This picture makes me smile! What could be more relaxing than watching backyard chickens (and ducks) enjoying watermelon on a hot summer day? They were squabbling over who got the juiciest bits which seems like a good metaphor for society these days.

I am again surprised at how quickly time moves at age 64 compared to my remembered summers of childhood. I haven’t posted anything since last fall but plenty of things have kept me busy. Photography-wise, I had good shows at the Crozet Festival this May and last October. Regina and I made a winter trip to the Adirondacks and Vermont and I spent a week on the Northern California coast in April making photographs. I’ve learned a few hard technology lessons after nearly losing over 100,000 images in a hard disk catastrophe this spring. The good side of that is that I’ve looked at hundreds of old images over the last two months and found much to like that I had previously passed over. This is one example, just a summer snapshot sitting in the grass at my sister’s house, watching the chickens!