Happy Halloween...

One of the great things about spending a year in another country is being able to share and participate in different cultural celebrations. Halloween is definitely one of these celebrations. Many people we have spoken with have suggested that Halloween is even more popular than Christmas in the US. If the house decorations are anything to go by, I could believe that Halloween is the biggest celebration of the year here. The images below show some of the wonderful displays.

Halloween is much more than just one evening of Trick or Treats. It starts with many Fall Festivals held  throughout the city. We went to the Pumpkin festival held at the Botanic Gardens. We had lots of fun in the massive Corn Maze, but eventually ended up in the Pumpkin Patch. As you can see, Max was determined to select the biggest pumpkin he could actually carry.

Pumpkin carving is quite an art, but it is made easier by the many different pumpkin carving tools sold at local supermarkets. Even though we purchased our pumpkins a few weeks before Halloween, they could not be left out as the Squirrels would eat them and you could not begin carving them to early as they would rot - who knew this was such a tricky business.

I was embracing the spirit of Halloween and even made a Haunted House from gingerbread with the kids - not bad for a first effort!

Of course the highlight is the fun of dressing up in costumes. We had many opportunities to wear costumes, the first was the fall festival at Lincoln Elementary. The kids were very excited and looked fabulous!

Most of the kids were dressed up in amazing costumes. I was proud to have inspired one of my students to dress up as Frida Kahlo.

We were all impressed with the intricate make up on one of the boys. The scars and wounds looked amazing. They really take dressing up seriously here!

One of the highlights of the festival was the Haunted House. I was shocked at how much fun and how scary it was - I actually screamed out loud as I wandered through the exhibit.

But we were really waiting for the chance to Trick or Treat! Max spent weeks counting down the sleeps. After a very big day at school we headed across the road to celebrations at Lunden's house.
The house was filled with children and adults in full costume, full of excitement. Yasemin and Brooklyn had a ball in the yard playing zombies.

I was extremely happy as Frida, and almost overwhelmed when Obama arrived.

Max met up with his little friend Ezra and they put on some moves for the camera.

Even the little kids were in on the act - little Heiko was a divine little dragon!

After a wonderful meal we set off at dusk for a long walk around the neighborhood. We were an impressive posse of more than twenty children and a dozen or so adults. I was impressed with how kind all the households were and shocked at how much candy was accumulated - an offensive amount of candy! Thankfully we can take any unwanted candy to the local dentist, where they will pay us for our donation and then send the candy overseas to the troops.

I can't remember having so much fun with the kids - Halloween was much more fun than any of us expected!

Our Last Trip to Breckenridge...

One of our favorite places in Colorado is the beautiful town of Breckenridge which is  located in Summit County, in north central Colorado. This is the heart of the Rocky Mountains--86 miles west of Denver.

We arrived and set about exploring the town. We went into the Breckenridge Photo Shop so that I could visit with Gary, the other wonderful photographer who was a tutor on the photography workshop I attended in Telluride a few weeks ago.

Gary is a fellow Nikon photographer and I spent most of my time in the workshop listening and learning from him. It was great to walk around his studio and see his work. Below are two of my favorites from his collection.

It was a cold afternoon so we headed up the hill to our accommodation at The Beaver Run Resort. We had a voucher from the resort for one night, not only was our accommodation free, but we were also upgraded to a fantastic apartment. We spent the afternoon enjoying one of the outdoor heated pools and hot tubs. We spent the night as a family watching The Pirates of the Caribbean. The kids loved this because it reminded us of our visit to Disneyland earlier in the year - The Pirates of the Caribbean ride was their favorite.

It was a treat to wake up to such a great view, but at the same time we were missing this beautiful town already.

After a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs we headed back to the pool for a swim before the kids enjoyed playing in the snow.

We headed back into town for a late lunch and a final walk around town.

Goodbye Breckenridge - I hope I can return one day!

John Fielder and a trip to Telluride...

Without a doubt John Fielder is Colorado’s premier landscape photographer.  I have spent many hours in his gallery in Denver this year admiring both his and fellow photographers images.

A few weekends ago I had the pleasure of participating in a colorful 3-day fall foliage workshop in the San Juan Mountains around Telluride, where autumn delivers layer upon layer of color. Fresh snow dusts peaks under blue skies, while golden aspens, yellow cottonwoods, orange willows and red sandstone hills add explosions of color to the high country John showed us his favorite backroads as vast ranches stretch out in magnificent valleys.

I took the image below along a magnificent stretch of, "Last Dollar Road". It was a beautiful morning and the sun was lighting up the brilliant fall foliage.

One of John's favourite places is Ralph Lauren's amazing ranch and surrounding land. The following image is a favourite of mine not only because of the wonderful vista - but I couldn't get enough of the Aspen bowl fences!

