Seeing Nature

Live Edge Chestnut Oak Table

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:37:00 +0000

Live edge tables seem to be everywhere. For good reason in my opinion, as they showcase the grain, character and variations of an entire slice of a tree. But that means that someone has to anticipate and arrange for that slice to happen.

I was fortunate that our nephew Matt did just that when he had a chestnut oak taken down. An outfit from Pennsylvania took the tree, milled it into slabs, and stacked and seasoned it for three years. Matt's dad, my brother-in-law David, received several pieces and made some beautiful tables from them. And he generously asked if I'd like a piece too. Yes I would.

Live edge chestnut oak table

Challenges arose, as they always do. There were several knots and wormholes to be filled, some of which went all the way through the slab. On YouTube the makers just tape up the holes on the underside, pour in epoxy, let it set and hey presto! Done! It didn't work that way for me.

It was my first experience with epoxy. I chose the 4-hour setting type, thinking I didn't want to rush. I taped up the holes on the bottom as well as I could, and I put some filler sawdust and super glue into the holes to help fill them. Then I spooned in the epoxy, waited while it seeped into the crevices, spooned in more...and more...where is it all going? Next day I turned the slab over and saw a large layer of epoxy under the tape I'd so carefully applied. All I could think of was how long it would take to remove all that.

That process was repeated several times until I had successfully plugged everything and removed all the excess. It took about forever.

Other factors were more tractable. David showed me how he used wood hardener to solidify some of the rotted or soft wood at the edges. It worked well and saved a lot of time cleaning. And it preserved some nice character too.

The wood grain is quite porous in places, and several coats of polyurethane didn't quite smooth it out, but I'm okay with the surface. It's rustic, right? And there are so many other interesting things to see on the top.

The legs are pretty simple: 28-inch hairpin steel legs right out of the box. It takes two people to get the positions right, one to lift the 37 pound top and the other to tweak and mark the legs once positioned. Then it's just three screws per leg (I didn't inset the mounting plates into the table) and it's done.

Side Table, Craftsman style

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 16:03:00 +0000

Craftsman side table in red oak

Instead of a stool or bench, this time I built a Craftsman style side table, using plans from Rex Krueger. This is the first Craftsman piece I've made, and also the first using red oak. I was able to find a clear-grained piece in 4/4 size at Woodcraft for a reasonable price. I broke down the stock using a handsaw and planed it to size with my No. 4 and No. 5 hand planes. The table top was glued up from three pieces, cut to rough size with a jigsaw, and shaped to final size with a spokeshave.

The leg and spreader joinery was cut with a Japanese style saw and a hand chisel. The most difficult joints were the leg/tabletop joints, none of which ended up as tight as I would have liked despite careful measuring and cutting. This table is good practice for joinery, and I need more practice. Some clamping was needed to get the legs positioned in the tabletop before securing them with brass woodscrews. I considered using dowels instead, as I did on the Mission bench. I'm glad I didn't because getting things in position would have been a challenge.

I needed to sharpen several tools before and during the project. The planes and chisel, of course, and also the spokeshave. Surprisingly I also needed to sharpen the practically new countersink, which left ragged holes for the screws. Luckily I tried it on scrap first.

The table has an unusual feature not shown in the photo. There is a cleat across the bottom of the tabletop, joining the three pieces that make up the top. Rex drew the plans from a piece belonging to a friend, and he suspects the cleat was added to the original at some point to control wood movement.

Finally I applied polyurethane. I thinned it a little and wiped it on instead of brushing. It needed five coats, but I found I had fewer problems with runs or brush strokes.

Another Bench: Mission style this time

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 17:43:00 +0000

Mission style bench in walnut

I seem to be in a bench-building phase. There are a variety of styles that encourage different techniques in joining, layout, cutting and finishing. That probably explains why I always feel like a complete beginner making the next one.

