Autumn in Cloudland Canyon, A Wentworth Wooden Puzzle

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Autumn in Cloudland Canyon, A Wentworth Wooden Puzzle

I am thrilled to have partnered with the Wentworth Puzzle Company in South West England to offer Autumn in Cloudland Canyon, a beautifully crafted wooden jigsaw puzzle which would make a wonderful gift for anyone on your holiday shopping list. For almost 30 years, Wentworth has been producing unique and intricately crafted wooden jigsaw puzzles which have delighted enthusiasts around the world. Made from sustainably sourced wood and cut with precision laser technology, this isn’t your ordinary puzzle. My favorite Wentworth tradition is the assortment of “whimsy” shaped pieces that are a part of all of their puzzles. Autumn in Cloudland Canyon includes animal-shaped pieces and even a waterfall-shaped piece all of which make this puzzle even more of a joy to put together and a treasure to own. This puzzle comes in two sizes: 250 pieces ($49.50) and 500 pieces ($97.50) and can be shipped worldwide.

To read more about this photo, our puzzle and the day I spent in Cloudland Canyon State Park in North Georgia, be sure to read the whole post below.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 31

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 31

Hello Everyone! Welcome to November! Temperatures took a dip here in our Nation’s Capital this week, but when I see pictures of snow on my Facebook timeline from other parts of the country it doesn’t seem so bad. We had a big weekend celebrating my birthday and Halloween, Mason and I continued our adventures when the weather allowed and of course the 2020 election happened this week as well. It’s been busy, busy, busy here in Washington but we’ve made it through another week and another month and the end of the year is within sight.

It wasn’t a week without sadness though as I also found out that my aunt passed away on Tuesday morning. She has been struggling with Lewy Body Dementia and had been in a care facility since the beginning of the year. She came down with Covid19 last week and quickly deteriorated. She was only 63. I hadn’t seen her very much in the last 20 years except at the odd wedding or on a quick visit, but she was always kind and ready to have a good time. Sadly this brings this pandemic very close to home. While I have friends who have had the virus, this is the first person I’ve known who has died from it. Say what you will about her underlying conditions, but she’d be alive today if she hadn’t gotten the coronavirus. I know none of our family has been able to visit her for 7 months to protect her from this virus, and she ended up getting it anyway. It’s possible that she may have caught it no matter what precautions were taken, but I can’t help but think of all of the parties and gatherings I’ve seen happening in Wisconsin lately which I really hope were worth it. It makes me angry and I don’t get angry often. When only some of the people are serious about containing the virus, other people’s bad behavior affects us all and with no national policy, plan or guidelines, our fellow Americans are going to continue to die. No matter what happens in the election, this president has been more focused on his reelection than on the pandemic and that is very apparent. No matter what, he will be president for the next few months at least, and I sincerely hope he starts listening to the two actual experts on his advisory team who are telling him the truth instead of what he wants to hear. If you’ve got a problem with your sink, you may call in another plumber for a second opinion, but you wouldn’t call in an electrician. The president is currently listening to a neuroradiologist who may be an MD but has no specialty in autoimmune disorders. He is essentially an electrician working on your sink. Currently an American is being diagnosed with the virus every second and someone is dying from it every minute. We need to start taking this more seriously entering the colder months. Wherever you are, please know than your actions don’t just affect you, they affect the people around you and the people around them.

