Photo of the Day - Red Tulips

This clump of tulips was growing beside a driveway. It's amazing it survived. I don't know why anyone would plant bulbs so close to where people drive and trample, but here they are in all their glory.

A Thought about the Iraq Situation

Iraq is a festering sore from which we pulled off the scab.

I wish we had the means to heal it, and I hope the turmoil doesn't spread far beyond the bounds of the Saddam problem we once had contained.

We should have looked ahead.

Photo of the Day - Old Barn

I find ramshackle old buildings or machinery standing out in fields fascinating photography subjects. What happens when people just neglect them? I've missed some photo opportunities because I was on a highway that didn't make it possible to stop for the sight, or because I failed to have my camera with me. I spotted this old barn along a road in northeastern Kansas and was lucky enough to have a camera along, even though I had to tromp through some mud. It also has another one of my favorite themes, a wide sky.

A favorite Quote - George Bernard Shaw on Liberty

"Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it." -- George Bernard Shaw

Photo of the Day - Dry Tortugas National Park

The Dry Tortugas west of Key West, in the Gulf of Mexico, offer vistas of turquoise sea and sky, along with Fort Jefferson fortress, beaches, and wildlife. This unusually shaped spit of land seems to lead off to the horizon and adventure.

A favorite Quote - Anais Nin on Courage

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. -- Anais Nin

Photo of the Day - Flowers on the Prairie

Here's another example of the beautiful wildflowers that bloom on the prairie. If you read pioneer accounts of travel through or life on the prairie, among the details of wild weather, harsh conditions, animals, and more, you will find descriptions of the beautiful wildflowers that carpet the prairie from spring to fall. The colors are vivid and intense. (And the grasshoppers are huge!)

Florida Tornadoes

A colleague of mine moved from Florida to Kansas for a new job, and her family in Florida practically wrote her off as dead, thinking she would never survive the tornadoes there. When we moved from Kansas to Florida, family in Kansas felt the same way about Florida hurricanes. When I was writing a children's book that featured tornadoes, I did a lot of research and was surprised to learn how many tornadoes Florida has -- and therefore even more surprised at my colleague's family's reaction to her move. I've lived in some dangerous places, if you consider the destructive power of weather and the earth -- California and Japan for earthquakes (yes, I was in some, but luckily didn't experience damage or injury), Kansas and Florida for terrible storms, whether tornadoes or hurricanes. Is there a safe place in the world?

My heart goes out to all the families that lost their homes, and in some cases lives, in the tornado early this morning in central Florida, and those who lost everything in the Christmas Day storm. I'm thankful that my family and our homes are unscathed.

A Favorite Quote - Ben Franklin on Theory v. Fact

"One of life's great tragedies is the murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts." -- Benjamin Franklin

Photo of the Day - Sand Dollar

At sunset on Anna Marie Island, Florida, the tide had gone out leaving this sand dollar on the beach with the water streams carving the sand around it. The slanted rays from the sun added dimensionality and tone to an essentially monochromatic photo.