The view from behind

I think that photos taken from behind the subject are as interesting as those taken from the front -- and sometimes more interesting! So I've gathered some of my favorites from recent years.

These first two show my hiking friends from Gig Harbor, WA, above, and from Tucson, below. Quite a contrast in terrain and skies! I'm forever falling behind because I'm taking pictures.

Hats also look great from behind:

Tere, me, Beth, Tucson Mountains.

Linda, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

My daughter, Julia, and Mt. Rainier, Gig Harbor.

Catalina State Park, Oro Valley (by Tucson).

I like that when taken from behind, the photo shows what the subject is seeing:

Barb and Beth, Tucson Mountains.

Me, Honeybee Canyon, Oro Valley.

Paula and me, Sedona.

Me, Sedona.

Sometimes I just sneak a shot from behind. If I don't sneak, people always want me to get their front instead of their back.

My sister Kathleen, Dungeness Spit, Sequim, WA.

Kandi, Nancy, Joyce, West Seattle.

Nancy, Joyce, Kandi, Chambers Bay, WA.

Me, Kandi, Nancy, Bloedell Reserve, WA.

Julia and Jade, Spokane.

Joyce, Washington coast.

Julia, Spokane.

I like to take pictures of people looking at art in museums. I had to convince friends to take these "behind" photos of me. I'd rather have my photo taken from the back.

Me, Seattle Art Museum.

Me, Tacoma Art Museum.

Me with my son, Tucson's Museum of Glass. I had to give our companion specific instructions for taking this picture of us. 

Julia gets the value of photos from behind, especially when they highlight her bunnies. She took these two without prompting.

Photos from behind can show off cool hair styles! This is Julia's twist:

Parting shot: On today's hike we alerted this photographer to the bobcat in the bushes. Can you spot it?

I hope this post gave you a different perspective!

Have a colorful day

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

Three generations of Spangler women a few years ago.

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and to all of you out there who are moms!

My beautiful mother, RoseMarie, is 89, raised four kids, and is still going strong, but I thought I'd also show you some photos from when she was younger. I took the black and white photo in 1962 with my Brownie camera. It shows her with my two younger sisters on our back yard swing set in Pittsburgh.

Christmas 1963 with our family, above, in South Park Township, Pittsburgh. From left front: my sister Terry, me, Kathleen and Kevin.

Twenty seven years later, Christmas 1990 with my daughter, her granddaughter, in our house in Manhattan, KS. Notice a resemblance?

Christmas 1993, looking content in her LA home.

Here she is, above, with my kids in March 1989 after we moved to St. Louis. She was 57 in that photo.

The one below is of her with her older brother in Southern California, I think in the early '80s.

This next one is also in the early '80s and in California. My parents moved to San Diego then, and later to Los Angeles where they still live.

She loves flowers! This next photo is 2012 in her front yard in Los Angeles.

And here she is in the back yard with more flowers in 2018, so she would've been 86.

Besides loving flowers, she also loves looking at the ocean ...

... and watching the sunset from the cliffs. Here she is with my dad in 2007.

Below: Mom with her daughters, Kathleen, Terry and me, in 2017 when we gathered for my dad's 86th birthday. 

And this is a more recent photo with Terry, my middle sister:

Last but not least, here she is with little Bunners (her great grand "daughter") in 2008. 

We love you, Mom!!!

Have a colorful day

A little lushness

 

I'll say it again -- people who think the desert is just brown have never been to Tucson. The Sonoran Desert here in the Southwest is the lushest desert in the world. Its biseasonal rainfall pattern (summer and winter in normal years) results in more plant species than any other desert on the planet.

Above is a shot from my hike this morning in the desert foothills below Pusch Ridge. Below is another shot from that hike, of a deer grazing in the greenery.

Next, step into my backyard. Granted, it's on a drip irrigation system, but these drought-resistant plants still don't get much water.

This is the view from my computer table. The soap tree yucca in the middle has sprouted a stalk and I'm eager to watch its flowers open. It didn't do this last spring.

Here's a closeup of the flowering bush just outside the window. I think it's called a Summertime Blue. The butterflies and hummingbirds love it.

This red flowering Fairy Duster is a favorite of hummingbirds and bees.

I hope this little bit of color

made you smile,

because ...

Have a colorful day

Color with Linda

Linda left today after a week of hanging out with me and exploring my new hometown. Here's a wrap-up of some of our more colorful moments.

She found this fabulous robe for only $18 at the Crow's Nest in Old Town Artisans. I wanted it badly, but she got her hands on it first, literally as soon as we stepped into the shop. Old Town Artisans is on the site of El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson, the fort built by the Spanish in 1775 to stake claim to the northern frontier of New Spain. Now it's a one-block collection of small businesses.

At the other end of the spectrum, we strolled around La Encantada, a collection of upscale shops in the Catalina Foothills where Linda posed in front of this mural. The main reason we went there was to collapse in big cushy outdoor chairs on a restaurant patio with iced tea after iced tea after exhausting ourselves hiking in the sun in Sabino Canyon. 

Hats were de rigueur because of the sun.

At Cactus Quilts, I bought three row-by-row patterns celebrating Tucson that were designed by the store's owner.

This colorful patio is at Vivace, an Italian restaurant that two of Linda's local friends took us to for lunch. 

Here we are setting off early one morning for another desert hike with the Shady Ladies.

We were lucky enough to see both a roadrunner ...

... and a Gila monster just after starting out. 

Some people live here for decades and never see the elusive Gila monster, but this one took a slow stroll across the trail right in front of us.

Speaking of wildlife, here's a mural that we saw on our walk around downtown Tucson. It's another elusive animal, the jackalope!

And a colorful sky wrapped up one of our dinners on my back patio.

Have a colorful day