Thankfully the counter to the anger I feel in losing my aunt this week comes from the time I get to spend with Mason who doesn’t know or care about the pandemic or the election. He cares about big trucks, mushrooms, bumblebees, acorns and making me laugh. We had a couple of bad weather days at the end of last week and ended up inside working on his ABCs, building things with blocks and reading books together. On Friday, even though it was cold, we headed down to the creek to throw some acorns and rocks which he really enjoys. He doesn’t like throwing dirty rocks from on shore though, but nice clean rocks which he pulls from the water. As the weather has gotten colder, the water has gotten colder, so we spend less and less time doing this, but we still go when we can. When we were leaving on Friday, I took his little cold hands between mine to warm them up. Yesterday when we were putting his mittens on his stuffed monkey and I told him that Monkey’s hands were cold, he took them in both of his like I had last week to warm them up. It warmed Monkey’s hands, but it warmed my heart. Monkey introduced Mason to a fun phrase last week which he really enjoys: “neat-o mosquito”. Now if I see something which is cool and different, I say “neat-o” and he says “’skeeto” – it really is too cute. Monday and Tuesday were pretty cold, and while he seems to really like the wind on his face, I want to keep him bundled up so we can continue our outdoor adventures as long as possible. It’s a little sad to see him interacting with his favorite mushrooms and berries with mittens on because he’s such a tactile little guy and I know he’s not getting the same feelings from things through his mittens. We also said goodbye this week to all the wonderful Halloween decorations in his neighborhood which he has been chatting with and enjoying for the last month. It’s amazing how he seems to remember each little zombie or skull and where it was because yesterday he kept pointing to the places they had been and saying “ooohh, no skull” or “oooh, no ghost”. We had talked about them going inside until next year most of last week, and he seems to be taking it in stride. Soon enough the Christmas decorations will be up though which is something to look forward to…

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Snapshots: Monument Valley

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Snapshots: Monument Valley

Monument Valley is a place everyone knows, even if they don't know they do. From the early John Ford Westerns to Marlboro and Jeep ads to Roadrunner cartoons, Monument Valley is the wild west of many people’s imaginations. It's a wonderful Tribal Park on the Navajo Reservation on the border of Arizona and Utah, and one of the most beautiful desert landscapes on earth. I’ve spent a lot of time there over the years and have seen it at all times of day and in all seasons. These are some of my favorite photos from my time there.

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Snapshots: Mount Olivet Cemetery

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Snapshots: Mount Olivet Cemetery

By 1852, the central section of Washington D.C. was developing quickly and the local citizenry wanted to be sure what land was available was available for the living. They therefore banned any new cemeteries from being established within the city center. Soon thereafter, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, then the overseer of Washington’s catholic churches, purchased 40 acres in the surrounding countryside and established Mount Olivet Cemetery. This cemetery was and is the largest catholic cemetery in Washington D.C. and was also one of the first racially integrated cemeteries in the city. With commanding views over the city, it is a beautiful place for a wander, and as long-time readers know I very much appreciate funerary art of which there are some stunning examples in Mount Olivet. Mount Olivet is the final resting place of such notable people as White House Architect James Hoban, Supreme Court Justice Joseph McKenna, and Lincoln assassination conspirator Mary Surratt, the first woman executed by the U.S. Government.

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Washington D.C.'s Most Haunted Places

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Washington D.C.'s Most Haunted Places

Happy Halloween from Washington D.C. I’ve been out and about these last few weeks gathering up stories and taking photos of some of Washington’s most haunted locations. It’s been a wonderful jaunt around the city and it’s always great to see things from a different angle. This is by no means an exhaustive list, just some of the places I enjoyed most. Please keep in mind that these are stories and I haven’t gone out of my way to disprove them or check for historical accuracy. Halloween is a day to suspend your disbelief and just enjoy a good ghost story, so enjoy this haunted historical trip around our nation’s Capital and the surrounding area. Happy Halloween!

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 30

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 30

Hello Everyone! October is coming to a close and temperatures are set to start dropping here in Washington over the weekend to near freezing. Halloween decorations are up in full force right now which can only mean one thing – I’m about to complete another trip around the sun. If you had told me at this time last year where I’d be and what I’d be doing in 2020, I would have laughed it off as some sort of science fiction nonsense. But here I am at home in D.C. in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. My travel gear is on mothballs, the company I’ve worked for for much of the last 20 years is gone and I spend my days walking through the woods with a 2 year old. The year has had its highs and lows for sure and some of each have been pretty intense, but I’ve made it to another birthday with my health and my good humor and that’s going to have to be okay under the circumstances. Happy Birthday to me! All I want this year is a quick end to the pandemic, national healing after the election and to be able to get back on the road in early 2021.

