A Cactus of considerable proportions.

That's how tall they grow'em in Nevada !

THE "GRAND CANYON"

Here is another sight which cannot be described in words.
Not even these pictures can come anywhere near doing it justice.
The Grand Canyon must be "seen" when the morning sun comes up,
in the early afternoon, when the sun rides high and
lastly, it must be "felt" during a brilliant sunset.

 

 

 

In the Rocky Mountains --- CANADA / USA

Morrain Lake

Rock formations in the "Rockies"
I don't know its name, but I call it "The Cathedral"

Since these images were taken lo these many years ago,
I no longer remember their names.
However,  they are beautiful enough to be shown here.

 

PETRIFIED FOREST National Park......

....straddles the border between Navajo and Apache Country
in North/Eastern Arizona.

In the late Triassic Period - about 225 Million years ago,
(that was before Nikon developed the D700)
mighty trees had fallen into river beds and were penetrated
by deposits of silt, sand and clay, together with vulcanic ash.
  These gradually formed quartz crystals
replacing the organic matter of the trees.
To this day you may examine these "petrified trees" and
actually touch something
which was alive many millions of years ago.

 

 

St.Mary Lake in Montana

Drive along the "Going to the Sun Road"
and you come to St.Mary Lake, in Montana,
 close to the border of Alberta.
The mountains beyond and the little island in the middle
of the lake are reflected beautifully in the still water of the Lake.

A Telephoto lense brings the reflections closer.
and the wide angle lense (below) shows the whole panorama

Surely one of the most beautiful sceneries anywhere.

W A R N I N G

IF YOU DO NOT VIEW THE "TEASEL AND THE BEE" PICTURES
IN THE LARGEST FORMAT POSSIBLE,
YOU MAY LOOSE YOUR PERMIT TO VIEW "BERT'S TRAVELS".

The TEASEL and a BEE

The "Teasel" or by its Latin name: "Dipsacus"
is a 'biennial" plant, which means
it lives, flowers, produces seeds
and dies
within the space of two years.

Bees obviously love this nectar filled flower.

and the clever flower lets the bee carry
its reproductive pollen
all over the meadow,
so that more Teasels will grow next year.

More "Teasel and a Bee"

below: a close-up of the 'pollen-bearing' bee.

 

Somebody probably wrote a novel...

The farmers around a small town in Italy, a town made famous by the American writer, Ernest Hemingway,  suffered from a number of disastrous crop failures. They could understand the first one, having, after all, just come through a devastating war. The following two years, however, were just as bad. There seemed to be no end to the drought.
A North American Indian Rain Dancer could not help them either.
Then when all seemed lost, a New York promoter assured them that it all had to do with "bad air", not with lack of water. He convinced them that deep under ground there was a huge supply of good fresh air and only he had the equipment to drill a well deep enough to bring it to the surface.
They struck a deal. The Italian farmers paid the promoter "cash up front" and then they waited for the shipment of boxes containing the promised machinery.
And, low and behold, a few weeks later there arrived a number of wooden boxes  from New York, bearing the stenciled inscription:

                                      " An Airwell to Farms."

The Lady is a Tramp...

This truly was one of their best numbers, and almost in Frank Sinatra style, their lead singer belted it out at least twice during every performance:
"She gets too hungry for dinner at eight,
She loves the Theater, but never comes late,
da da dada da
That's why the Lady is a Tramp"
As the band became more and more popular, they traveled further and further afield.
Concerts in Albuquerque one night and in Kalamazoo the next, took their toll not only on the members of the band, but also on their instruments.
In order to preserve their music making gadgetry they asked a carpenter to build sturdy wooden containers. These they marked with the first letter of the name of the instrument it contained.
A particularly long box contained the 20 foot long Alpenhorn and was therefore marked with an "A".
Another box marked with a "B" contained the Bassfiddle. A little thin box, marked with a "C" contained, you guessed it, a Clarinet. A number of boxes, all marked with a "D", contained the elaborate set of Drums.
The most important instrument for the band's wonderful sound was an English Horn. It got carefully embedded in a box marked with en "E".

The Big Day:.... Carnegie Hall... excitement all around....
The band, coming from Los Angeles arrived at JFK airport and waited at the luggage carousel for their instruments. They came down the moving ramp: The A box, the B, then came the Z box, containing the Zither... all the D boxes came and then the C box...
The important  "E", however, was a no-show.
The band members became concerned, then worried, then panic struck. No "E" box meant no English Horn, no wonderful distinctive sound ... no Concert at Carnegie Hall... probably the end of their career.
After frantically consulting with Airport Staff, you cannot imagine their collective sigh of relief, when they heard over the P.A. system:
"Delayed "E" is at ramp."


