Posted in Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged albert einstein, hope, pat bean, postaday2012, rainbows on January 28, 2012| 3 Comments »
“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.” – Albert Einstein
Mesa Falls, Idaho
What better way to say hope than with a rainbow. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Bean’s Pat: Life in the Bogs: A Raptor Visitation http://tinyurl.com/7hk4jrm Great blog, great photos every day. But this inquiring mind wants to know if this is a Cooper’s or juvenile northern goshawk.
Posted in Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged cowgirls cowgirl hall of fame, dalai lama, fort worth, pat bean, postaday2012, simple, weeklyphotochallenge on January 22, 2012| 2 Comments »
“This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” Dalai Lama
Weekly Photo challenge: Simple
Live simply that others may simply live.” — Elizabeth Ann Seton
Posted in Favorite Places, Nature, Travels With Maggie, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged Edward Abbey, pat bean, peacedul, postaday2012, slickrock, southern utah, weekly photo challenge on January 14, 2012| 4 Comments »
Weekly Photo Challenge: Peaceful
Mother Nature's art stirs my soul and makes my mind peaceful. -- Photo by Pat Bean
“May the wind bring rain for the slickrock potholes fourteen miles on the other side of yonder blue ridge. May God’s dog serenade your campfire, may the rattlesnakes and the screech-owl amuse your reverie, may the great sun dazzle your eyes by day and the Great Bear watch over you by night.” – Edward Abbey
Southern Utah Canyonlands
I’ve long been an Edward Abby fan and I was delighted when I came across the above quote in a newsy annual Christmas letter from an old boyfriend. He and I, while we split from a romantic relationship, promised to be forever friends. I really like that. It’s the “peaceful” way to live.
While I find most of Abby’s writing anything but peaceful, I do find a sense of calmness in the places he writes about with such passion, especially the places in Southern Utah where I’ve spent a lot of time.
So that’s where I’m taking you today.
Who could not agree with Abbey, that lands like these need no human meddling. -- Photo by Pat Bean
P.S. My canine traveling companion, Maggie, and I had a fantastic day yesterday driving and hiking in Texas’ Hill Country. The drive continues today. I’ll tell you all about it soon.
Posted in Journeys, Travel, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged henry david thoreau, launch, pat bean, postaday2012, scary, skydiving, weeklyphotochallenge on January 7, 2012| 9 Comments »
“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.” – Henry David Thoreau
Launching myself out of an airplane was a scary moment -- but I smiled all the way down. -- Photo by NikNak
I’ve always thought the advice to do something that scares you at least once a year was good advice. Besides the jolt of adrenalin it gives your brain, it helps in gaining a true appreciation for life.
Following that advice wasn’t hard to do when white-water rafting was my passion. But with age, that activity drifted away with the currents. I found that canoeing was more in tune with my body.
When I turned 70, I got my annual jolt of adrenalin by jumping out of an airplane, which I thought perfectly fit this week’s photo challenge.
But I now I face another challenge. What can this wandering/wondering old broad do this year to scare herself. I’m open to suggestions.
Posted in Nature, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged pat bean, postaday2012, weeklyphotochallenge2012, winter on January 3, 2012| 6 Comments »
“The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.” – Terri Guillemets.
Dressed for winter's cold. It hardly seems fair. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Posted in Nature, Travel, Travels With Maggie, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged alligators, between gandhi, okefenokee swamp, postaday2011, things to do in Georgia, weeklyphotochallenge on December 23, 2011| 4 Comments »
Maggie Post Script: The new medicine hasn’t arrived yet and she’s still in pain, but thankfully sleeping right now. We both thank everyone for their kind wishes, and just wanted everyone to know we’re both hanging in there.
Posted in Nature, Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged alligators, Brazos Bend State Park, pat bean, postaday2011, self-portrait, shadows, weekly photo challenge on December 18, 2011| 6 Comments »
“Looking back, you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your life, and that person was you. It is not too late to become that person again.” ~Robert Brault
Self Portrait
As I frequently point out, I’m a writer not a photographer. It’s a conscious decision to prioritize my life, which is already too full of the many things I do. I’ve always wanted it all, but finally had to accept that each thing I do takes a chunk away from something else.
Since writing is at the top of my important list, I spend more time with a notepad than a camera. To assure that I continue doing this, my only camera is a small pocket point-and-shoot. It’s a Canon PowerShot with a decent zoom and image stabilizer that is almost alwaays with me. It has no straps and I carry no tripod so it fits quite nicely in the right-hand pocket of my cargo pants.
Without any extra equipment, however, I was a little perturbed at this week’s photo challenge. I wasn’t sure I could take a decent self-portrait.
The problem must have been fermenting in my brain when I visited Brazos Bend State Park yesterday. While I was standing on a pier that jutted into the water, taking photos of common moorhens and a big old alligator watching them from his tiny island outpost, the solution suddenly appeared below me.
Can you see me?
Self-Portrait -- Photo by Pat Bean
Posted in Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged amanda bradley, celebration, oprah winfrey, pat bean, postaday2011, rafting, weeklly photo challenge on December 11, 2011| 2 Comments »
“The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.” — Oprah Winfrey
All little kids know how to celebrate with birthday cake, even if it's not their birthday. -- Photo by Pat Bean
“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving, make every day a holiday and celebrate just living.” — Amanda Bradley
The end of a good life is cause for celebration. The death in question here is my old raft which finally could be patched no more. Many people celebrated its passing.
Posted in Travel, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged benches, erie river, pat bean, Weekly Photo Challenge: Waiting on December 4, 2011| 3 Comments »
Waiting for someone to sit down and watch the boats go past in the Erie River Harbor in Canada. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Posted in Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged pat bean, postaday2011, weekly photo challenge: family on November 30, 2011| 5 Comments »
When it comes to family, I have a pretty big one. They’re a mixed bag of personalities with a lot of craziness thrown in. It’s a mixture of Repuplican and Democrats and none of the above, good memories and bad memories, togetherness and apartness, hurt feelings and favoritism. It’s about as far from the Cleaver family as you can get, which means it’s closer to average than Beaver’s tribe ever was.
I love being with each and every one dearly, but also love my time apart from all the craziness. I have favorite photos of and with them all. But this picture below says it all.
It’s of me, the Nana, and the youngest family member, my very first great-grandchild. You can use your own imagination to picture the new generations of family members between the youngest and the oldest.
Junior and Nana -- Photo by Baron Marsh
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
Pat Bean is a writer, avid birder, hiker and passionate nature observer with wanderlust in her soul. She spent nine years living and traveling in a small RV. She now lives in Tucson with Scamp, a rescue who was supposed to be a Schnauzer mix but turned out to be a Siberian Husky-Shih Tzu mix who is as stubborn as his owner, her granddaughter says. She was also a journalist for 37 years, and can be reached at patbean@msn.com
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