I'm following Rex Krueger's plans (https://tinyurl.com/3tkut342), but rather loosely. The first change: Susan suggested using a "darker wood" this time. So I got in touch with Dick Ratcliff at http://www.heartwoodcreations.org/ again. He found a nice walnut live-edged slab and was kind enough to plane it to the thickness I wanted. As I mentioned in my Moravian stool post, Dick is a great guy to deal with when you need wood.

I also decided not to use nailed construction. Rex does a good job explaining it, and I know it's a real technique with a long history, but it just wasn't the look I wanted. I'm always trying to use contrasting woods, and here I'm using birch dowels in place of the cut nails. It was a lot more effort than I anticipated. A particular challenge was holding the various parts in alignment before drilling the dowel holes. It took more time to rig that up than it took to drill the holes, and then I discovered a couple weren't aligned anyway. So even more time spent making a patch.

Keeping parts aligned for dowel drilling

Finished dowel joint

Now, about that live edge: keep it or cut it off, leaving just the heartwood? I kept part of the sapwood on the legs (they are tapered, rather than rectangular) and all of it on the top. So the bench top has one side that is not straight...my first foray into a live edge project.

The legs need to be identical, so I used Rex's technique of double-sided tape to hold the blanks together while I cut the tapers with a circular saw. Then I separated them and used a jigsaw to cut the ogee curves that form the feet. I was happy to see how smoothly that went, after watching jigsaw tips from the Honest Carpenter (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsdsp3cxLlc). I wasn't as lucky when notching the legs to hold the aprons. I used my Japanese style pull saw and one cut got far off track. Another patch was needed there. Things like that are why I call my work "rustic".

The plans call for nailing the bench top to the base. Eschewing nails, I thought maybe I'd use dowels on the top too. But the top is the prettiest piece of the walnut. Instead I used Z clips to fasten the top on. Another new technique. Let's see if they hold up to wood movement as they are supposed to.

The finish is Waterlox Original. I hadn't used it before, and I'm happy with the warm semigloss result.

A Moravian style stool

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Mon, 28 Aug 2023 19:30:00 +0000

[Note: the following has a lot of details about this build. Feel free to just look at the pictures.]

I've been working on a Moravian stool. Such stools are distinguished by a pair of battens attached to the underside of the seat in sliding dovetails. The legs are mortised through the battens and through the seat, and then wedged.

There are a couple advantages of this construction, as I understand it. The seat can be made of thinner wood, since it is reinforced beneath. And if the seat is made of two boards edge-jointed, the seam is susceptible to cracking but will still be usable because the boards are held in place by the battens. Both advantages can result in a more economical piece. There is an excellent article about them in Popular Woodworking here.

I used cherry for the seat and legs and maple for the battens, because I like contrasting woods. But after finish was applied, the contrast was much reduced. The woods posed a couple of other problems too.

First, I had never purchased cherry or maple. Almost all my other pieces have been in softwoods, along with some walnut gifted to me by generous friends. I went to a Woodcraft store but was daunted by the size and price of the available cherry stock. The staff weren't particularly helpful either. About this time my wife and I attended a "meet the maker" event at Strathmore Mansion in Rockville, MD. One of the makers was Dick Ratliff of Heartwood Creations. Dick retired from tree service to become a superb maker of furniture and other goodies. As we chatted and I described my stool project, he revealed that he has a large stock of wood he saved from trees during his career. I emailed him what I needed and in a few days I picked up both cherry and maple from his shop (added bonus: I got a shop tour). He has a large number of species. Look him up if you need something...he probably has it.

The second problem was my inexperience with hardwoods. Planing the cherry for the seat and legs was time-consuming but not too difficult. Cutting the dovetails into the cherry and especially into the maple was a challenge. I followed plans from YouTube creator Rex Krueger, who has you build a "scratch stock" to help finish the dovetail profiles, after you've sawn them approximately. Many hours went into those, and the finished dovetail joints aren't beautiful. But it was good experience. It's nice to be able to make a useful tool too. Speaking of that, I also used a router plane built from a Rex Krueger kit that worked well smoothing the bottoms of the dovetail slots.

