The muted grays of a rainy morning contrasted with the bright blue sky and puffy clouds as the rain disappears for the day. Arizona winters at their finest.

Cracklin' Fire

We had a truly Arizona winter tradition of marshmallows over the fire pit tonight. I built up a fun size fire and the kids gorged on fat white marshmallows until they were quite ill. After they ran off to expend the sugar energy, I got some peaceful time by the fire to enjoy it's warmth and beauty. I miss fireplaces, but I do not miss cold and snow!

Capturing Cats

These are some picture of my sister Lucy's kitties. They were patient enough to let me shove a big black camera in their faces and try to capture a bit of their souls. Mine won't let me near them with the camera!

Smurf was all into having his picture taken

Socks was a bit hesitant and shy

Catching those wide eyes without a flash on a moving kitty was tricky business

After a couple of shots, she was shooting daggers at me!

I'm still culling through my photos and editing, but here are some of the good ones.

Port of San Francisco as seen from the water.

The "Painted Ladies" juxtaposed with the modern financial district in the background

A common Golden Gate Bridge tourist shot

A Moody Skyline

San Francisco

A few standard tourist shots until I get a chance to load up some more! It's cold and foggy/rainy today, plus we were running around a lot today, so not as many pictures. Tomorrow promises to be a touristy (and rainy) day, it'll be fun to see what I can shoot pictures of.

Golden Gate Bridge taken from Vista Point north of the Bridge.

No lights on the bridge. boo.

But it made for a more dramatic view of the bridge architecture.

Looking at the Bay Bridge and the downtown S.F. skyline.

Another random set from the past few days....

A trip to San Francisco this weekend! Stay tuned!

Reflections

Art installation at the children's museum

Orange glow

and, because I like lights in the darkness

It can be cold in AZ

Two random pictures....

Everyone is complaining about the cold and snow all over the country...blah blah. We have our own winter troubles here in Phoenix. This is frosty grass, leaving work one morning. Can you believe my car window had frozen frost on it?? I had to sit in the parking lot for 10 minutes until the car got warm enough to melt it off. If that's not hardship, I don't know what is! :)

BRRRR, just the memory of that frigid morning made me cold, so here's a close up of some roses (yes, my roses are still blooming) in my warm house that had just been watered to get the aphids off of them. I would call it a dew drop, but I haven't seen any dew in Arizona. So a real rose, with a fake dew drop: