry, celestial Montana skies.

This pic gives scale to the tremenous height and volume of the temple.

Masterfully contemplative.

The spiral staircase at descent time from the turrets of the temple.

If I ever move to Barcelona, I want to live in that pink penthouse flat with the rooftop garden on Sagrada Familia Plaza.

The big reason for the trip was to see the Barcelona vs Sevilla football match.

Nice save.

A gorgeous platter of paella shot in a weird yellow restaurant light.

Hungry, Barca-loving travelling companion, pre-paella pose.

My stern-yet-photogenic travelling companion's art hero, Salvador Dali.

Dali's drippy time-warp object reminds me what an insane idea it is to go all the way to Barcelona for a weekend!

Dali's rendition of the Gemini Twins. My horoscope sign.

I didn't get any shots inside this special exhibition at the Picasso museum but it was inspiring.

Graffiti is still a big-deal art phenomena in Europe.

Pretty awesome low-light capabilities on my Nikon D5000!

A sea of cowboy hats and fists thumping the air at the Kenny Chesney concert.

Cowboy hats all have their own distinct nuances and stylings.

This hat belonged to a kid who was especially wild about the song "No shoes, no shirt, no problem."

This kid knew every word to every song and broadcast the whole concert to his pals in Newfoundland.

This hat had some lovely detailing.

Helps to be a cutey with long hair and a tight black tank top.

Kenny tiny on stage and huge on the screens behind.

The C&W crowd leaving the Saddledome against an indigo Calgary skyline.

Typical hats cuddling out on the midway.

His and her staw hats in line for the ferris wheel.

Turquoise-coloured hat-band detailing. You can't go wrong with western wear if you throw on some turquoise.

I know Carrie is in this shot but ... who is that masked marauder?

A fast and furious midway ride as seen from the ferris wheel.

Looking down at the workings of the ferris wheel.

Grandstand Finale fireworks from the ferris wheel.

These are my hats nuzzling up. The braided horsehair band on my Aussie outback hat is a souvenir from the Butte Folk Festival.

Bruce Little is the old-timer artist who creates the outstanding horsehair braid art. Here he is with a braided horse halter.

Here is Bruce with a collection of horsetails ready to be woven into braid art.

Here's my cousin Brenda celebrating the Butte Folk Festival with a few brewskis.

Dancing and grooving to the tunes against a jetstream flying way overhead past and over Butte.

Magic Slim and the Teardrops, a sensational Chicago Blues act.

The beautiful silhouette of a Butte mining headframe behind the festival crowd.

Brenda zenning out at the gold crusher garden.

Brenda up against the awesome sunset out on the hill behind Montana Tech.

Yours truly up against the same awesome backdrop.

The Shyba cousins as Thelma and Louise.

Here's Nazar on the half shell just before entering the tidepool.

Once in the tidepool, Nazar started confronting some strange and colourful creatures.

Nazar and his mussels.

Nazar thought *I* was crabby until he met this beast.

This critter sings Nazar a ballad.

Who needs friends when you have anenomies?

What would a tidepool visit be without lunch?

That naughty Nazar.

Cuddling

Taking a ride.

Crawling out of the tidepool on a chunk of kelp.

Sunning on the beach after a long, wet photoshoot in the tidepool.

Sunset on the tidepool.

Hahahaha. Ferries make me laugh.

We met up again after not seeing each other for decades here at the the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. It is a cantilever truss bridge, 650 feet above the Rio Grande River and is the fifth highest bridge in the United States.

This river gorge runs from Taos, New Mexico, through the basalt flows of the Taos Plateau volcanic field.

This is the front of Dr. Jezz's Earthship. You can see the tires here that are used as foundation material.

Earthships are constructed out of adobe and old tires and are designed to harvest every drop of water that falls from the sky.

Tin cans are used to help cement the walls and create a cooling effect.

Here's Dr. Jezz cleaning up dishes using precious water harvested from the rainwater cistern.Satellite communication has made offgrid life much easier.

Ancient river bed, rimmed with Pueblo petroglyphs.

This rock surface shows petroglyphs from many eras spanning thousands of years

This Apache symbol looks like it is crawling right out of the desert dust.Hobbing up my horse Gaia at break time. Allows her to munch grass but keeps her from wandering off too far.

I always wanted to be a barrel racer ... how about barrow racer?

We slept out in the yard under the blazing New Mexico starry starry skies.

Hugs for Dr. Jazz, truly one-of-a-kind of friend!

One of the first sights of Joburg was a guy selling animal skins on a street corner.

We went to see Macbeki at the Market Theatre, a political satire by Pieter-Dirk Uys.Austin lives in a superbly beautiful home in the Northern Suburbs but too bad about the ubiquitous 10-ft. walls, locked gates, and rolls of barbed wire.We stumbled upon an ANC victory rally in Nelsprait and danced a Zulu chaindance. Fuzzy photo I know but didn't want to be obvious with a flash.

Speaks for itself I believe.We stumbled upon an ANC victory rally in Nelsprait and danced a Zulu chaindance. Fuzzy photo I know but didn't want to be obvious with a flash.

A typical South African town. This one is on the ridge of Kruger National Park.

We stayed in a cool little Rondelay at a rest station in Kruger National Park.

Austin bbq-ed a dinner of big fat crazy African sausages.

We didn't go on a big organized Safari but saw lots of sights from the back of an open truck driven by a Zulu guide.

This was a mating pair of lions.

Laughing Hyenas

Easy to drive along in our Rent-a-Wreck and nearly run over impalas and zebras.

Cute zebra bums

Lazy African river full of crocodiles

We drove way up into the mountains and ended up in the Kingdom of Swaziland.

Bulembu was an asbestos-mining town that was abandoned due to the cancer-related deaths among the workers. Now it houses all the country's orphans. Yikes.

We stayed at a lodge that was the former home of the asbestos mine directors. This was our host.

Swaziland has a rampant HIV positive rate. Here is a typical aids clinic.

Back in Joburg, we went for a huge hike to the top of these waterfalls and beyond.

From the very top of the mountain, here's the view of a typical Joburg suburb

My camera was pretty lame and this is fuzzy but here is the Joburg skyline in the firely setting sunlight.

This is a view of the campus of the University of Witswatersrand, affectionately known as Wits, pronounced Vits.

At the Apartheid Museum, there was a special Nelson Mandela exhibition.

Nelson Mandela's boxing gloves.

I loved this video wall featuring Miriam Mikeba. Love her voice and spirit.