twin sun worshippers

twin sun worshippers

on Pachamama's lap, faces

turned to Tayta Inti

What a treat, a whole afternoon on Castle Beach on Lake Titicaca, beginning with a ceremony led by Amaru, our Inka shaman guide, to welcome us to step into the sacred lake, followed by a picnic lunch, games and just wandering the beach. So nice to slow down and do nothing after days of traveling, just lying on the warm rocks, soaking up the rays of Tayta Inti, Father Sun, on the lap of Pachamama, Earth Mother.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day,

hundreds of flags fill the square,

vet proudly posing

Memorial Day, national day of remembrance. All of my uncles served in the military during World War II. My father, a chemist, was considered too valuable to draft, so he stayed home and worked for the government on a secret project. My Uncle Harry went into the Air Force and qualified to be a pilot or a navigator. After pilot training, he opted for navigator training, which would take another six months and allow him more time with his new bride. His plane was shot down over Italy. They landed unharmed near a village, not knowing what their reception might be, but were welcomed as liberators. My uncle, not used to drinking wine, got drunk and fell into the water trough. Uncle Harry could have passed for Clark Gable and we kids idolized him as a dashing, romantic hero. Fortunately, all of my uncles came back alive and in one piece, though none of them would ever talk about painful memories of the war.

black on white habit

black on white habit, 

a nun looks back before

entering the door

In Cusco, the look of concern on this nun's face as she pauses before entering a door makes me wonder what could possibly cause her to worry. Catholicism, brought by the Spanish conquistadors, is still the predominant religion in Peru and the Roman Catholic Church is greatly supported the government. The Church is largely tax-exempt and many clergy receive monthly government stipends. Catholicism is the official religion of the military and the only religion taught in public schools. However, indigenous people, like many throughout the world, have adapted Catholic deities and festivals to their own beliefs and customs. The Inka Viracocha, the Creator, is identified with the Christian God, and Pachamama, the Earth Mother, with the Virgin Mary. Fiestas often occur on Catholic feast days, but often coincide with precolonial festivals tied to the agricultural calendar. Thus, beliefs come to coexist and blend together.

cherimoyas, green

cherimoyas, green

serpent scale skin, big black seeds,

custard pulp, tangy sweet

Cherimoyas, strange looking, but one of my favorite Andean fruit, and I'm in good company. Mark Twain called it "the most delicious fruit known to men." Inside the dragon skin, the pulp has the texture of sherbet and tastes like pineapple-banana, but also a lot of hard black seeds. Cherimoyas remind me of another of my favorites, American persimmons. When ripe, they have a delicious flavor and soft pulp filled with large hard seeds. While I am admiring the texture and color of this unusual fruit at the Pisac feria, a young couple comes up to look them over. The man says in French to his companion, "Qu'est-ce que c'est?"  She says, "Je ne sais pas." Remembering my French I say, "Cherimoya, fruits délicieux." They both smile at me and the vendor smiles at me as we all make our purchases.

eating purple grapes

 

eating purple grapes 

and peaches from her wheelbarrow

watched by curious dog

This fruit vendor has set up shop on the corner of a street in Pisac. The dog looks eagerly at the piles of grapes, perhaps wishing he could sample some too. Her old wheelbarrow, lined with red and blue plastic, and the pink plastic shopping bags create a bright tableau for the purple grapes and yellow peaches. The adobe wall behind her, its pink paint pitted down to the clay bricks looks like an abstract painting, contrasting with the neat design of the stone street.

bluebird with beak full

bluebird with beak full

of fine long grasses gathered

for lining her nest

Diane Porter took this adorable photo of a bluebird carrying an amazing load of grass to her nest. How could she gather so much grass in her tiny beak? Did she pick up each stem one by one? What would keep them from falling out when she picked up the next one? Or did she manage to scoop the entire bundle up at once? The incongruity of a bird with what appears to be long whiskers makes me wonder if she might have been a cat in her last life, perhaps a cat that caught a little bluebird on the way to her nest.

girl with red balloon

girl with red balloon

in her mouth peeking between

double wooden doors

There is magic in sudden seeing. A moment before, only worn wooden doors set in an unadorned adobe wall. The next moment, one of the doors opens a crack and a little girl, dwarfed by the tall doors, peeks out, holding a red balloon in her mouth. It's like opening an old wooden chest and discovering hidden treasure, a star ruby set in a bracelet of sapphires.