Scratch Stock

Router plane from kit

I like using hand tools but I'm not a zealot. I cut the stock to their rough sizes using my friend Bruce's bandsaw. I've bored leg mortises with a handheld drill in the past and never quite got the angles right. So I ordered a drill press. The Wen 4214 has a twelve-inch swing, decent reviews and a very attractive price. After clearing some junk from the garage I bought a tool stand from Harbor Freight, made a plywood top and a shelf, and I was in business. The mortise holes were easy to drill.

Drill Press on stand

Drilling leg mortises

For finish I chose shellac. I've used it on other projects and been happy with it. I've heard that the premixed brands have a limited shelf life, and the only cans I had were past their prime, so I decided to buy shellac flakes and mix my own. That way I know it's fresh and I can mix up only as much as I need. The downside is finding it (not at Woodcraft; I got mine online from Lee Valley Tools) and mixing it. It takes a couple hours to dissolve the flakes in the alcohol, even using a coffee/spice grinder to reduce the flakes first. But you save so much time with shellac because it dries so quickly. I put three coats on in less time than it took the flakes to dissolve. I was happy. The surface of the seat wasn't completely smooth despite my best efforts with plane, card scraper and sandpaper. That caused a less-than-perfect finish, but hey! I'm still learning!

Moravian style stool in cherry and maple

Some Woodworking Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Fri, 02 Jun 2023 19:54:00 +0000

In the past couple of years I've made a few wood projects I'd like to share here.

A box for Dana

Our friend Dana passed away in 2021. His daughter, recalling the cherry tree in their yard when she was young, asked me to built a cherry container for some of her father's cremains. The box was constructed using mostly hand tools.

I wanted to try bending wood. After seeing some tool totes online I decided to make one using an oak dowel for the bent handle. I soaked the dowel in water plus fabric softener for a week, then in hot water for about an hour. I placed it into a rough jig and clamped it overnight. The rest of the tote is made from old shelving (the bottom and ends) and leftover tongue-and-groove paneling (the sides). No nails, screws or glue were used.

Tool Tote

I also wanted to try working with greenwood (i.e. freshly cut, not seasoned). A neighbor's maple tree lost a large limb in a storm, so I used two pieces of it to make a stool. The ends of one piece were sealed with shellac to keep it from drying, and set aside. The other piece was split with froe and maul for the legs, which were shaped using drawknife and spokeshave. When the legs were ready, the other piece was split and barked to make the seat, then drilled for the legs to be inserted. Because the legs were drier than the seat, they swelled as they absorbed moisture from the seat. And the seat shrank as it dried. That's how greenwood furniture joints become tight without use of fasteners or glue. After nearly a year the legs are as tight as ever.

Maple greenwood stool

The Inside Passage

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Mon, 29 May 2023 19:44:00 +0000

After a long pandemic hiatus Susan and I recently resumed travel, taking a small ship cruise through part of the Inside Passage in Southeast Alaska. On a friend's recommendation we booked with Uncruise (https://uncruise.com/pages/alaskan-adventures). We were delighted with the voyage, the locations, the wildlife, the expedition leaders and ship's crew, and the activities. Highly recommended.

Having travelled to Patagonia we suspected the Inside Passage environment would be similarly elemental and beautiful, and it is. An advantage of the Uncruise approach is the off-ship activities available each day. They included kayaking, hiking and bushwacking, skiff tours and paddleboarding. Wildlife is abundant: we saw bald eagles, sea lions, seals, otters, bears and several humpback whales (one from a kayak). Our fellow passengers were friendly nature-lovers and our expedition leaders were well-informed and enthusiastic. It was an amazing trip.