In big news, my puzzle came out this week. For those of you who don’t know, I had one of my photos used for a beautiful wooden jigsaw puzzle from the great folks at Wentworth Puzzles in the U.K. I got my sample copy in the mail the other week, and it is a really beautifully made puzzle. There are specially shaped pieces like a wolf and an eagle, and it is so nice to see a well-crafted wooden puzzle when you’re so used to cardboard. It was a great photo (if I do say so myself) made even more beautiful by the artists at Wentworth. The puzzle is available on their site (find it here) in two sizes: 250 pieces ($49.50) and 500 pieces ($97.50) with shipping to the U.S. a flat $16.50. I know they are a bit pricey, but they are truly beautiful and unique and would make great gifts this holiday season.

My adventures with Mason have continued this week. We are starting to focus on toilet training which isn’t the most fun thing in the world but it’s certainly an adventure. We continue to enjoy the Halloween decorations and the leaves coming down in his neighborhood. The falling leaves came up in a discussion at the end of last week when we were discussing the difference between horns and antlers. We spend a lot of time reading books about animals, and to me there’s no reason for him not to learn the difference from the get-go. We’ve been talking about how horns are permanent, like the pine needles we see, while antlers fall off like the leaves are doing right now. Mason continues to learn his letters, and it’s pretty amazing to me that he knows almost all of them at this point. We stop in the woods at the Rosetta Sign (my name for it), and he knows every single letter on it. He always wants to stop and look at street signs and try and decipher them, and really loves reading the letters on my shirt in the morning. I even broke out a Montana Grizzlies shirt this week because we don’t encounter a lot of Zs in our walks. His sentences continue to grow in length and complexity and he even called himself by his name today while we were playing a game which I thought was really cool. I’m also thrilled that he will be going as a Nittany Lion for Halloween this year to support my Penn State football team in their rivalry against Ohio State on Saturday (that’s a joke for you, Kozimor Family, I appreciate you following my blog!). Mason’s mom’s side of the family lives in Ohio, and “Ohio” is his word for the letter “O” after which he always tells me his Nana is in Ohio.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 29

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 29

Hello Everyone! I hope you’ve all had a nice week since last we met. The weather here in D.C. has been spectacular and I’ve enjoyed spending a lot of time outside this week. The fall colors aren’t great here, but the maples in particular have been pretty awesome. My folks and I have continued to try and celebrate life this week while keeping safe and close to home and I even got out for an overnight in my van which was awesome. October has seemed to go even faster than September did and I know that process will continue as the days get shorter. All told it’s been a pretty good week though.

I got a new phone this week, which is always exciting. My iPhone 5s has been slowly dying over the last year or so, and at the end the battery would only last about 20 minutes. I carried around an external battery for the last 6 months which is a pain, but also not a huge deal. I’m not all about the latest gadget, but that phone lasted a solid five years or so and hadn’t been new when I bought it. I’ve gone with the latest iPhone SE which has the newest chip in a reasonably priced phone. I was super happy with Apple’s new phone-to-phone transfer technology which basically migrated everything from my old phone to my new phone (down to the wallpaper) via WiFi. It was amazing and made set-up super easy. So far I’m enjoying the new features and the expanded capacity and capability of my new phone, and while there are a few things my old one could do which this one doesn’t seem to be able to, I’m sure I’ll get used to it.

The news this week is obviously pretty focused on the upcoming election, and I truly hate to see the divisiveness in the country right now. I know it’s been building for quite some time, but it seems too many people are fanning the flames and it’s heartbreaking. I think a lot of it comes from people not traveling enough and experiencing the different parts of the country and spending time with people who are Americans, but Americans different from themselves or their neighbors. I’ve spent almost my entire adult life doing just that, and I’ve found nothing but good people from coast to coast and lakes to gulf. I’ve always said that I think that sitting around a dinner table we’d have more in common than we did different, and with some open-minded conversation we could probably find compromise and common ground. But now more than ever we’re not having that face-to-face discussion, and it’s eating us like a cancer. I know the biggest divide right now seems to be between urban and rural communities and I’ve spent plenty of my life in both and both have enormous benefits and drawbacks. I think city people could use a bit of time in the country or in a small town and country people could use some real time in the city. Texans should go to Seattle and Alaskans should spend some time in L.A. and they all might find that the people there aren’t as unlike them as they think they are. I’ve spent time in my life in truly foreign environments having traveled across many countries all over the world and no matter where I’ve been I’ve met wonderful people working hard to provide for their families and spend a few minutes with their friends at the end of the day. When I personally can find a huge amount in common with a farmer in rural Cambodia, I know that people from different parts of the same country could find even more if they were focused on our common interests and ideals. We’ve got to stop demonizing each other and spend more time together and we’d all be surprised by what we find. I know that for a fact. Sermon over.

