WHERE THE SEA MEETS THE SHORE

There's always something going on...
On my last day in Sri Lanka, Luke and I did a quick trip 'down south'... I wanted to bid farewell to the beach and try for a few new wave pix... A magical day!

  



















70% sea water... 
No wonder we gravitate to the ocean...

                                                                    

True Aloha... 
Tom :^)

BOYS TO MEN...

I love these guys!

No fist fights,
No bloody noses.
Way to go guys,
Thanks for stopping by.    :^)

SUPER MOM!

She can dish it out...

 ...and she can take a punch!  :^)

I LIKE FLOWERS...OK?!!

                                              TT   :^)

HOW DOES YOUR GARDEN GROW?

It must be the homeboy in me...seems like when I stick something in the ground, I'm committed to helping it prosper to the end...

especially when it's feeding me and providing inspiration...

Lush
Green &
Beautiful

The Good Life

with much appreciation :^)

TAKE A HIKE...

 



Big rains on the Great Plains lately...
Wonderful for most growing things, but water rising everywhere makes for unique challenges and some different points of view...

                                  I never saw it quite like this before...

Storm clouds still rising...
:^)   Tom

STICK MAN

Richard Russell's World of Wonder...

Wild Thing!

 You make everything...Groovy...

 

Here are some highlights in Richard's garden of joy. This place is alive!

                         Ain't nature grand?
                                          :^) Tom

A NICE LITTLE GIG...

I was asked to provide art for the lobby entrance and board room at the beautiful new digs for the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce. These people have exceptionally good taste and keen perceptions. They were great to work with and the project was a fun one start to finish... Having just completed the hanging, here I am in the lobby with "Our Lincoln" to my left...

 And here is "Heartland"...

If you are ever in Lincoln, stop on over...
It's nice to be seen...
                                   :^)  Tom

SEASONS AND CHANGES...

We've been down this road before...

A good time to restore...
To be made whole again...   :^)  Tom

JUST PASSING THROUGH...

On the way home...
We decided to pull off and pay our respects to the family farm near Nebraska City where my mother grew up. I had big adventures there and spent a lot of time dreaming big dreams as a kid...
It has come to a sad end... Once vibrant and meaningful, where so many of our lives had overlapped, it is now deserted and abandoned, a monument to the end of an era...

Gone are the old days of the thriving dairy requiring horse drawn trips to the river in wintertime to harvest blocks of ice... and trips to Omaha with loads of cattle or hay. The cattle are long gone from the lot next to the barn where pigeons roosted and wee ones played all day in the hay. Gone are the chickens, the dogs and Uncle Bud's girls running all around...the reunions... Gone are the smells and the characters coming out of the kitchen where five generations would sometimes cross paths in the course of a single busy day...

Gone are the storytellers of not so famous Cowboys and Indians, of heroes and crack shots...of Aunt Tudie, truly famous for her State Fair blue ribbon jams and jellies, not to mention her crossword puzzle domination! My Grandpa's sidesplitting jokes and my Grandmother's regal ways...seeing glory in nature and all living things. In another life she is surely a Queen!

Gone are the quilters, the burly field hands, the strong willed, multi-skilled women, and long days in the field on the tractor... the milk house, the tool shed, the cave, gathering eggs from the hen house and berries from the garden... 
All are gone... 
All the homies have moved on...

 It was only a brief stop, igniting a flood of memories...

These are the days of timeless treasures,
You've got to hold them in your heart...

We headed on home, each silently wondering...What was that all about?!!!
Roots are important... Tom  :^)