More from Cotswolds

Slate roof

House on the hill

Ivy

Cotswolds

A trip to London, should include a day trip to the Cotswolds.

This is my very poor attempt in describing the Cotswolds. The money here is by raising sheep in these hills (Cotswold means sheep hills). It's made up of several small villages with some beautifully kept stone houses, with slate root, or, even older style thatched roof. Since I didn't plan on driving in England, I took a daily tour, and let the driving to the bus driver. We were lucky, the guide was also very good with talking to us, sharing his knowledge with us about this region, people, and history.


Old graveyard by the church.

Union Jack.

Stone path

As the sign would say

London in October

Trip to England - didn't know what to expect, because I have heard good and bad. I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip. I found London is very trendy, more so than NYC I might add. The weather, well, just as advertised, dreary most of the time I was there, until the last 2 days, where the sun actually came out and greeted people. Speaking of people, I found most were warm and very helpful to tourists. I would highly recommend a trip to England when ever you get a chance. Oh, the food, it's 50/50, :)


Covent Garden Square

Street Performer

Tips appreciated

Paella Vendor - a little on the salty side.

TaiPei-Shimendin

Shimen, meaning West Gate in Chinese, is a vibrant shopping/nightlife district in Taipei. It used to be a hot spot in Taipei when I was living there, but it has changed somewhat.

As I indicated, this place is known for night life, so 9 o'clock in the morning, this place is fairly dead.

I thought this was pedestrian only, until I saw a truck run by..

Multipurpose Scooter, it can be a station wagon or a pickup/delivery truck.

Signs everywhere.

it's been awhile

It's been awhile since I posted anything here on this blog. A lot has happened:
sold the house in Flagstaff with a loss; moved back to Florida; downsized to a smaller place; trip to England, then another trip to Taiwan. Keeping myself busy at best.

Will be posting mmore pictures from my trips.
Here are some from Taiwan:

This is an art district in Taipei, from converted old factories into an art village. The whole place has plenty of artsy fartsy feel to it.
For this trip, I used my newly acquired Panasonic LX5, along with my old trusty Pentax DL camera. The DL is there as a spare, just in case I don't like the performance of the LX5. Well, after this trip, I have decided that the LX5 is a wonderful camera that I can use for all my trips, I will no longer take the bulkier DSLRs on my vacation trips!

Down the hall..

Election time in Taiwan. Well, it is just crazy time, but similar to politics in the US. lots of name calling and the usual craziness, and no one really talks about the issues..

Dunedin Brewery - Wednesday Open Mic Night

Dunedin Brewery is a popular hang out place in Dunedin, FL. Every Wednesday night is the open mic night, where bands, groups show up for 4 songs a piece. I was really impressed with the quality of the performances they put up. It's a nice place to hang out after work.
Please drink responsibly.

Schultz Fire

Just the day after the Hardy Fire, this afternoon had another bad fire going on north of Mount Eldon. This one quickly got out of control, and the wind was really blowing hard today.

Just starting out

The smoke quickly climbed up.

Lots of smoke.

We could see flame from this angle, people call it crowning, where fire are on top of the forest, not just the low grassy area. 6 hours later, the smoke has not died down, and the planes from yesterday looks like are grounded today due to high wind.

I hope everyone in the region is OK.

Hardy Fire

This fire was fairly close to our neighborhood. We were on alert for possible evacuation, while 2 other neighborhoods were evacuated.

The fire fighters really fought this one hard, the planes and choppers were busy all day yesterday, since it wasn't too windy. By this morning, the smoke were pretty well contained. Whew. Really apprciate all the hard work by all the fire fighters.

We didnt' get as much smoke by our house, but just down the hill, by the driving range, the smoke really filled the air.

this was a close call.

Taipei at Night

Taipei City - Taipei is a very busy city, with population of around 2.6 millions people. The city gets pretty crowded during the night, with people walking, buses, fancy cars, taxis, and the countless scooters taking up the roads.

Cars every where, I don't think I'll drive in Taiwan, too scary for me.

There are several types of cars that I have not seen in the states before, lots of micro vans, that I don't think will meet the safety guideline in US, but newer models of Suzuki Swift, which looks like a rally car, are plentiful.

Eating out, at a popular branch restaurant that serves noodles.

Shopping Center - SOGO. I think it's a Japanese department store. We went there mainly for the kick ass food court, :).

Then and Now

Another one from the archive - same park. it's now called 228 Memorial Park.

The building seen in the picture above is still standing. I am sure the water was green back then also.....

Then and Now

Stone/Concrete bridge in the "New Park" in Taipei. Not much has changed, perhaps maybe it needs a good power wash, :)

Sans the model..

Compared to a picture from 1973.....