Mountain from Tracy Arm

Near Elfin Cove

Elfin Cove sunset

Forest Floor, Kuiu Island

Margerie Glacier, Glacier Bay NP

Ice in the stream

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 02:02:00 +0000

Out walking recently, I found intriguing ice patterns in a small stream. My guess is that the stream level was dropping and ice formed at different levels as it fell. The picture was taken under a footbridge, which shows as dark bars reflected in the water. I don't always love frigid weather, but this was a good morning.

Ice in a Stream

Woodworking

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 19:25:00 +0000

After winding up my folding desk efforts, I've made a few more projects.

This is a shaker style table with a birch plywood top, red oak aprons, and laminated pine legs.

A yard sculpture titled "Blue Tensegrity", after Buckminster Fuller's term for structures using isolated compression elements and tension elements. Made of two-by-two pine construction lumber and one-sixteenth inch stainless steel cable.

A paper towel dispenser with half-lap joints in pine, with a cherry handle.

Plans for folding desk, by Dean Wight

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Wed, 16 Dec 2020 13:41:00 +0000

Links to plans for folding desks are at the end of this post.

Update January 31, 2021: Someone asked for photos of desks, so I'm posting a few here.

Modified Desk, folded

Modified Desk, partially open

Modified Desk, open position

Update January 16, 2021: Plans for the modified folding desk are at the end of this post, together with the original plans. Feel free to add comments and suggestions.

Update January 11, 2021: I have made modifications to the folding desk, and I will revise the plans shortly. In brief, the changes are (a) switched to non-mortising hinges because they are lighter and fold slightly flatter than door hinges; (b) removed plywood cross-braces and replaced them with 2 by 2 braces mounted in-between, rather than on top of, the legs, reducing weight and allowing legs to fold flatter; (c) removed about 3 pounds of material using cutouts in the back panel.

Non-mortising hinges

Back panel with cutouts

This link leads to a PDF of plans for the modified folding desk:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1McVcGjI1rEaR4GnTgM2t0dBIYqUrl1q6/view?usp=sharing

This link leads to a PDF of plans, drawings and photos of the folding desk developed for Desks by Dads in Gaithersburg MD.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15WAL9oG1CaBKSEEipo8VNOVb0UVCp1A6/view?usp=sharing

Calf Creek, Escalante Canyons

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Sat, 28 Dec 2019 16:50:00 +0000

East of Bryce Canyon and west of Capitol Reef national parks lies a large rugged region known as Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. A mosaic of BLM and state lands covering more than 1,500 square miles, it was the last area in the continental U.S. to be mapped. We had just one day to see some tiny portion of it. As always, a visitors center gave us great advice: we decided to hike Calf Creek in the Escalante Canyons area. It's a "moderately strenuous" in-and-back hike totaling six miles, with a 120-foot waterfall at the turnaround.

Calf Creek trail

As in much of southern Utah, the rocks and topography are spectacular.

Rock Wall, Calf Creek canyon

Calf Creek prominences

After three miles uphill in warm weather, through a lot of deep sand, the waterfall and pool were a very welcome oasis.

Lower Calf Creek Falls

You ought to give Iowa a try

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Tue, 12 Nov 2019 01:49:00 +0000

Before our latest cross-country trip we had never spent time in Iowa. We didn't know what we'd see, except the Andy Goldsworthy sculptures near Grinnell and in Des Moines. I assumed in my ignorance that Iowa would be flat. It's not. And the rolling hills were lush with corn in mid-September, making for lovely landscapes.

Iowa cornfield

Iowa cornfield 2

We also visited the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge, which preserves tallgrass prairie, oak savanna and sedge meadows. It too was very beautiful, and we enjoyed their educational center as well (did you know that some prairie grasses have roots 12 feet deep?). Wild sawtooth sunflowers combined with grasses and other wild plants to form a lovely mosaic. They use fire, seeding and, in one 700 acre enclosure, bison to reconstruct and preserve the prairie ecosystem. Very cool.

Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge

Bryce Canyon National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Tue, 05 Nov 2019 20:11:00 +0000

Our national parks are treasures. Each has unique and awe-inspiring features. So I hesitate to call any particular park "most photogenic", but Bryce Canyon certainly would make the short list. We were fortunate to spend two nights in the park (Susan reserved one of the last rooms months before we traveled) which enabled us to see more of its moods. Lovely weather prevailed before dawn and beyond.

Predawn, Bryce Canyon

Bryce Canyon sunrise

The park is known for its hoodoos, the vaguely person-shaped formations that result from weathering and erosion of rocks rich in calcium carbonate. The park experiences 200 days a year when nighttime temperatures are below freezing and daytime temperatures are above. All those freeze-thaw cycles contribute to the erosion.

Bryce Canyon hoodoos

Hoodoos

Our only "bad" weather was a rainstorm that conveniently occurred during our dinner in the lodge restaurant. The next morning brought a view of a sparkling stream in the bottom of the canyon and stronger scents of pine at the top.

Stream in Bryce Canyon

The canyon rim is above 8,000 feet, giving spectacular views of the canyon and the rugged Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument beyond.

View from Bryce Canyon rim

Three Arches

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Fri, 01 Nov 2019 20:18:00 +0000

If rocks are the bones of Mother Earth, then we've seen a glimpse of her ribs. Arches National Park in Utah has more than two thousand arches, and we saw only a few during our single day there. The massive sandstones of the region were uplifted and fractured into vertical "fins" like the one Susan is about to hike up (look closely to see two other hikers near the top; hikes in this area aren't recommended for those "uncomfortable with heights". It was a little bit scary).

Sandstone Fins, Arches National Park

After the fins were exposed, erosion carved them into many shapes, including arches. The largest we saw was Landscape Arch, which suffered a large rockfall in 1991. These monumental forms are only temporary.

Landscape Arch, Arches National Park

Other arches aren't as large or graceful, but are still intriguing.

Pine Tree Arch, Arches National Park

And Arches Park is not the only place with them. We hiked to this one in Capitol Reef National Park, also in Utah. It's a strong sandstone above a more-easily eroded stratum, now gone.

Hickman Bridge, Capitol Reef National Park

Two Valleys

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Thu, 31 Oct 2019 12:53:00 +0000

Continuing our tour of the incredible Colorado Plateau (which encompasses nine National Parks and 18 National Monuments), we visited iconic Monument Valley and the magnificently desolate Death Valley. Monument Valley is known for enormous buttes that tower over the landscape.

West Mitten Butte, Monument Valley

Butte, Monument Valley

According to the Park Service Death Valley is the hottest, driest, and lowest of the national parks. Located in the Mojave Desert, it also contains extraordinarily complex geology and land forms. We didn't know what to expect, but we were amazed and thrilled by all we saw.

Badlands from Zabriskie Point, Death Valley

Mosaic Canyon, Death Valley

Badlands and Red Cathedral Rocks, Death Valley

Great Sand Dunes National Park

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Tue, 29 Oct 2019 19:30:00 +0000

Susan and I took our third cross-country drive recently. There's no end to the natural beauty in the U.S. We were delighted by landscapes as varied as the lush rolling cornfields of Iowa and the stark desolation of Death Valley. Last year we visited White Sands National Monument and loved it, so we included more dunes this year. The most magnificent are those in Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado, the tallest in North America at up to 750 feet. We were fortunate to be there for sunrise one morning. It was a very exciting time.

Sunrise, Great Sand Dunes and Sangre de Cristo Mountains

Even in full sun, the dunes are beautifully sinuous. Hiking on them isn't easy but gives you an appreciation of their size (you can see hikers in the lower right corner).

Great Sand Dunes National Monument

Great Sand Dunes 2

The effects of sand movement are also visible at small scale. This is a small "avalanche" of sand flowing down the lee side of a dune from the crest.

