September 2002
30 medium Inside the old walled city
of Grosetto.
29 medium Underside of the tile roof
over the third-floor terrace.
28 medium Tuscan farm tool outside
the house in Radda.
27 medium Ready to pick, outside
Radda in Chianti.
26 medium Wild cherry mash fermenting in the sun on a roof
outside Spoleto. I suspect the tires are Pirellis.
25 medium Looking up and back nearly 700 years into the
Piazza della Signoria in Florence.
24 medium A detail from one of Ghilberti's15th century
doors on the Baptistry in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. (These are actually
copies of the originals, which have been moved to an indoor museum.)
23 medium Inside Dicletian's Palace. The entire
place is a United Nations World Heritage site, but people live and work there. It's
marvelous.
22 medium Laundry in the city.
21 medium The door in the south entrance to Diocletian's
palace in Split, Croatia.
20 medium Arrogance is a cat.
19 medium Many of the Croatian wines intended for domestic
consumption have bottle caps instead of corks. While it makes good material for
jokes, the wines are excellent and so inexpensive it's almost embarrassing.
18 medium The most appealing dockside dog I've ever seen.
Vis, Croatia.
17 medium Light through a glass of tea on the boat's
cockpit table..
16 medium Compare this rowing setup to the Louisiana boat
on February 6, 2000.
15 medium A subtle reminder for visitors at the church in
Milna, Croatia.
14 medium Typical fishing boat in Milna.
13 medium A very large snail on a very large rosemary
bush. Several kinds of rosemary grow wild all over the coast of Croatia. It's
wonderfully convenient for cooking and adds a great scent to the air.
12 medium Mama said there'd be days like this. This
is not our boat; we had nothing to do with this scene other than observing from a distance
and photographing it.
11 medium In case there was any doubt, I put this on the
back of the seat in front of me on our flight to Rome. One of the other passengers
was a tiny eighty-something lady with an American flag hand-embroidered on her blouse.
It's a shame that our vice president lacks her courage and common sense. Hey, Dick. Hey, George! Come visit us here in the real world some
time.
10 medium Cicada thorax and wing root.
9 medium Two fritillary caterpillars devouring the
passion flower vines. It's been the best year so far for the fritillaries.
8 medium Three fritillary caterpillars (say that five
times as fast as you can) and a few ants enjoying leaves and aphid "nectar,"
respectively.
7 medium A strand of pokeweed berries (on the back of an
alligator carved from a cypress log)
6 medium Cicada wing. Otto Lienthal must have
looked at these when he designed his gliders in the late 19th century.
. 5 medium A white ibis stalking dinner among the cypress
trees at the edge of an oxbow lake off the Pascagoula River.
4 medium It's another of those little details in nature
that go unnoticed most of the time - a blossom on a tree at the edge of a lake. I'd
have to look it up to know the name, but the sight and structure and symmetry of it are
the important things.
3 medium It's served on a single slice of very thin white
bread (tanker hull humor). And don't forget to try the Valdez sauce - it may be a
little greasy but it sure sticks well.
2 medium Fritillary chrysalis on the day after it changed
from a caterpillar. The wings, eyes, and even the antennae are already visible
through the shell. I suppose they have to be quick about it since they have to
migrate southward before cool weather arrives.
1 medium French toast with peaches.... warmed maple syrup
waiting on the table.