milk snake curving back

milk snake curving back

on sinuous red blotches,

checkerboard belly

Werner Elmker took this photo of a beautiful milk snake he came across in the evening on the trail near the arched bridge over the highway on the outskirts of town. I have occasionally encountered these reclusive snakes, but had never seen the black-and-white checkerboard belly. Once in early spring I pulled back a piece of cardboard mulch in the garden and found a milk snake curled up on top of her clutch of eggs. My grandmother claimed that a milk snake would sneak into the barn and "milk" the Jersey cow at night. However, snakes drink only water and it's hard to imagine any cow putting up with those sharp teeth! If a milk snake is in a barn, it's probably hunting for rodents, its main diet. The milk snake, a type of kingsnake, is nonvenomous and kills by constriction, unlike the coral snake, its poisonous look-alike. Coral snakes are not found in Iowa but are found in the Ozarks where our family vacationed. My father taught us how to distinguish friend from foe with the old adage, "red and yellow, kill a fellow, red and black, venom lack." Milk snakes are partially immune to the venom of poisonous snakes in their range, such as the timber rattlesnake, and will kill one if they meet, unless the rattler manages to defend itself by means other than biting.

blue doors, azure wall

blue doors, azure wall,

boy in orange jacket and pants,

bushy-tailed orange dog

The blue so often seen on doors in Peru is the same color as the water of Lake Titicaca: ultramarine, sapphire, cobalt, lapis lazuli. The aqua paint on the wall, also a favorite color, is seen in everything from aquamarine plastic bags to electric blue plastic tarps and turquoise plastic pails. On the color wheel orange is opposite blue, and when they are together they not only complement but also compliment each other. The mango orange of the boy's clothes and the burnt sienna of the dog's fur pop out in delightful contrast with the blue doors. This combination of blue and orange reminds me of the intense cerulean of the sky and the persimmon buffalo grass in autumn on our farm in the Flint Hills of Kansas. When we moved into our stone house, built in 1840, I wanted to bring the outside inside, so I painted the walls prairie grass orange and the ceiling sky blue.

mouth of a serpent

mouth of a serpent

spouting water from a stream

zigzaging uphill

Lost in the maze of the Pisac feria, I turn a corner into an open passage, relieved that I have found my way out of the labyrinth, and nearly stumble into the mouth of a serpent at my feet. The realistic stone head is spouting water into a little pool lined with round stones. A water channel set into diamond paving stones and edged with triangular mosaics of small round pebbles comprises its body. The channel runs zigzag down a very long, narrow street. A triciclo is parked not too far away, between the channel and the adobe wall, and a woman in traditional costume, with a striped k'eperina over one shoulder, is walking toward me up the hill. I stand and stare at the serpent for a long time. There is a mystery here which I cannot grasp. My eyes tell me that the water is spouting up from the serpent's mouth but the street into with the water channel is sloping down. It is like a painting by M.C. Escher. My confused mind scrambles for a logical explanation of this apparent contradiction. There must be a pump under the serpent's head that forces water up from a well or cistern, and the channel is merely for draining rainwater down the hill, as I have seen on many other sloped streets. But the mind-boggling impression remains. Perhaps this is its purpose, to take the mind beyond, into the realm of Amaru, the Cosmic Serpent.

sacred Inka choclo

sacred Inka choclo,

maize of many colors, black,
yellow, pink, white, red

Maize, called choclo in Quechua, was the most revered food of the Inkas, who saved their best terraced land for growing this symbol of power. Maize, like squash, anku, and beans, chuwi, was cultivated as early as 10,000 years ago in Mesoamerica. In the milk stage it is roasted in the husk or boiled on the cob. When dried it is popped or ground into meal or flour. There are 35 heirloom varieties, many of them quite high in protein.

heart of winter squash

 

 heart of winter squash

displayed on a wooden crate

with a carving knife

Late March in Peru, the end of autumn, and the feria in Pisac is full of the bounteous harvest, like this giant Blue Hubbard Squash, which may have originally weighed as much as 40 pounds (18 kg). Although this specimen of squash ( Cucurbita maxima) has been cut up for immediate consumption, winter squash is so called because it can be cured to harden the skin and stored all winter. The mottled blue gray skin is covered with warty bumps but the dense marigold flesh has a delicate flavor. Squashes are native to the Americas. They may have been first cultivated in Mesoamerica 8,000 to 10,000 years ago, at a time when cave dwellers were beginning to grow squashes along with beans, chili peppers and agave. The Spanish explorer, Francisco Pizarro, discovered winter squashes in Peru and brought seeds back to his country. Almost the entire plant is edible: blossoms, immature fruit, seeds, tender new growth stem ends and leaves, as well as the mature fruit.

white hat and white braids

white hat and white braids,

a vendor smiles at white papas

and red camotes

This is the first woman I have seen in Peru with white hair, though her smooth face gives her an ageless appearance. She is wearing a traditional sombrero de paja, a tall straw hat. These tightly woven hats may take a month to weave and can cost as much as a farmer makes in a year. She is selling several kinds of potatoes, white, red, yellow, orange, sweet, even a strange little gray variety. The Andeans still grow several hundred varieties of potatoes.