Sand Flow on Dune Crest

Only small amounts of vegetation exist in the harsh environment of the dunes.

Dune Plants

Off topic: working with wood

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 20:38:00 +0000

I've recently become interested in woodworking. It all started in 1986 when Susan and I thought we'd like to build a cherry fold-top bar cabinet from a kit. A friend had made a couple kits from an outfit called The Bartley Collection, and they looked good, so we mailed off $300 and received a very heavy package. We opened it, looked at all the lovely cherry pieces and the directions, and put it back in the box.

Thirty-two years later, in 2018, the box had moved with us to our current home where it spent 21 years in the garage. Susan felt it was time to get it done. I thought it was time to donate it. But I lost that argument so I unboxed it all again, read and reread the quaint typewritten directions, took several deep breaths and got started. Very slowly. I had no experience assembling furniture other than IKEA, and this wasn't cheap particle board: it was beautiful solid cherry.

Around that time we were thinking about the antique three-quarters bed in one of our guest rooms. A three-quarters bed is midway in size between a twin and a full, and very uncommon nowadays. Susan's mother had slept in the bed as a child, and so had Susan. The mattress and box spring were falling apart and I couldn't ask guests to sleep on it. So we reluctantly shopped the bed around to our local antique stores. They all said the same thing: "Has it been converted? No? No thanks." "Converted" means widened to fit a full size mattress. Buying a three-quarters mattress isn't easy or cheap, so I understood. I wondered if I could do the conversion myself.

Google led me to kits for exactly that purpose. They are simple metal plates that screw into the headboard and footboard so the side rails can be moved out. Easy! But a closer look at our bed burst that bubble. The bed is a solid wooden box with nice, permanently joined corners. No way was I going to take that apart, especially given its vintage. Now what? It occurred to me that foam mattresses don't need box springs. We sleep very comfortably on a foam mattress on our platform bed. Maybe I could build a platform to sit on top of the bed box and just hang over the sides a couple inches, then buy a foam mattress and be done.

That's what I did. I used a good grade of one-by-fours to make 13 slats, then made side rails of finish grade poplar. I screwed and glued the slats to the rails and put a beeswax finish on the rails. Platform complete. I didn't want to just let it float on the bed box...things could shift if someone sat on the edge or if occupants got bouncy...but I didn't want to make a lot of screw holes in the original wood either. I settled on using a single two-by-four rail running down the center of the bed box and supported by joist hangers on the inside of the headboard and footboard. The platform is screwed to the rail, and the only holes in the original wood are for the joist hanger screws.

That was a fun project and I learned a lot. For one thing, I knew I couldn't cut thirteen slats all exactly the same length by hand. I bought a relatively inexpensive compound miter saw and learned how to rig a fence extension with a stop for cutting all the slats the same. And I learned how nice it is to have a ping pong table as a large flat assembly surface.

Meanwhile the cherry cabinet needed final assembly with dowels and glue. The dowels didn't fit and had to be sanded to a smaller diameter. The assembly involved 10 dowels and six panels, all of which had to be glued, fitted and clamped before the glue set. I rehearsed that process more than once, using a ratchet strap from the garage as a clamp. I breathed a sigh of relief when that was done. But now finish needed to be applied. I decided to use a "satin" (i.e., not too shiny) polyurethane finish. Again I consulted the internet about applying polyurethane and found that opinions vary. It was winter and our garage was cold, but I don't like using solvents in the house so I gave it a try in the cold. Fortunately I started on the interior shelves. They came out a complete mess.

I waited for warmer weather and also bought a space heater to warm up the garage. Finally all the poly coats were done, and the flaws are small enough to live with. Two projects, one simple and one not, were done. Yay!

