San Diego Graduation

20. May 2025 · Write a comment · Categories: General, Photography

We are so proud of Abi. We just got back from San Diego where we saw her graduate Magna Cum Laude from San Diego State University (SDSU) with a Batchelor’s Degree in Kinesiology.
For Abi, it’s a couple of months downtime before she heads to Fresno State University to get her doctorate in Physical Therapy.

Lisa, James and I had a wonderful weekend, lots of sun, sea, food and drink celebrating with Abi, her boyfriend Aidan and his family, and friends and family from Washington State and England (Thank you Nikki and Craig and Tania and Manesh for coming so far).

She’s now over halfway there, just 3 more years to go.

I took the camera and captured some pictures of her around the university and down on the beach. SDSU is a really pretty university with lots of white stucco buildings with Spanish tile roofs, makes a great backdrop for graduation pictures.

Here are a few shots (from the many I captured).

Again, congratulations Abi.

Fall in Colorado

25. September 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Colorado, General

Every once in a while my friend Steve Downing and I go out on a motorcycle ride into the mountains. Steve is a bit of a local expert and I just follow him and enjoy the sights.

The other day we headed out into a new mountain pass and got to see the fall colors start to appear. Loads of cars had pulled off the road to capture a picture so we stopped too.

The picture I took is below and it doesn’t do the scene justice. It was BEAUTIFUL! It was also a wonderfully clear day with a blue sky and the yellow in the trees just popped.

We suspected that it would look even better over the next few days, but a storm came through and it probably took a lot of leaves with it.

Anyway, I loved the picture and thought I’d share.

Finished Garden

24. August 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Colorado

Well I promised to post some pictures of the back yard (garden for all you British folks) when it was finished.

The work took just over 4 weeks through some incredibly hot weather. It was over 100°F on some days (38°C) so we kept an ice cooler full of drinks and snacks available for the guys.

The first week was spent prepping and marking out the garden, the second and third was putting down all the pavers adding the irrigation and lighting and the fourth was rock, plants, grass and mulch.

It’s funny, when you see the plans and then look out onto the mud pit (that it once was), you couldn’t really imagine that everything would fit, but I have to say the designer did an amazing job and the contractors who built it followed the plans perfectly.

To say we are delighted and love the garden would be a huge understatement.

We’ve had a couple of BBQ’s already, and there’s still a couple of warm months left so plenty of time for more.

Anyway, here are some pics from the entrance to the garden through to the other side.

Erie Balloon Launch

13. July 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Colorado

We didn’t know it when we first came to Erie, but this is a popular location for flying balloons. They have a number of events over the summer months and this morning there was a big launch a mile from our house.

So Lisa and I got up at 6am (yes really) and biked over to the local field where all the balloons were located.

There were hundreds of people present, all locals I suspect, there with their families and cameras to enjoy the event. In all we saw 8 balloons get inflated, two apparently decided it was too windy and decided not to fly but we saw the others take off.

I have been in a hot air balloon before (a birthday gift from Lisa 20 years ago) and it’s a wonderful experience, so we were quite jealous of the lucky few to took off today.

It was also a perfect morning for the flight, very sunny and around 65°F (18°C), as I write this now at 9:30 in the morning it’s already up to 85°F (29°C), so I’m sure those in the air and enjoying the experience.

As usual, I took a few pictures to share the event:

Colorado Sunset

31. May 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Colorado, iPhone

I guess after living in Colorado now for 9 months I should have gotten used to the amazing sunsets. From my limited experience the best sunsets (so far) have taken place towards the end of the year, but tonight was just beautiful.

So, I thought I’d share it!

This was taken from outside the front of my house at around 8:40 on an iPhone. The colors were just wonderful, so I quickly took the shot.

If I see more like this I’ll take a picture and upload.

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