waiting for shoppers

waiting for shoppers

a vendor sits among squash,

carrots, striped ponchos

This vendor at the big Sunday Pisac farmer's market is quite modern in her appearance, from unbraided hair to hoodie, rolled-up jeans and canvas shoes. Yet she is surrounded by traditional hand-woven ponchos, heirloom squash, a bundle of cilantro and small, sweet Andean carrots. Ah, those delicious little carrots!

roses on her hat

roses on her hat

a woman selects carrots

at the feria

Being a hat person, I love the way this woman at the Pisac farmer's market has decorated her hat with fresh red roses. At one of the open shops in the feria, I purchased a beautiful deep teal hat with a round crown, made of felted alpaca, for fifteen Soles, about $5.00. When I got home, I decorated the front with red silk roses.

chicha morado

chicha morado

a girl selling rainbow paints

her mother knitting

One of the booths at the big Sunday farmer's feria in Pisac is so electrifying that I stand for a long time just drinking in the colors. The girl, of course, tries to sell me some of her colored pigments or a cup of chicha morada, a delicious drink made from choclo morado, purple maize boiled with pineapple rind, cinnamon and clove and then mixed with sugar and lemon. Both women and men may be seen knitting, often while walking.

waiting for turistas

waiting for turistas

indigenas in costumes

pose for a foto

Wherever there are tourists, as at this big open-air market in Pisac, there are bound to be groups of women and children dressed in bright native costumes, waiting for a camera to turn their way and then politely asking for Soles in return. Indigenas everywhere in Peru wear the striped shoulder cloths called k'eperinas, but each locality has its own distinct traditional dress, like this group from the Ausangate region. The girls are wearing elaborately adorned wool jackets called juyuna, flounced skirts called polleras and hats that look like lampshades. The boy wears a traditional cap with flaps called a chollo, but the rest of his outfit is modern. The costumes are certainly eye-catching, but if that's not enough to entice the photographer, one of the children will cradle a puppy or a baby llama and the woman will carry a baby on her back. From what I'm told, sometimes the woman will borrow a baby as part of her props. Still, it seems to be a fairly harmless and rather charming way to earn some income, especially since they don't follow the tourist around with hands outstretched.

spotted shelf mushrooms

spotted shelf mushrooms

bursting through the rugged wood

of a hickory stump

This old hickory stump, stripped of bark, is still sturdy enough to stand upright for years, but every spring the soft shelf mushrooms burst through the tough wood, pouring out in profusion, with brown spotted caps and a layer of white tubes forming the stem. Last year's bracket fungi have hardened into curled pieces like old saddle leather. Polypores grow only on or from wood and are typically leathery or woody, but this species is fleshy enough to be quite edible. My father, an expert mushroom hunter, used to saute them in butter and we kids gobbled them up.

Cusco feria

Cusco feria 

a girl in native costume

Foto? Porfina!

In Cusco the little markets, feria, are filled with women and girls dressed in colorful traditional costumes. Of course, we immediately start taking photos and the response from the enterprising females is to ask for a tip. This is completely in the Inka trading tradition of "something given, something received." I have brought a huge box of crayons from home and the girls are happy to receive a couple of bright colors in exchange, but the women sometimes persist in asking for one Soles, about 30 cents U.S.

five goslings marching

five goslings marching 

in a row guarded on both

ends by their parents

When I saw these Canada Geese on Adams' pond, about five miles from our place, I thought they might be the ones who went missing from the many little ponds in our neck of the woods, but when I looked closely I counted five goslings instead of four. Perhaps this is the same pair of geese who raised a family on this pond last year. When I first saw this flock, they were standing on the lawn, the parents guarding the youngsters while they nibbled grass. As soon as I stopped, the parents herded their offspring to the pond and they all paddled away to the far side. The goslings have grown quite a lot but are still covered with down and their stubby wings are unable to fly, so safety lies in vigilant parents and a big, sheltered pond.

temple of the sun

 
temple of the sun

resonates with the golden

flute of the traveler

Paul Horn, known as the Traveler, played his flute in the Temple of the Sun at Machu Picchu. He has also played in many sacred spaces around the world, including the Taj Mahal, the Grand Canyon, the Potala and Mt. Kailash in Tibet, the Great Pyramid at Giza, and with orca whales. It was "Inside" his recording in the Taj Mahal in 1968 that launched the genre of New Age music. Paul was with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, in 1967, at the same time as the Beatles and Donovan, and he became one of Maharishi's first teachers of Transcendental Meditation. This year Paul played in the Golden Dome on the campus of Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa. His soulful melodies on a golden flute reverberated in the atmosphere of deep, lively silence that permeates the Golden Dome.