Susan enters the picture again. She's been an artist forever. In college she loved wood carving. Some of her pieces grace our home. Three walnut logs left over from college graced our garage, too, until one day she decided to let them go. "We can burn them in the fireplace" says she. "Umm", says I, "could I try making something from them?" I had recently purchased an angle grinder and watched people on YouTube carving wood with them. Scared but intrigued I bought some mean-looking wood grinding disks and started making a lot of dust.

It's been fun. I carved a log into a small plant stand, then made three bowls. I've learned to use (and sharpen) Susan's wood gouges and a plane I forgot I had. I've tried different finishes. I've spent a LOT of time with sandpaper. Having read this far (thanks) you've earned a couple pictures.

Walnut plant stand

Three walnut bowls, plus onion

Bed conversion platform

Cherry cabinet, in process

Summer Solstice 2019

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Fri, 21 Jun 2019 15:30:00 +0000

This year the summer solstice is at 11:54 am Eastern (15:54 UTC). Here are three pictures that make me think of summer.

Storm and Tree

Beach at Grand Turk

Lily

Nevis

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Wed, 29 May 2019 18:14:00 +0000

I'd never heard of Nevis, one of the two islands making up the Caribbean nation Saint Kitts and Nevis. Susan and I spent several nights there at the spectacularly beautiful and peaceful Golden Rock Inn. Located on the site of a nineteenth century sugar plantation, it has been transformed into a glorious botanical garden through the vision of the owners, well-known artists Brice and Helen Marden. The lodgings and food are also first-rate. We loved it.

Mango Tree and Vines, Nevis

Philodendron, Nevis

Kapok Tree, Nevis

Green Heron, Golden Rock Inn, Nevis

White Sands

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 20:55:00 +0000

Susan and I traveled west by car again this year, and once again were thrilled by the beauty of our country. One of our favorite spots was White Sands National Monument, in southern New Mexico about 50 miles north of El Paso. It's an area of 275 square miles of gypsum sand, including extensive dune fields, that defy description. The play of light over the dazzling white sands is serene and almost otherworldly. Even amidst the scenic wonders of New Mexico it is a standout.

Dunes and San Andres Mountains, White Sands National Monument, NM

Sand Strata and Yucca, White Sands National Monument, NM

Dunes, White Sands National Monument, NM

Patagonia Landscapes

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Mon, 18 Jun 2018 18:07:00 +0000

The southern reaches of South American are remote and dramatic. Chile and Argentina contain enormous regions of fjords, ice fields, glaciers, mountains and steppe. The weather rapidly changes from sunny to rainy with frequent high winds unobstructed by any other land south of 50 degrees latitude in the southern hemisphere. The Andes run down the western side of the continent and turn east at the southern end. At the southern tip is Cape Horn, a notoriously difficult transit for mariners since the age of sail began. The landscapes reflect the rugged, elemental character of the area.

The sky, rocks, and water in the first image are a case in point. It shows Cerro Paine Grande from the vantage point of Grey Lake below Grey Glacier. It was windy enough to make standing a challenge at times, but our hike across the outwash plane and up and around the hill in the middle ground gave great views of the glacier and of the vegetation that hangs on in that environment.

Cerro Paine Grande, Chile

The breakers and whitecaps in this view of the shore of Grey Lake gives some idea of the wind.

Tree at Lake Grey Shore

Vegetation alternates with bare rock on this nearby hillside.

Hillside near Lake Grey

Chilean Terra del Fuego, Part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:45:00 +0000

More glaciers were in store for us. The Garibaldi Glacier is at the north end of a nearly 2-mile-long fjord. We sailed up the fjord, but steady winds of 35 mph meant no Zodiac excursions that day.

Garibaldi Glacier

Overnight we rounded Tierra del Fuego island and sailed west through Cockburn and Magdalena channels into De Agostini Sound at dawn.

De Agostini National Park from Agostini Sound

Isla Grande Tierra del Fuego from Agostini Sound

The Zodiacs took us to a cobbled beach, where we left our life jackets and hiked to Águila Glacier. It sits above a placid lake surrounded by sub-Antarctic rainforest.

