February: Chicago

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If you know me well, you know I go to Chicago several times a year to indulge in opera. That started, according to my Google calendar, in 2011. But I think it was the very next year, 2012, that I contacted an online acquaintance via the now defunct Google+ social media platform that was so much loved and used by photographers around the world. To make a long story short, he agreed to meet me at “The Bean,” a must site for photogs in Chicago, and today I have a whole bunch of Chi-town friends. Getting together with them to…

September: Sense of Place

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Born and raised in Iowa. It will always be Home, with a capital H. Living the good life in Louisiana. Loving my adopted home. Two places so different, so beautiful. I am enriched by both. September 1, 2022 – “Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and a filé gumbo, ‘Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio. Pick guitar, fill fruit jar and be gay-o, Son of a gun, we’ll have big fun on da bayou.” If you’re hearing Hank Williams’ voice right now, please be aware that when he sings “bayou” and pronounces it “bayoooo” with a drawn out…

August: Dog Days Fun

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Come along now for a visit to a national wildlife refuge I had never visited before, and join me for a fun, heartening, and educational baby turtle release on the bank of the Ouachita River! August 1, 2022 – Big Branch Marsh National Wildlife Refuge is 24,000 acres of marshes and forests waaay down in the toe of the Louisiana boot, on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain. I don’t make it down that way very often, so when I had to drive I-10 and I-12 from points farther east all the way to Baton Rouge, I took a little…