We spent hours, looking up to capture the towering yellow aspens rising against blue skies, and photographed horses and cows grazing in snow-kissed meadows. This was a wonderful opportunity to discover the heart and soul of nature’s beauty in the Colorado high country. I am still learning and feel that after this workshop I have been able to continue improving my images.

I have included a few images - I shot thousands over the weekend. I entered a number of images below in a Telluride Photography competition recently, and although I think the photograph is interesting, I was surprised when this was the shot that won second prize. Beauty must be in the eye of the beholder!

I submitted three images yesterday for selection, to be hung in John Fielders gallery in Denver in an upcoming exhibition. The panel will select only 18 images to hang - my fingers and toes are crossed. I am hopeful that one of my three will be chosen. This would be a fantastic end to a wonderful year of photography in the US in 2012.

Four More Years... Go Obama, Go!

If you are interested in politics then this is a great year to be in the US - election year! We have been reading, watching, listening and discussing all things political since our arrival last December. We have many friends who share our political ideals and alas a number of friends who don't. We have enjoyed many red wine infused evenings, discussing political parties this year with much vigor.

The election is only 13 days away and the three political debates are now over. Colorado is now becoming a very important state in the election and some even say that whoever wins Colorado will win the election!

Before we left for the US, Garry and I both agreed that to attend a rally with President Obama would be a fantastic experience. Today this hope became a reality!

The weather was bitterly cold as snow is expected tonight, and we lined up for hours with thousands of other supporters. It was fun to watch some of the interesting characters in the crowd as we waited.

After passing through the security checks we entered the park and joined the thousands of people who were already waiting.

It was an exciting atmosphere! We danced to a DJ playing dance song covers as we waited for Obama, who is racing through nine swing states in a no-sleep 38-hour stretch. Finally the great man arrived to enormous cheers and the chant of four more years from the massive crowd. I was standing about twenty people back from the barricade and could see Obama clearly at times - but photography was difficult. Everybody had a camera of some sort and often I just held my camera above my head and hoped for the best!

After his speech, I was able to move very close to the front of the barricades and was able to get some great shots Obama shaking hands with the crowd. Even though I couldn't actually see him at this time, I knew where he was because of the media who followed his every move, again I stood on tippy toes, held my camera as high as I could and hoped for the best.

Besides Denver, he will hit Iowa and Nevada on today in hopes of swaying those few, but critical, undecided voters in important swing states.


"We've gone through three debates, months of campaigning, way too many TV ads," Obama said to a crowd of about 16,000. "When you choose president, you don't know what's going to come up ... Trust matters."

The president then shifted into an attack on opponent GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, saying his plan is what "led to the Great Recession.""He's hoping that you, too, will likely come down with a case of what we like to call 'Romnesia,' " he said.

This is the 11th time the president has come to Colorado in 2012 and he suggested today he might return again before the election.

Go Obama, Go!

Testing of Tequila and Mezcal...

Our next stop was at an arts and crafts centre that specialised in making its own Tequila and Mezcal along with selling many sculptures, jewelry, pottery, onyx, replicas of Teotihuacan masks.



During our visit we were shown some local customs. First was a custom of usage of agava (maguey in Mexico).

Agave nectar - a sweetener derived from the sap, is used as an alternative to sugar in cooking. This is used in Mexico and Mesoamerica in the production of the beverage pulque.

People have found a few other uses of the plant aside from its several uses as food. When dried and cut in slices, the flowering stem forms natural razor strops, and the expressed juice of the leaves will lather in water like soap. The natives of Mexico used agave's to make paper, pens, nails and needles, as well as string to sew and make weavings.

 We got to try three different kinds of Mezcal, one was from cactus and was very sweet, one was a Mezcal with an almond flavor and was also very sweet, and the last was a more traditional smokey flavored strong type. I think this was a good way to relax the customers, in hope they would spend many dollars!

Then they showed us the various symbolic meanings of the obsidian carved statues and masks they had in their shop. They were all very ornate and beautiful. Some of the obsidian had a gold shimmer inside of them. We were shown many kinds of volcanic rocks and appreciated their beauty when they were dipped in water and held up to the sunlight.

The jewellery was beautiful and excellent quality. But very expensive, often you were looking at ?
$1,000 dollars as a starting point. We had been warned by our guide that silver in Mexico was not nearly as cheap as it once was due to the world wide price increase in silver.

Although this place could be described as a complete tourist trap, we really enjoyed the demonstrations, particularly the taste testing! It was nice to escape the crowds of Mexico city and relax - being driven around from place to place. This was also a great way for us to save time as we were on a tight schedule to fit in as much sight seeing as possible in only three days.