Landing for Águila Glacier

Águila Glacier

Chilean Tierra del Fuego

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Sat, 07 Apr 2018 20:39:00 +0000

After flying into and enjoying a few days in Buenos Aires, we flew south to Ushuaia. It's considered the southernmost city in the world, situated on the north shore of the Beagle Channel at latitude 54°48"S. Across the channel is Chile and the southernmost reaches of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. At Ushuaia we boarded the Ventus Australis, a nearly new expedition ship, and departed at dusk for four days sailing among the fjords and channels.

Ushuaia, Argentina, evening

Early the next morning we donned our rain gear and boarded Zodiacs for a choppy ride to a landing on Cape Horn. We stayed mostly dry until landing, but before stepping ashore a breaker came over the transom and immersed our feet in icy seawater. But with the excitement of hiking up the hills and the wonderful views, we soon forgot our wet feet.

Cape Horn

Later we sailed to Wulaia Bay and climbed through Magellanic forest for an extraordinary view of the bay and our ship at anchor.

Wulaia Bay

Sailing west through the Beagle Channel, we entered the Pia fjord and landed on a cobble beach for a walk to the Pia glacier, one of many that flow from the Darwin mountain range. A hike uphill led to a lovely vantage point.

Pia Glacier and Fjord

Pia Glacier and Darwin Mountains

Sneak Preview: Patagonia

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 21:04:00 +0000

We've returned from a trip to Patagonia, a remote, wild and beautiful region of southern Chile and Argentina. Among the many gorgeous sights are the Andes mountains. We were fortunate to spend time near Torres del Paines national park in Chile; our hotel afforded stunning views of the Cordillera Paine mountain group. The image below was made at sunrise near the hotel.

I typically include several images in a post, but I'm jumping the gun this time because I'm eager to share. I'll post more later.

Kudos to our tour company, Overseas Adventure Travel, and our tour guide Silvana Cohen for running an exceptional trip. And many thanks to our friendly, funny, fascinating fellow travelers for their companionship and insights.

Cordillera Paine and Serrano River, Sunrise

Bad lens, no service from Panasonic

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Fri, 26 Jan 2018 21:49:00 +0000

I've just been through an extremely frustrating experience with Panasonic. My most recent purchase was a Lumix G Vario 12-32mm F3.5-5.6 zoom. I added it my kit consisting of a Lumix GX7 camera body, a Lumix G 20mm F1.7, and a Lumix G Vario 45-150mm F4.0-5.6 zoom.

I've been pleased with the fixed 20mm and the 45-150mm zoom. All of my wildlife shots from our recent Africa trip (like these) used the long zoom, and they were very sharp.

But after using the 12-32mm zoom for several months, it became clear that it just wasn't sharp. I finally did tripod-mounted comparison shots with the 12-32mm and the 20mm, and the results were clear: the 12-32 is soft, both in the center and in the corners.

The lens was still under warranty, so I sent it off to Panasonic for service in November. After five or six phone calls (and none of the promised call-backs), and after sending in the comparison shot files, I was told that there's nothing wrong with the lens, and that comparing the 20mm with the 12-32mm was an "unfair" comparison. Bottom line: no repair, no replacement. They are sending the same lens back to me. Elapsed time: two months. Thanks for nothing.

I purchased the lens because it's small and wide-angle and had glowing comments on the Online Photographer. I've read that sometimes you just get a bad copy of a lens, and that zooms may be especially prone to variations in quality. I guess my luck wasn't good. But I expected better service from Panasonic. Caveat emptor, y'all.

Welcome Winter

noreply@blogger.com (Dean Wight) — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 18:20:00 +0000

The winter solstice occurred at 11:28 am EST (16:28 UTC) December 21, 2017. The days get longer now, so celebrate with light and love on this shortest day.

Tree at Great Falls, MD