The Upside-Down Tree, A Fancy Schmancy Las Vegas Wedding, Snuggly Kitties, a Weird Fruit, a Rainbow over the Santa Barbara Pier, and “The Embrace of Dawn”
A few weeks in photos
Every year, one of our favorite local restaurants, Rutabagorz, hangs their “upside-down” tree from their ceiling. I have no idea why or how this concept originated, but I have to say that the weirdness of it really appeals to me.
This little restaurant resides in what was once the old Wells Fargo stage coach depot in old-town Tustin, California, in the late 1800’s and it still has the original old tin ceiling (you can see it in the above photo). It has a charm which can only come from a place with so many years of history taking place within its walls.
When I last posted a “week in photos” — how is that it has been since early December??? — we were headed to a very fancy wedding for my husband’s best friend and his new Romanian bride in Los Vegas. At the time, Omicron was just beginning to be mentioned and we’d been recently “boosted” so we weren’t too worried, although we did have a bit of a fear of this becoming a super-spreader event.
Turns out, nobody got COVID. But we (and several other guests) did get a nasty cold a few day after getting home. We all tested for COVID multiple times and never got a positive result, so I do think that it was only a cold. But it does show you how these viruses can race around within a crowd.
Anyways, the wedding was lovely. My husband was asked to speak, and he wrote a lovely piece about the definition of love. I was asked to write a poem for the ceremony. After tossing out several of my first attempts, the muse whispered “Eros Ran Rampant Through my Garden” into my ear. It seemed to be well-received.
We’ve never really been Vegas people. It’s probably been twenty years since we’ve been there. Years and years ago, my husband represented the basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian, and we used to occasionally go to Vegas and stay at the Golden Nugget. That was back in the day when the Luxor pyramid was brand-new and was way out at the edge of town. Now it is smack-dap in the middle of things.
We stayed at the Encore, which is connected to the Wynn hotel by a labrynth of passages lined with shops, restaurants and gambling spots. We, literally, arrived on a Thursday and never stepped foot outside of this ginormous complex until we left on Sunday. We also did not spend even a dime gambling.
Our friends rented out a nightclub for the evening and we were regaled by the “Rat Pack,” “Elvis Presley,” “Madonna,” a well-known Romanian singer, and an incredible violinist. It was quite a show. And after the entertainment, a DJ started up.
My husband, his friend, and several other guys who were at the wedding, ride their bikes together a few times a week. We’ve all known each other for many years, so we had a lot of fun dancing up a storm together.
I haven’t been able to bike ride much lately because we’ve had a ton of much-needed rain. This shot was from my last ride (a couple of weeks ago). You can see the clouds moving in before the storm. I stopped to commune with this hawk for a few moments and she actually followed me, swooping down low and landing on another bare tree a bit further up the path to check me out again as I rode by.
This sunset, shot from a car moving 60 mph — hence the blur — was so gorgeous. That’s Catalina Island on the distant horizon and the lights of Irvine and Newport Beach in the foreground.
These cold and rainy days have made for some nice snuggle time with the kitties. Mr. Emerson was quite happy to be wrapped up in this purple blanket.
Uma, however, is normally the first to nab a lap on this couch.
Since my sister was coming to town and then we were all going to drive up to Santa Barbara to have Christmas Eve and Christmas day with my step-daughter, her husband and our little granddaughter, my husband and I celebrated our “personal” Christmas a few days early.
My big present this year was a new lens for my camera. It is the Nikon 100–400 4.5–5.6 S. I am so excited to use it for wildlife photography. Currently, I have lenses that go up to 200 and a fixed 500. I love that 500, but I can’t tell you how many times when I was photographing whales this past summer that I wished I had a lens to fill in that gap of range.
This shot of our Buddha (we bought it in Agra — near the Taj Mahal — many years ago) was the first photograph I took with my new lens. It was sort of just a random shot, but there’s got to be a “first,” right?
Speaking of Buddhas, I got a very weird fruit from my CSA this week. It is called a “Buddha’s Hand.” It is like a lemon. I still haven’t quite figured out what to do with it.
My sister was down from Portland for the holiday. Here we are opening our gifts on our “sister” gift night.
We discovered that driving to Santa Barbara on Christmas Eve is just a dream. There were no cars on the road. We took the scenic route along Highway 1 and were shocked to see vast stretches of beaches with nobody on them. We had to stay at a hotel this time because there were other house guests up for the holiday, but we were able to upgrade at the last minute to this ocean view room with this gorgeous view of the pier. Can you see the rainbow?
Perhaps the most exciting news this week was the arrival of Thomas Gaudex’s anthology of poetry featuring the many poets of his publication, Scribe. I was so honored to have two poems included.
This next photo is from our neighborhood, shot while I was out on one of my walks. You can see the rain moving in and just a little slice of ocean between the land and Catalina Island.
Currently, I have the fireplace going in my little office and the french doors cracked open so that I can hear the rain. I always find rainy days to be the most creative ones, and I have a niggling few lines of a poem telling me that I better start paying attention and catch a hold of this one before it slips away into the ether.
I hope you have all had a lovely few weeks and I wish you a Happy New Year!
Erika Burkhalter is a yogi, neurophilosopher, cat-mom, photographer, and lover of travel and nature, spreading her love and amazement for Mother Earth’s glories, one photo, poem or story at a time. (MS Neuropsychology, MA Yoga Studies).
As always, I thank you Dennett for creating this “week in photos” challenge.
It’s so fun to share about the week and to read about so many other photographers’ weeks around the world.
You might want to check out a few of the others who participate:
Dennett /Anne Bonfert /Eileen Vorbach /Lisa Bolin /Tracy Aston /David Wade Chambers/ Mia Verita /Kim Zuch /Barbara Radisavljevic /LensAfield /Barbara Dalton /Sasha Meyer /Susan Alison /Diana Lotti /Barbara Dalton /K. Barrett /June Nguyen /Juan O. Aguilera /Ellie Jacobson /Shruthi Sundaram/ Pene Hodge /Tracy Aston/ Sandra Barrett and more… (if I’ve failed to mention your name, please let me know so that I can add it in future weeks).
I hope you enjoyed my photos and musings. You might also like:
Photos and story ©Erika Burkhalter. All rights reserved.