Roaming About

A Life Less Ordinary

Category: Nature (page 15 of 20)

WW – Spring is in the Air

March 15, 2017 / / 37 Comments

It has been a while since I created a Wordless Wednesday post. Spring is arriving at our current two-month house sit in Sebastopol, Northern California and I am loving it. The blue sky, the warmer temperatures, the sweet blossoms and the colorful flowers… I never realized I loved the visual appearance of spring this much. Must be because we lived in the tropics, void of seasons, for a decade and, really, are not too fond of winter. Which is why we “moved” to California this fall. Compared to last year, when I posted a similar blog  in June and left for Belgium to experience spring, we have no complaints about the change of seasons this year! 🙂

Stillwater Cove Regional Park
Magnolia tree in the front yard
Lola smelling the flowers
Pinnacle Gulch Trail
Wildflowers along the trail

Has spring sprung yet where you live?

Discoveries around Costa Mesa, CA – 10 Things to See and Do

February 17, 2017 / / 27 Comments

For three weeks, Mark and I took care of a cute 7-month-old dog named Jaxx and a small apartment in Costa Mesa, California. I report on that sit here. We had never visited this area before and gladly drove the eight hours down from Northern California for some warmer, and hopefully sunnier, weather. Well, the weather was wishy-washy, but on the weekends and some late afternoons, we did our best to explore a few sites with our “happy go lucky” temporary pet. And, three times, the sun gloriously accompanied us with 70-degree weather (21°C). Here are the discoveries we made…

My personal discovery of one of Southern California’s missions

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Fairfax, CA: January 14th – January 21st, 2017

January 27, 2017 / / 23 Comments

Since this was a short house sit, I am writing our experiences as a “Completed House Sit” post.

A couple of months ago, Mark and I came across this one-week house sit in Fairfax while living in Rocklin, CA. While the assignment was much shorter than we prefer, Fairfax is an attractive, up-scale town about an hour north of San Francisco, there were a cute dog and chickens involved and the owners happily selected us as their sitters. Then, about a month later, we received the devastating news that 10-year-old dog Xander had unexpectedly passed away (from the same symptoms as our dog Darwin in 2010). We were shocked about the sad event, but considered the impact and how we would feel if this had happened on our watch. It is the nightmare of every pet sitter! The owners still preferred our involvement, to take care of their seven chickens and have a presence in the house. We obliged.

These chickens are pretty and soft!

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WW – Ambiance

January 18, 2017 / / 18 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “ambiance“.

I relate ambiance with a feeling of contentment and joy. Many times a wonderful ambiance is created when hanging out with friends, something we finally get to do more often these days. The first thing that came to my mind when discovering this week’s photo theme was a campfire. The crackling sound, the woodsy smell, the intense warmth, the constantly changing shape of the flames all create an ambiance I can wallow in for hours.

Check out Terri’s post about this topic on Second Wind Leisure Perspectives. You might recognize some of the characters… 🙂

What does ambiance mean to you?

Wordless Wednesday – Path

December 28, 2016 / / 27 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

With thousands of photos haphazardly archived over the years, I can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “path“.

This theme is very appropriate, because it is thanks to the paths we take that we are where we are today, physically and mentally. We live our lives and arrive at intersections. We stop. We think. We contemplate. Sometimes, there are multiple roads to pick from. Where do we go? Which direction do we choose? Which path do we take? Will we get lost?

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Then and Now – Sunset

December 16, 2016 / / 27 Comments

I am sticking with my Friday “Then and Now” theme for a few more weeks, since I am having fun with it. I wonder whether these amazing and interesting skies would fit into Cee’s Odd Ball category for photography? While sunsets are beautiful, they do create some odd shapes and colors into the sky. 🙂

When you live on the water for eight years, there are numerous sunsets to enjoy. The best of them occur when there is a clear view of the horizon, in my opinion. In October, I posted one of my favorite sunset photos and here is another small selection of the – yes, you can believe it – hundreds of sunset photos I took or witnessed over the years.

Grenada, Caribbean – 2009-2011

Martinique, Caribbean  – 2010 Continue reading

Wordless Wednesday – Magic

November 23, 2016 / / 17 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

I have archived thousands of photos over the years and can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “magic“.

During all the years we lived and sailed on our boat, Mark and I have experienced a lot of magical moments. Amazing sunsets, wildlife encounters and residing in blissful pieces of paradise are part of those. But, since I have been posting quite a few photographs of those topics in the past, I figured I’d share another magical part of nature: rainbows.

I have a hard time capturing a full, end-to-end rainbow in one photo, so here you have two sets of one of those magical paintings in the sky.

Full rainbow in the Caribbean Islands Continue reading

Then and Now – Fall

November 18, 2016 / / 23 Comments

Now that Mark and I have been house and pet sitting throughout the US for over a year, we often think back about then, when we were still full-time cruisers on Irie. I am hoping to post a few photos about the difference in lifestyle, views and perspective the coming months. For this one, I was inspired by Terri’s blog link-up Seasonal Sensations – Autumn Leaves.

Autumn in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (2009)

Autumn in Venezuela (2011) Continue reading

Autumn Weekend at Lake Tahoe

October 31, 2016 / / 22 Comments

One of the exciting things about our life as house and pet sitters, other than living in comfortable houses for free, being in the company of the most amazing dogs and experiencing different neighborhoods, is the opportunity we have to explore different areas of the United States. Wherever you live in this country, there are always a lot of places to go for a hike or impressive sites to discover within driving distance.

Lake Tahoe seen from the town of South Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe seen from the town of South Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe, located on the border of California and Nevada is the third deepest lake in North America. It has a remarkable water clarity and is surrounded by boulders, sand and snow-capped mountains. To say it is picturesque is stating the obvious. Continue reading

Wordless Wednesday – Shine

October 26, 2016 / / 10 Comments

I have decided to post photos of past travels in general and our eight year sailing adventure on SV Irie in particular for Wordless Wednesdays.  Also, I can’t manage “completely wordless”, but I’ll try my best at “almost wordless”. 🙂

I have archived thousands of photos over the years and can’t easily pick what to post, so I use the weekly prompt of the Daily Post to inspire my Wordless Wednesdays. This week’s Daily Post photography theme is “shine“.

This week’s theme is a toughie. I didn’t immediately recall a photo I could use, other than sunshine images.  And if there is one topic that sailors have heaps of photos of, it is sunsets. Yet, shine conjures up more than just sunshine. When I stumbled upon this photo, I knew it was the right candidate. 🙂

Motu Aito, Raiatea, French Polynesia

Motu Aito, Raiatea, French Polynesia

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