Mason and I continue our adventures around Glover Park and the nearby woods. He is really enjoying all the Halloween decorations, and again seems fearless since he has not been given a reason to be scared of the things we see (and certainly won’t get that from me). He waves to the Wolfman and says “Hi Doggie” and carried on a five minute conversation with a headless skeleton sitting in the bus stop. We’ve got a hill that we love to run down together, holding hands because sometimes he makes a misstep and at full speed that could end badly. He loves this hill and laughs so hard and heartily it warms my heart to no end. Remember when the joy of simply running down a hill could bring you that much happiness? It’s wonderful.

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Snapshots: Fall in New Hampshire (Part 2)

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Snapshots: Fall in New Hampshire (Part 2)

A few weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to go and spend a week with my brother in southern New Hampshire. We went out to explore some of the most beautiful parts of the area by car, by boat and on foot. The fall colors were just starting to kick into high gear, and some of the scenes we saw were truly spectacular. We saw covered bridges over the Ashuelot River, beautiful rural countryside and charming small towns like Hancock and Harrisville. I took a lot of photos, and this is the second post I’ve published with them to allow you to see the area through my lens. I hope you enjoy these photos from fabulous southern New Hampshire.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 28

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 28

Hello Everyone. It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through October. It definitely feels like time is speeding up on me here. I have been enjoying the cooler weather, although it’s almost too cold some mornings when I get up for my walk. The extra hour of daylight will help with that in a couple of weeks though. A couple of months ago I told y’all that one of my photos was going to be featured on a wooden jigsaw puzzle, and my sample copy came in the mail last week. It is really beautiful and very exciting and I will definitely let you know when it’s available for purchase, but that was a nice boost since last week. I also got an email from someone who wants to use a photo in an upcoming book he is working on – it sounds like a small printing on a fairly niche subject, but I’m always excited to see my photos in print. I also got a message this week from someone interested in discussing some other photos, but unfortunately the email address they left was incomplete. I’ve tried to sleuth it out, but haven’t been able to figure it out – if you’re reading this, I’m not ignoring you, please give me another holler. It’s been a pretty good week from that perspective and it’s nice to feel like my work is reaching a wider audience again as it’s been a really quiet summer in that regard.

I got my flu shot today, and I would definitely encourage you all to do the same. I try and get mine every year, but I’m definitely not messing around with it this year. I voted this week too, and I really hope that all of my American readers have a plan to make sure their votes are in and counted. I’ve always been cynical about voting since I know that, as a registered D.C. voter, my vote for president won’t change the outcome and we have no representation in congress so there’s no help there either. Beyond our city council and school board elections, which I probably should pay more attention to, there isn’t much need to vote here. But this year I want to contribute my voice to the popular vote count and hope that one day all our votes will count equally. I’ve always wondered and often commented as to why so many people in this country think their vote should be more important than mine. Personally I would like to see everyone be able to vote, and everyone’s vote to count. The whole thing should be about finding people who represent us well, not about gaming the system. Our entire election process in this country is broken from top to bottom and needs a reboot. That being said, I’m happy to have had the opportunity to vote in this election because this year it seems more important than ever before.

I’ve been keeping busy with 2 year-old Mason this week as well. We continued our adventures in the woods, expanding our territory as always and enjoying the changing of the leaves and the emergence of some new kinds of fall berries. We also got some rain this week, so there were some cool new mushrooms around as well. Mason continues to work on his letters and, as seems normal, associates new letters he learns with words he already knows. I think it’s pretty incredible to watch, and he’s quick to point out the letters he knows on my T-shirt and any signs we may encounter. While obviously I encourage this, it amuses me as well and I can’t help but think he’s calling out battle coordinates in code – “Uncle Mike – Lion, Elephant, Ohio, Apple”. It’s been great to see so many Halloween decorations go up around his neighborhood as well, and these provide us with a great deal of conversation fodder as we wander the streets every day. He tries to feed berries and acorns to the skeletons because apparently they look hungry (can’t argue with that), and carries on endless conversations with the witches, wolfmen, demons, ghosts, vampires and ghouls we encounter. He got his own pumpkins this week as well and is very proud of them and loves showing them to me and admiring the long stems they have. We’ve also started to name some of the places we visit on our walks for easy reference. From the Calvert Cliffs (a series of walls on Calvert Street he likes to walk on) to the Rock Water Bridge where we usually pause to throw acorns and rocks into the creek, we enjoy the variety of scenery the neighborhood and park provides. I think our favorite is the Counting Tree – a log where we sit every day and count rocks and sticks and leave them in cool patterns to see if they’ll still be there when we return. He seems to really look forward to it every day and we always find time for a rest there. We sure do have great adventures together.

