First Water Trailhead, repost
A desert garden with plans
Category: Adventure
Rincon Peak Summit, repost
The Sky Island Experience
The Rincons are one of 42 Sky Mountain islands isolated from each other by the gradual warming and drying climate changes since the last ice age, 10,000 years ago. While this marvelous environment of oak and pine forests only accessible with much effort on foot, it is literally visible from every point of the Tucson valley and million human inhabitants.
….Click me for more story and photographs.
Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Marvelous Rocks
a ghost story
Weathered granite boulders greet visitors to the Triangle T Ranch.
Your imagination roams among the natural forms.
A tableau of figures keep silent watch with the ghosts of Texas Canyon.
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Kite Encounter
catching the wind
Awhile after encountering the hydrofoil the same north wind powered a large, eight foot wingspan kite high overhead. Cheri Down Park, my meeting point for lunch with Pam, was in sight as I took a detour to talk with the kite flier.
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Seated in a comfortable beach chair, he turned a one foot diameter reel pulling the kite in. Kite flying was a relaxation for this permanent resident. As the kite descended overhead I caught this short video. In retrospect the beauty is ominous, a metaphor for the approaching novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
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Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photograph
Bright Surf, High Tide
Invasion
Morning walks through January 2020 were solitary events, more so on stormy morning such as this, January 23rd. Even the dog walkers stayed home. The surf surged to the dunes. Click me for my posting, “Rough Surf.”
Today’s photographs are a sequence of the surf’s high point. Click me for yesterday’s post including a video.
Click photograph for a larger view. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
The sun broke through between clouds to rake with light the beach scurf and wind scud. In the distance, a steady west gale blows surf onto itself as a white curtain.
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Click photograph for a larger view. You will open a gallery to flip back and for between images.
Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photography
Dawn Rough Surf High Tide
beyond belief
At dawn I walked on the beach from North 1st street to South 8th Street Cocoa Beach. Tide was at peak of high, the surf still high from gale winds. Click me for yesterday’s posting, “Rough Surf.”
In the first video, set the effect of a strong west wind pushing surf spray back onto itself, the ocean brightly lit across dunes. I was standing on a boardwalk access from South 8th Street.
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South 8th Street is my turnaround, walking back the squall clouds broke, releasing sunlight for this video.
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Squalls returned, forcing me to hide the DSLR (digital single-lens reflex camera) under my waterproof shell. Then, the squall broken once again, releasing sunlight for this double rainbow.
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Click this link to visit “Man O War Beach Walk” on my blog.
Copyright 2020 All Right Reserved Michael Stephen Wills Photography
Torr Head from Greenhill
Exploring the view
Twenty five minutes before the photos of Pam on Torr Head we enjoyed this view from high above. The placard, below and the header image of this post, captures and explains it all.
The view of the placard, to the north, starting left, Greenanmore is a height on Ireland, the site of a prehistoric passage tomb. Rathlin Island (with the East Light) is Ireland as well. Mull of Oa is on the Scottish island of Islay. A “mull” in Scotland is the same as a “head” or “point”. It turns out, the closest point of Scotland is the Mull of Kintyre, 12.4 miles across North Channel, is to the east. Islay is 27.4 miles north.
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Pam was standing on the edge of the head, short for headland (“point” is another name for it). The Paps of Jura are part of the Isle of Jura, 40.7 miles distant.
Later, in March, I will share more of the wonder of Torr Head. In the meantime, here is a post published last year from nearby.
Here is a gallery for easier flipping between photographs. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page.
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Creeping up on 800 Readers….
….or 800 creeping up on me.
797 is the count of subscribers to this blog, an interesting number. The individual numerals sum to a prime number, 23. The first and last can be swapped to yield the same number. I appreciate each and every “1” added together, you readers. Thank You.
Here is a selection of images from post posts.
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The trail at Petrohue Falls is packed with tourists on a sunny summer afternoon. 
Pam and Mike Wills stayed with Marantha House B&B, during our Spring 2014 Ireland Tour. It was our base in County Cork. Our day of arrival, that evening, I visited Charlemagne and fed him an apple, saved from dinner. We learned from our hosts, Olwen and Douglas Venn, he is a retired show horse they rescued. The following morning I visited Charlemagne again with an apple and my camera. As I walked up, starting from the far end of his field, Charlemagne rewarded me with a series of astounding poses, trotting toward me in fine form. The morning mists, hawthorn in bloom, distant hills came together for this memory. 
Newlyweds on Cocoa Beach waiting for the photographer in a perfect early evening light. A cruise ship departing from Port Canaveral in the distance. 
Trillium bloom April through May in central New York State. I found these blooming on the rim of Fillmore Glen near Owasco Lake and the town of Moravia. 
Don Roberto is on the bow 
Mexican Poppies bloomed in profusion throughout the Superstitions after the plentiful winter rains of 2008. 
Pamela and Michael Wills with Iceberg Glacier, Bernardo O’Higgins National Park, Fjord Tempanos, Chile aboard the Oceania Regatta 
A swan and cygnet feeding from the pristine waters of the River Cong, County Mayo, Ireland. Outside the door of Ashford Castle. 
Ocotillo Sunset 
My son, Sean, and I traveled to New York City for the first Saint Patrick’s Day parade after September 11, 2001. Every one there shared in the pride and resolve of the New York City Fire Department delegation. They had a huge presence. All of 5th Avenue from side to side, as far as we could see, was full of firemen. Each held a full size American flag, so there was a block of American flags up the street. I composed this image to capture the feeling of this moment.
Copyright 2019 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Exotic Life
graceful elegance
Pam and I were transfixed by the aquarium at Epcot, raptly amazed with the variety and profusion of life. Here are two videos of a Ray approaching the wall with graceful elegance.
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Mickey Mouse is represented in one of these post images. Can you spot him? Please use a comment to make your identification.
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills
Instant Sunrise
The instant of sunrise
The sun disk broaches the Atlantic Ocean horizon on a clear January morning.
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 