Our wonderful backpacking trip to the Desolation Wilderness revealed a stunning volume and variety of flowers. Here are some of the blooms I captured. Click any photo to browse larger images

Hitting the trail Our quest for the perfect lake in California’s Sierra Nevada continued this year with backpacking in the Desolation Wilderness. This year Micah Jacob and I were joined by a special guest: nephew Jack. We planned a four day trip: From the Wright Lake trailhead to Maude Lake Then over the Rockbound Pass at nearly 9000 feet, to Lake Schmidell A day hike, return to camp at Lake Schmidell Return 9 miles to Wright Lake ...

Madison has so much free music in summer. Tonight I strolled to the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Monona Terrace, which is situated on the edge of the lake. Its a very modern, pretty structure. On the rooftop, they host free concerts and its landscaped with planter boxes full of prairie flowers. The “Docksiders” were a cover band playing 1970s soft rock. As I strolled up, they were doing a stirring rendition of Rikki Don’t Lose That Number – and the guitar nailed the classic solos. I also liked a Michael McDonald medly, which included the title song of the second album I owned. This was “Takin’ it to the Streets” by the Doobie Brothers. ...

In July, the fields of Wisconsin are filled with flowers. We’re delighted to have Lucy visiting with us from LA. Last night we watched fireworks all around Lake Monona. Today we went to a dog park and had a great hike among these lovely flowers. Click any photo for larger images

Today, we discovered what a “dog park” means in Wisconsin. Prairie Moraine is an 80 acre area where dogs can roam off-leash. There were nice, wide hiking trails covered in soft bark (so not muddy). The countryside was rolling, as is most of Wisconsin. Ollie and Sugar Baby loved the freedom to follow their noses, and I found many flowers to photograph. There are many dog parks around Madison; this one was 20 minutes away. ...