Garazon’s Den

Alison Michelle 21 years old

This picture was among some of the things in the parcel I got today, I always liked this picture of Alison. I look at the key she’s holding and always think how now she holds the key to my heart :)

This past Saturday evening all the girls took Alison out for a night on the town as a leaving party. Alison will likely do a post or write something about it so I will just present a small slide show of some of the pictures

too bad we dont have any video from the karaoke sessions though, I have a feeling quite a few of the girls were feeling pretty good about that time of the evening ;)

Top 10 | Landscape photos | landscapes with a soul. I was just surfing randomly around the web as I often do, going from a link on one site to another one and then another until I am so far removed form the orginal site i dont even remember how I got there. Anyway I stumbled upon this site tonight and saw some of the most amzing landscape photos from around the world. It seems a collaboration of sorts by hundreds of photographers, and i havent seen a single one yet that I can’t call breathtaking. Amazing pictures. There are some related sites indirectly linked to this one, one of animal photography, another of glamour shots, and then portraits, all equally as hypnotizing to view. Enjoy

I can see us in this :)

The only car shows I get to attend this time of year are right here in the parking lot of the place I work! I have seen quite a few that worthy of being in a car show, especially this one, the paint job was immaculate. Wish  got a closer look.

Not sure what the make or model of this car was but it sure caught my eye, wish I had the regular camera with me to get a better picture. Glad I have the iPhone now as it does a fair job anyway.

Wonder why it made me think of Alison instantly? ;)  I can see her behind the wheel of this. :)  I’m absolutley clueless to what kind of car this is and I was in too much a hurry to get away from the store to stop and look closer, wish I had now. if anyone knows or recognises the make and model give me a shout!

With the July 4th holiday this week, traffic makes it look a safe bet
its going to be busy!

Day 6 found us on the way to Paphos for a mini 3 day holiday given to us by Alison’s parents, Jack and Maureen, as an engagement present. It was so nice of them to do this and it is a memory we will have all our lives. We set out Monday morning and did a little sightseeing along the way as we had to wait to check in to the hotel anyway. I have always loved antiquities and ruins, so I couldn’t pass up a chance to visit the Sanctuary of Apollo located very near to Curium (Kourion) (continue reading…)

From my Cyprus trip in October 2007, Oct, 14, 2007 recap finally done , 6 months later! ;)

Sunday Morning, the 5th day of our holiday we had been invited to go to a tavern in one of the mountain villages that Alison and her friends frequent, Taki’s tavern, for lunch. With no rush to get ready in the morning, we had a coffee or two and a bit of breakfast out in the garden.

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Smoke update:  Saturday- June 14, 2008

We had probably the worst smoke from the wildfire in Hyde County than we have had since the first 2 days of it starting. You could smell the smoke inside the house this morning, and just to walk outside would leave you with burning red eyes from just a few minutes out in it. It seemed to get a bit heavier too the closer I got to work, so I used my cell to try and get a couple of pictures, and it really doesn’t do it justice but you can get the idea as normally about this time the sun has been up about an hour I guess and usually its good enough light most headlights are off, but you can see here they were needed this morning.

This next shot is just crossing into Dare County across the Wright Memorial Bridge. I fight that glaring sun very clear morning and its hell to see the traffic lights normally, even at the light. Well the smoke was  thick enough this morning to block the sun a great deal and you can see how the smoke just envelopes the whole region.

This last photo was around 5 PM this evening with me just turning down the road I live on, you can see the smoke is still heavy in the air, but decreased some. not a lot though. The smell stays with you and just hangs in the air. Thankfully the wind seems to be shifting some as I write this and its clearing off a good deal now. More pics coming if we have any more rough days like this.

Update: Pics From Saturday, June 21, 2008

On the way to work Saturday morning around 7 am (yes I am always late for work!) The smoke was heavier than I have seen it since the fire started. Thankfully its not been so bad for us here with the way the wind has been blowing but I do feel really bad for those right near it having to suffer through this for such a long time. Although the fire is well contained, about 70%, just the nature of it, being more or less one huge pile of peat, is going to have this thing smoldering for weeks. It would take many days straight of a good soaking rain to even put a dent in putting it out completely. This time of year the odds are against that happening.

Just about a week ago a lightening strike in the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge sparked a fire that has to date burned about 42000 acres in Northeastern North Carolina. There’s a great deal of information and some very good links at this site, InciWeb, so I wont bother to rewrite all the many details. Suffice it to say its still not contained (40%) thus far and its effects reaching way beyond the area that is burning. This picture is from my front door in Grandy, NC yesterday afternoon on a day with cloudless skies. that isn’t just a summer time haze but smoke from the fire itself reaching us, and it got even thicker as night fell with the way the winds shifted. Needless to say with temperatures near 100 degrees, it was miserable to have to be outside. And several smoke warnings along with the heat advisory have been issued since this fire began. The photo of course doesn’t do justice to the acrid thick air that burns the eyes. I cant imagine what its like for the firefighters there on the scene.

We’ve had some relief today with the wind once more shifting and coming from the northwest, and this cold front that passed through last night has really cooled things off as well so its been a very nice day. Well the bad news is this fire is in an area that basically is a big pile of peat moss which will smolder and burn fro possibly months to come, It would only take a deluge of rain for several days straight to come close to getting this thing completely out. Not likely to be happening anytime soon. 

I remember last Wednesday morning and walking outside on the deck after i woke up and seeing the area around here very smoky and thinking too myself someone was burning leaves or trees stumps, that sort of thing which is sort of common in a rural area like this with fields being cleared and such, but then it occurred tome being that early no one would likely have been up long enough to have a fire causing that much smoke, so my next thought it was a house fire nearby but I hadn’t heard any sirens or anything like that. Well like i say its sort of common to see smoke in the area as it is legal to get a burn permit around here for clearing land. Well i just took it as a good reason to stay inside for the day and be lazy :)  It really wasn’t until the next morning I was waking up and getting ready for work that I checked the news and found out it was a wildfire and one expected to grow. I wish I had thought to get a picture of it then as it reminded me of driving in the mountains when the clouds are hanging low and its resembling a fog.  By that afternoon the wind had shifted some and it wasnt so noticeable. So its been like this a week now depending on the wind and what area is having to deal with this. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of it here either. Not that I am hoping to get any more photos by any means, but if it gets bad again I sill post a few.   

Somehow with all these different natural disaster type of incidents occuring with so much frequency lately; floods, tornados, fires, earthquakes  I am always thinking of this line from the Cowardly Lion in the “Wizard of Oz” - “Unusual weather we’re having, ain’t it?”

Memorial Day weekend traffic Saturday afternoon. Its a bit lighter this year, probably because of gas prices!