A View From The Past

It's actually two views. The drawing is from early 1975. As far as my recollection goes, at the time she was a soon-to-be architect who would regularly stop by my office. It was during one of those visits that my friend got ahold of this invoice atop my desk and silently, while I dispossed of the stuff that usually comes across your daily work, drew on the back of the receipt. Vanity of course made me store it! Just a few months later, while interviewing a foreign visitor tape recorder in hand, my photographer snapped the pix above. Almost as if, I now think, he had been looking at my friend's drawing.

Rainbowing to Beauty

It was, as happens with all rainbows, spectacular! After getting soaked in a heavy downpour on the way home after work, with the sky still overcast, the setting sun was powerful enough to filter through the rain and create this beautiful view.
UPDATE: Two is of course always better than just one! Same location, just a few days later! Again sheltered from the rain at the same corner gas station and lo an behold, just as the sun is setting this time is not one but two rainbows! You can't be more fortunate than that! [Because mine is not the best professional camera out there, jiggled the brightness a bit on the same shot to highlight where the second rainbow appeared. The unmodified pix is on top, the "retouched" one immediately below.]

Earth Day-v

Everybody knows that Memorial Day here in the US is the unofficial start of Summer. For subtropical South Florida es also the beginning of Hurricane Season, those dreaded six months of being constantly on the lookout, of wondering whether this one tropical disturbance being born faraway off the Western shores of Africa will turn out to be the punishing storm that will make your life miserable — not talking here of the actual landing of the storm, but the torture of listening to the weather reports for hours on end.
Just before the rains come, we are all treated to one of the most beautiful sights: the flowering of the royal poincianas (also called flamboyant) trees. For at least a few weeks, before the bloom fades and the rains and the wind slowly manage to cover the ground with a red carpet, the "tree of fire" (as it is also known) brightens the landscape.