Category: Recollections
Stories about events that happened well before the time I wrote the story. Mainly recollections of earlier travels before I started posting on Facebook.
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AWAITING IN MASAYA
The indigenous city of Masaya, 30 kilometres south of Managua, saw many skirmishes between the FSLN and Somoza’s National Guard during the civil war. When I visited five years later, the signs of the battles were widespread as walls were still pockmarked with bullet and mortar holes. I worked at nearby Masaya Volcano National Park […]
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AN EAGLE SCOUT
Day 7 of 7: Challenge on Nature Photography. Eagles, Amery, Wisconsin – 1973 For the past six days I have shared my appreciation of nature with you. For my final day in this nature photography challenge I’m going to share a personal story about how I developed that appreciation and my concerns that today’s generation […]
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RESERVES OF STRENGTH
‘Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature – the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.’ Rachel Carson, Silent Spring In the summer of 1978, I worked as […]
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PASQUE FLOWERS FOR THE MINORITIES
‘For us of the minority, the opportunity to see geese is more important than television, and the chance to find a pasque-flower is a right as inalienable as free speech.’ Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac When I was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point I took a nature literature class and read A […]
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ALONE IN THE WILDERNESS
‘Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.’ Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire […]
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ISIS THUGS IN PALMYRA
The ancient desert oasis settlement of Palmyra in the central steppe of Syria has had a special place in my heart. But today, IS thugs are knocking on its doorsteps and if they are true to form, they will destroy the UNESCO World Heritage site. I first travelled to Syria in 1990 for an interview […]
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DANCING ‘SHROOMS
We’ve had a wet autumn, and mushrooms are popping up all over the yard. It reminds me of the times when I’d see wild mushrooms and salivate and go out and collect them. And it reminds me of the time when I almost wrote my obituary after eating mushrooms. During the summer of 1979, I […]
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BOOM BOOM IN PURACE
Puracé National Park, Colombia – 1994 Scanned from Kodak TMax negative film (the last roll of B/W film I ever shot) Colombia was hardly the safest place in the world when Padma and I lived near Cali between 1993-94. On one hand you had the ‘narcotraficantes’ – the drug lords. The Medellin and Cali Cartels […]
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GUATEMALA IN B&W
FIVE-DAY BLACK & WHITE PHOTO CHALLENGE – DAY 1 Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala – 1987 Scanned from Kodak Tri-X negative film Guatemala is one of the world’s most colourful countries due to the textiles woven and worn by the local people. It may therefore seem a bit peculiar that I start a black and white photo […]
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