I look at scenes like this and wonder. This is the side of an old barn, and apparently someone decided a light fixture was needed on the side of the barn, and they had a spare one that might work. So up it went. And it likely worked. Maybe for a long time. But it's obvious this wasn't done by an electrician.

And still the barn didn't burn down.

We left the parking lot in absolute darkness. I was probably still wiping the sleep from my eyes, and we began driving toward our vantage point for dawn. We drove for more than 30 minutes on what seemed like the top of the world. We stopped and began to set up our gear. It was cold and windy. The color in the sky began to happen even before the sun would show itself. Soon it looked like the sky was on fire. Although I was still cold, I was thrilled at the sight. This is West Virginia.

This photo is scanned from a slide, taken by our friend Keith, that was damaged by flood water in Colorado. It's from a few years back, but it makes me smile. Today is our wedding anniversary. I thought about sharing that info in our Sunday School class yesterday, but we've been married longer than some of the folks in our class have been alive. So I didn't want to reveal that we might be older than they realize. Actually, we were kids when we got married, not fully aware of what all that "I do" meant. But we've made it this far. And we are blessed and happy, after 47 years.

It was a rainy Friday evening at the Godfrey UCC Church. My mother, sister and brother were there. (My mother had to give permission for me at the courthouse since I was under 21). It was a small wedding. My best friend Bob Griffin was my best man and Mary LaGudice was the maid of honor. They were our only friends present. And Judy's family was there. Judy made her wedding dress. And we spent our wedding night in an "expensive motel", and I left the key in the door!

Excuse my sense of humor. I thought it was funny last week to see this large crow, summoning all of its bluster, enthusiastically calling to the sky with dozens of blackbirds observing on the other limbs. From this distance, I could not tell if they were ignoring or listening to the crow.

Today is the third Sunday after Epiphany. The gospel lesson is Mark 1:14-20 which describes Jesus calling two pair of brothers, Simon and Andrew, and James and John, to be his disciples. Mark records that the response of each pair to Jesus' invitation to "come and follow him" is immediate.  The person of Jesus and/or his invitation was so compelling that the fishermen exhibit no hesitancy to leave their nets to follow Jesus. They immediately drop their current, familiar responsibilities to embark on a totally new journey. Mark gives us no clue as to whether the fishermen had a prior relationship with Jesus, nor to any of the rationale why they would do such a thing. The emphasis here is on the call of Jesus and the immediate response of the fishing brothers. The direction of their lives, their loyalties, were changed in an instant. The impact of the call on their lives was profoundly immediate. Nothing would be the same again.

Maybe my photo isn't such a joke. The listeners hear something profound, and are captured by the vision they hear, and the change that is imagined.

This photo of mine appeared earlier this week in SightPsalms, a daily visual devotional ministry of The Upper Room. I took this photo last January in my backyard. Earlier in the morning, everything had been shrouded in a winter fog, and then the sun broke through the eastern sky and illuminated this tree as if it was spotlighted. Suddenly there was depth to the scene, which made the image.

I certainly hoped to see and photograph cactus when we visited Arizona. Saguaro cactus is probably the icon of the Arizona desert. I had seen photos of them against sunsets or scattered over mountainsides. I didn't know that the Saguaro blossom is the state flower of the state. They are often huge, even though the cactus grows slowly, adding their first "arm" after 50 years. Saguaros are a protected plant as it is illegal in the state to transplant or destroy them.

This week I am sharing images from Arizona that I shot on slide film. The location for this photo is the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This is a male Gila Woodpecker (I think). It's small red cap is just barely visible. For these birds, a cactus provides the same functions as trees elsewhere in the country: places to perch, nesting, and boring in them to find insects. Trees look definitely more hospitable, but I guess you have to use what is available. Using a long lens and a shallow depth of field result in the cactus at either side of the frame to be blurred, emphasizing and repeating the center cactus.

This a portion of the Granite Dells near Prescott, Arizona. When we visited the area, it was quite obvious that the water level in Watson Lake was low and had been low for some time. Revealed was some intriguing rock formations that resembled all kinds of creatures. It was a good place to wander and contemplate the wonders of the earth. Later I read that uranium is present in significant levels here. And that there is a legend that gold is buried somewhere in the formations and it has never been found. And right near the left center, is that the head of one of the seven dwarfs?