More Shameless Self Promotion

Wow - somehow I feel legitimized. I always travel with camera in tow, snapping photos to share with friends and to share with my neice and nephew to expand their worldview. Lately, I have been getting some props for photos posted to Flickr, with occasional requests to use them for various works. This one, though, caught me off guard - a journalist wanted to use it for reference to peace talks in Nepal. How could I say no? When I did and forwarded him the story behind the otherwise non-spectacular photo, he published that too (with my permission, of course....). Click here for the whole story....er, my story!

2007 Calendars Available Now!

I've opted to self-publish calendars for 2007 featuring some of my favorite images from, in no particular order: Norway, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, New Zealand, Nepal, Morocco, and the US. Any worldwideglimpses readers who purchase a calendar get a spiffy personalized Giant Thank You! Click here to purchase..

Tools of the Trade

Playing with depth of field.

Tools of the Trade

Front Porch Railing

Here, the railings have been prepped for priming, but it's hard to tell from the photo that they are 3 steps away from being the finished product!

Column Base

This is one of the column bases on the front porch. Because of some longitudinal cracking, this one needed some repair. It's been repaired and sealed with an adhesive sealant that is fill or primer ready. The next stage for the porch is filling in the uneven spots, sanding them smooth, and starting with the primer before the paint can be applied.

Holy......hole!

The previously existing hole and light fixture. One more case in which the former owners opted to do things half-assed. The hole is just thwonked in there....and the fixture is rusted through. It's an indoor fixture, not an outdoor fixture (and will be replaced poste haste). Why bother doing something if you don't intend to do it right? Take the ceiling wood. It's beautiful tongue-in-groove, original construction (1886). Yee-haw.

This Old House Home Repair - Front Porch

I've been working on what I call my "last 2%" - the last few dozen or so things on my to-do list for the house. The current project is my front porch. The paint on the columns, ceiling, and railings was peeling pretty horrendously, with some patches of wood showing through - even the primer had peeled away. Rather than wait through winter for additional crack and peel activity, I've opted to have that addressed with priority.

Luckily, I've found a fantastic contractor. I can't call this one a handyman because that's degrading to the level of skill and quality he provides. The first phase of the porch repair is complete; next steps are filling in the low spots, priming, and painting. He has already spent some time and effort into getting the porch into its current upgraded condition. Namely, filling cracks and holes with a primer-ready adhesive sealant. Except for the surface unevenness, it looks painted - but it's just at the almost-ready-to-prime step, so I'm sure the end product will be gleamingly beautiful. And for a bonus, he doesn't mind me being invasively curious - not so much that I would do the work myself (not possible to his degree of skill), but just enough so that I want to know why this sealant and not the other is the best choice. The best part: hearing him describe the things he likes about the house, from a construction point of view, and his admiration for All Things Old.



Front porch column joint to railing (with new seal).

Autumn Primaries

Let it SNOW!!!!!!!!!

First Snow!!!
Today, I went home for lunch. 10 minutes after coming home, the wind started howling, and a snow flurry was the outcome.
10 minutes after that, the sun was out and the snow was gone. I don't know if snow on October 12 is early or not for Ohio, but it sure was an exciting event!!

Halloween get-up

Well, I suppose I've gotten all domestic this weekend. I couldn't resist doing just a little Halloween decoration - tho I don't want to get too involved in that, because the house is already pretty nauseatingly cute (in a good way).

Inda Jatra time in Nepal!

Diwakar Maskey making a puja (offering) at the Swet Bhairab temple, Durbar Square, Kathmandu, Nepal.

I'm fortunate to have a few friends in Nepal, and every year, despite the fact that I'm not in Nepal, and not officially Hindu or Buddhist, I receive prayers and well wishes from my friends there for the plethora of festivals that occur through the year. This year is a little different, because one of my friends has taught me about a new festival. I've heard of Indra Jatra before - it's the time, once a year, when the palace opens up to show the adoring public its living goddess, Kumari, to the public. But it's also the time when a particular icon is also opened to the public. This is Swet Bhairab. It's also significant because Nepal is a wonderful amalgamation of both Hindu and Buddhist cultures - so, each festival that takes place in the country has strong overtones and traditions with influences from each.

On the first day of the festival, images of two gods, Bhairab and Indra, are displayed in various stages throughout Durbar Square, in Kathmandu. Displaying the two is believed to extend thanks to the rain gods for a good harvest.

Specifically, Swet Bhairab came about in the late 1700s: (paraphrased from Festivals in Nepal)

According to the scripture placed under the image of Bhairab, the image was made during the reign of King Rana Bahadur Shah. The periphery behind the temple was a cremation ground. Whenever the King came out of his palace, he used to see the cremation of dead people, every day. He used to return thinking the scene as a bad omen. Then, to do away with cremation there, he installed Swet Bhairab just in front of the main gate. The temple is just in front of Degu Telaju temple. The entrance still remains there just behind Swet Bhairab.

The legend also has it that people used to get frightened of great facial image so it is closed throughout the year. There is also a belief that Swet Bhairab wore precious jewelry so it was kept in close wooden curtain for security. One Gurju (priest of Buddhist clan) worship Bhairab every day inside the wooden curtain. In special puja (ceremony) one goat, one ox and one duck are sacrificed. The method is given in the Shila Patra (traditional book).

On the eve of Indra Jatra, care-takers will clean up the image and sacrifice the animals from one window among the nine closed windows. They open the window amidst the beats of traditional musical instruments of dhime and jogi on the first day of Indra Jatra.

So, many thanks to Diwakar Maskey and Sushil Shresta for sharing their photo and wishes with me on their auspicious holiday occasion!

Whhheeeeee!!!

This weekend I intended to enjoy another fall campout, which failed, but not completely. For more about my opinions on camping in Ohio, click here. What I did get to do was take a fun drive in rolling hills, through picturesque villages in rural Ohio, and that was satisfactory eye-candy. None of the shots from the trip are flickr-worthy but here are a couple that were just plain fun.

Imagine driving directly Into the Light for over a half hour. Through a FILTHY windshield. How effective do you think my vision was after the road finally veered northward? Not much - I missed my exit.

Hint of red in the trees!