Bertstravels

The World from my Balcony

Anybody following this Blog will have seen these pictures
many times. However, everytime I sit on our balcony for breakfast
I just have to grab my camera for "just one more shot".

Below: The rolling hills of our neighbourhood.

Bleiburg has many "nooks and crannies"
This is just one of them.

 

Big Band Jazz

We drove to Voelkermarkt yesterday... about 35 minutes by car, or less, in order to listen to the "Kelag Big Band"... What does "Kelag" mean ? you ask... It means "Kaerntner Elektrizitaets Aktien Gesellschaft"...
Similar to "Ontario Hydro Ltd"...(although there is no Ltd in Ont. Hydro).. anyway, it is the provincial Hydro Electric Company, who sponsors this Band... and a wonderful Big Band it is: Let me tell you the line-up:
5 Saxophones ( 2 Baritone, Two Tenors and an Alto) 4 Trombones, 4 Trumpets, Keyboard, Bass, Guitar and Drums. A beautiful sounding, well rehearsed, with great sound quality Big Band, playing mostly old Standards. They also had as special guest a vocalist, who supposedly imitates Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He was so far removed from those two true singers, that you could only now and then pick out a phrase which was similar to Martin/Sinatra. The rest was just a screaming match between him and the Band.
In any event, the pieces which the Band played without him were great music and they alone made the trip worth while.
Ev'rybody, loves somebody, sometime...
or, if you prefer: Fly me to the Moon....
Bertstravels.

The Kelag Big Band

A great sounding "Big Band"

...and a so-so singer

 

Why so sad ???

If I have ever seen a flower cry, this surely is it.

SUN FLOWERS - as far as the eye can reach -

Just 3 minutes by car from our house
 there are fields of sun flowers,
almost as far as the eye can reach.

First thing in the morning, they turn their heads to the rising sun
and as the sun turns from East to West, they turn their golden
crowned heads along this sun-up to sun-down cycle.

a close-up shows the true beauty of this flower.
If they were rare we'd travel miles to see one.
As it is, we drive past fields and fields of these
beauties and nary give them a glance.
(until I come along)

There is, in deed, always one stubborn,contrary individual in any crowd.
I wonder what makes him so "other" ?

For Equal Breeding Temperatur

A bit further down in this Blog I posted a picture of a Loon sitting
on her nest. I remembered that I also had an interesting shot of this
same Loon turning its eggs, so that they might be equally exposed to
her body's warmth.
How did I get these rare images?
The Loon builds its nest very close to the shore, since on land it is
a very clumsy bird. The location of its legs, very far at the back of its body
make it a good swimmer and a great diver, but a most clumsy land bird.
One day, as I did often, I just drifted along a lake's shore line to see
what I could see. And there, just around this bend, I see a Loon
 climb with great effort onto land and settle upon its nest.
She obviously saw me, but her need to hatch her eggs
overcame any fear she might have had.
I remained as quiet and motionless as I could and finally,
after about an hour or so, I saw her raise her body from the eggs
just enough, so she could turn them with her beak.
In this very rare image one can just see one of two eggs.
So, not only a beautiful bird, but also a smart bird is
THE LOON.

"The Loon" ! One of the most beautiful birds.

Needless to re-state that the Loon is one of my most favourite birds anywhere.
With its black dress, speckled by white decorations he/she inhabits the lakes of Northern Ontario.
The eerie call, reaching from one end of a lake to the other, is unmistakable.
Early in the Spring, the male performs his mating dance, which the female sometimes coyly ignores.
I observed them in early May and then found the female ( I assume it was the female) carefully guarding her eggs, turning them around now and then. The male's mating dance obviously was successful.
When the chick is hatched, mother takes it almost immediately for its first swim.
Mom and Dad watch the chick most carefully and Dad presents to it a newly caught small fish, much too large for the baby to swallow it. It vigorously pecks at it and gets a taste of what its major meal will taste like.


I saw this trio one day when I slowly paddled along the northern end of Lake Opeongo. At once I stopped paddling and sat as still as I could. The wind was in my favour and I slowly drifted closer and closer to this threesome. I held my camera at my face, never moving, just letting the wind take me closer and closer. Ultimately I came so close that I could have touched them with my paddle. The parents were well aware of my presence. The baby, however, could neither fly, nor dive nor swim very fast and the parent duo stayed close, always trying to keep their bodies between their baby and me. My camera clicked away and almost got hot with the clicking. Slowly the distance between me and this wonderful family became wider and wider and I am certain that Mr and Mrs Loon were mighty glad when I drifted out of sight.

The beautiful, beautiful LOON

 

 

Mom and Dad float quietly and sedately
throughout "their" lake.

One further offering of a newly caught fish.