I've had this blog for over 15 years, and anyone who has checked in over time knows that I love trees. I remember one post of mine that was titled "Trees are People too!" This post on FB today was by Hasan Jasim, in (David Attenborough Fans) "Most people don’t realize how powerful touching a tree while barefoot can be (it can change your life in just 15 minutes)"

These are from a very nice bike ride with brother Pat on this date in 2020: we rendezvoused at the Light Rail Station at UW, and rode North along the Burke Gilman trail to Matthews Park on Lk Washington. Nice ride. We stopped and had some Jamba Juice at University Village on the way back. I only took three photos. The Pano shot was from Matthews park. The other two shots were 1. the bench by Drumheller Fountain on campus, where I ate a croissant while waiting for Pat's train, and 2. the view I had looking North from there. The distant gray building in the center is Suzallo Library where I worked for several years a Long time ago. A beautiful day in the NW...-- I worked at UW's Suzallo Library for several years, and Paul Allen's father was the Head UW Librarian. I imagine I saw a younger Paul Allen wandering around the library when I was working there. For those of you who don't know the name Paul Allen - he was the co-founder along with Bill Gates of "Microsoft"

"Flat beer" - here, literally. These shots are from a small beach walk along the Green River in Tukwila, WA in 2017. In my young adult years, we called beers "flat" when they just didn't taste that good, had no bubbles, etc. That reminds me, I didn't even like beer until I went on my first Heineken Brewery Tour in Amsterdam back in 1968? They gave us free beer after the tour, and I went once in the morning, and once in the afternoon

I remember Bill Nye from his earlier days on local Seattle TV. So True!! "There's something wrong with a society that drives a car to work out in a gym." I was a little sad when I gave up my old Schwinn earlier this year, but I'm moving up on 81, and my steadiness... has been a little iffy lately.

Two images in my FB Memories this morning: 1 - I'm standing in front of some public art in Bothell WA here - life size representations of famous or popular Bothell WA personalities from years past. This was during Covid, and someone put masks on these 3 caharacters. 2 - Dad was a Milkman. Look at that head of curly blond hair on me!

from 3 years ago, 16Jun23, Bothell WA - "I usually don't go on a photo walk-come home-and edit/post them the same morning! I only got down to the pathway that fronts our apartment complex before I pulled out my camera today. Lighting, and sunshine! The green vines climbing the trees there reminded me of the mossy colors we hiked by in the Olympic National Forrest long ago. I also liked the colors in the two shots with wires, one aiming across the street and the one with red leaves at the end of our parking lot."

I was just watching a Chinese movie with sub-titles. I’m liking the story and dialogue. I’ve always thought the most important thing in films is the writing. Without a good story and good writing, the best director will usually end up with a mediocre film. It’s like having a decent sound system - you could have a super amplifier, but if you have an average speaker, you have an average sound. Then again, in the Chinese movie case, there’s the translator for the sub-titles… My brain hurts. Haha

from 3 years ago - 13Jun23 - I try to take what I call my scenery shots, but I often end up standing by/under a tree and aiming my camera up through the leaves.

from "Ravenous Butterflies" FB page: "When my daughter was about seven years old, she asked me one day what I did at work. I told her I worked at the college ... that my job was to teach people how to draw. She stared at me, incredulous, and said, 'You mean they forget?'" Howard Ikemoto Brassaï - Pablo Picasso drawing, 1960.

Nate is 30yo today! Whoa! The photos are Nate with Dad, the balloon that refuses to die (Mom gave it to us when Nate was born), and Nate with Andrea when she got her Masters at UW. Nate has been living in Japan since he graduated from Western and is now married to Airi, and Andrea has her own business and identical 8yo twin daughters with son-in-law Ray - ps - I just looked at the post date. His BD is the 13th. It comes a little earlier here in Asia/Philippine/Japan...

from 13Jun20 -- When I was delivering the "White Center News" back in the 1950s, I had a few "Trailer Courts" on my route. They didn't have Manufactured/Prefab homes back then, and trailer courts were trailer courts. It wasn't until I started walking and biking the Sammamish Trail, going west towards Woodinville, that I realized the "Lazy Wheels Mobile Home Park" had some riverfront property. Not bad...

some old Cebu photos I clicked on just now

"The Lazy Traveler" is one of my favorite stops on FB. I'm sharing it here with permission. This shows one of the many reasons I love living in the Philippines...the kindness and generosity of Filipinos. You can zoom in on this screenshot, but just going to his page on FB would be better. It's his June 4 post. Thank you

I'm unable to play with the editing options for my photos anymore - I posted this 3 years ago, on 11Jun23. It was sort of like looking through a telescope or something. I was just meandering through the images and seeing how the different adjustments changed the photo/image --- "I'm looking at lines and patterns and layers when I look up into the trees. It's a similar process when I edit the photos later. I zoom in a little and explore the image, playing around with the different elements..."

from 7 years ago - 11Jun19 - the creek in our back yard, Tukwila Wa

I posted this on 10Jun15, 11 years ago? "It was so nice this morning, I couldn't Not go for a bike ride. I rode over to the Green River from our house, South along the GR Trail to the Southcenter Mall, Up to 42nd Ave S and the Pac Hwy 99, and back Down North to our house. A little over 9 miles in a nice, easy ride. The first photo is where I cut back West up towards 99, and the second one is this character I catch following me sometimes on these nice sunny days." The 3rd shot was a view of the Green River from the Tukwila Community Center bridge. I shot it on another day I think. It was only a 10 minute walk from our home in Tukwila, so going over there with my bike was quick, and I could hop on the Green River trail on the other side of the bridge.