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Snapshots: Fall in New Hampshire (Part One)

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Snapshots: Fall in New Hampshire (Part One)

A few weeks ago I had the wonderful opportunity to go and spend a week with my brother in southern New Hampshire. We went out to explore some of the most beautiful parts of the area by car, by boat and on foot. The fall colors were just starting to kick into high gear, and some of the scenes we saw were truly spectacular. We saw covered bridges over the Ashuelot River, lakefront vistas at Lake Winnipesaukee, and charming small towns like Peterborough and Amherst. I took a lot of photos, and this is the first of at least two posts which will allow you to see the area through my lens. I hope you enjoy these photos from fabulous southern New Hampshire.

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 27

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D.C. Chronicles Volume 27

Hello Everyone! We’re a week into October and the weather in Washington has been fabulous. The leaves are starting to change and while the days are getting noticeably shorter, they’re still long enough to enjoy some time outside in the evening. It’s probably just about my favorite time of year. It was nice to get away to New Hampshire last week and get away from the news for a while, but it’s almost like they were saving it up while we were gone because this week was a crazy one. When the president is sick, whether you like him or not, it’s hard not to keep checking the news. I certainly wish everyone who has contracted the virus, whether they are newsworthy or average Joes like me, a full and speedy recovery. Beyond that, it’s been a full week of getting back on schedule and trying to keep some of my projects moving forward while carving out some time for enjoying my friends and the weather.

It’s been a full week with my 2 year-old friend Mason who is really enjoying the leaves changing color and the Halloween decorations which have sprung up around the neighborhood. I think it’s fascinating that because he’s never really seen any of these things in the context of being scary, he looks at a dog skeleton as just a dog, hands coming from the ground as hands and giant spiders as, well, giant spiders which he likes (we saw our first daddy longlegs today in the woods and he thought it was hilarious). I guess he is demonstrating to me that fear is often a learned behavior, and this kid is pretty fearless. The weather has been so good we’ve been out almost all morning every morning which has been wonderful. We’ve been having some interesting discussions this week which I think are worth sharing here.

Since the acorns have been coming down, we’ve been picking up a pocket-full on the way to the creek so that we can throw them in when we get there. If I take two out of my pocket and hold them out to Mason, he will grab the first and throw it without looking while he’s already grabbing for the second one. I think many of us are guilty of this behavior in that we are always looking towards the next thing and are often unable to savor the experience that’s happening in the moment. If you enjoy throwing acorns in the water, focus on the acorn you have and the experience of throwing it and hearing the plunk in the stream and the ripples that come from it. Watch as it bobs in the current and makes its way downstream. Think about its course, watch it float away, listen to the leaves rustle overhead and feel the cool breeze of fall on your face. Then reach for the next acorn. If we’re just thinking about the next acorn and not the one we currently have in our hand, then what is the sense of bringing more than one?

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Snapshots: Covered Bridges of S.W. New Hampshire

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Snapshots: Covered Bridges of S.W. New Hampshire

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of traveling around southwestern New Hampshire to photograph these wonderful covered bridges. I’ve always had a thing for covered bridges, and these were no exception. Much like the lighthouses and Mail Pouch Barns I’ve featured in the past on this blog, covered bridges are such a beloved and photogenic part of the American landscape. Autumn had just begun when I was out taking these pictures, and was in varying stages depending on which bridge I was looking at, but it certainly was a beautiful day to be out there. I hope you enjoy these beautiful and historic covered bridges from southwestern New Hampshire.

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