money from a wall

money from a wall

jeans and striped k'eperinas

baseball caps and braids

Jiron Lima, the wide pedestrian street in Puno, is filled with shops and restaurants, locals and tourists, modern and traditional styles, street vendors and money that slides out from a slot in a wall.

on the bed golden

on the bed golden

mats of totora reeds made of

mud, water, sunlight

The bed I am sleeping on at the hospedaje on Isla Amantani has a frame made of mango-colored wood and a double mat of totora reeds, harvested from the lake, dried and braided together along the edges. The resilient mats are very comfortable to sleep on and give off an earthy fragrance that reminds me of wheat straw. Despite the altitude, a thunderstorm and an early wake-up call, I sleep well on Mother Nature's gifts.

retrofit wiring

retrofit wiring

hangs from thick adobe on

a remote island

Isla Amantani in Titicaca Cocha is a four-hour boat ride from Puno. The islanders have recently installed solar panels that are able to generate a limited amount of electricity. At the hospedaje where we are staying, we have one light bulb hanging from the ceiling, but the wall socket is dead and the two toilets in the courtyard are lit at night by a single candle placed on the dividing wall. The wiring running along an adobe wall and hanging down from a nail may or may not be functional. It would certainly cause an electrician back home to shudder. Yet the sinuous black lines contrasting with the white box and the rough brown adobe with the smooth white plaster work well as modern art.

forged iron, whittled stick

forged iron, whittled stick

joined together to secure

a plain wooden door

The latch on this door in Temple of the Moon pueblo is meant to keep it closed, yet anyone could easily remove the stick to gain entrance. It is a study in contrasts. The stick thrust through the latch is rather flimsy and rough compared with the forged iron. But the simple iron latch, though much stronger and more elegantly designed, is a bit rusted and nicked around the edges. The wooden door is covered with scratches, grooves, stains, and marked by a knot in one of the boards. The simplicity, imperfections and transience create an earthy beauty that the Japanese call wabi sabi.

high on a white wall

high on a white wall

a small window filled with bundles

blocking the view

Windows are usually designed to let light in and allow those inside to see out, though not always those outside to see in. This small window placed high on a white adobe wall seems designed to allow a view of the main street of the pueblo, while disallowing a view inside. However, the pile of bundles would make it difficult for anyone to see out. The entire place feels unusually empty and quiet for an Andean pueblo: no mototaxis, no triciclos, no people, no dogs, not even chickens roaming the street. Perhaps everyone is taking a siesta, or out working in the fields and pastures. Later, we do see two women and then a group of children coming home from school. But even then, silence prevails. Perhaps it is the influence of the temple of the moon on the mountain above the pueblo, a place of deep solitude and silence.

a weathered blue wall

a weathered blue wall

on an adobe house

is more than a wall

I am soaking wet from head to toe, my Goretex hiking boots squishing with water from my fully-clothed immersion in the waterfall at the temple of the moon, and muddy from our hike down the mountain to wait for a bus. Now it's raining and we're plastered against a wall under a narrow overhang, sitting on sacks of quinoa. Antwan produces an incredibly ripe mango and I use Amaru's knife to slice it up to share with everyone, including a couple of chickens who snatch up the fallen bits. Now my hands are sticky with orange pulp and I am as a happy as a child making mud pies. Across the street there is an adobe house painted the color of the Andean sky when it's not raining. As I gaze at the wall, I see snow falling on snow-covered peaks, and then, floating in the azure sky, the letter "P," and further to the right, "L," and below and between, "S." It is like a pentimento, where the artist has painted over the original painting and later the previous version begins to bleed through. In the same way, memories and fantasies seep through surface thoughts, coloring them with a unique and mysterious melange.

JUNTOS and the flag

JUNTOS and the flag

painted on every door in 

moon temple pueblo

While we are waiting in this small pueblo to be rescued from our bus stuck in the mud, children in school uniforms begin arriving and walking up the long, wide street to their homes, to enter doors painted with JUNTOS below a red and white flag. Juntos means "together" and I wondered if it was some sort of political campaign slogan. I always thought junta was a small, secret group united for a common purpose, but the signs on the doors are anything but secret and the Peruvian flag seems to indicate a national association. I find out from our guides that Juntos is a national program created in 2008 to support Peru's poorest households. Each family receives 100 soles (about $30 US) per month in cash after agreeing to send their children to school and provide them with basic healthcare. For many women it is the first time they ever held 100 soles in their hands at one time. Many people invest the money to generate more income for their families, so it is a win-win situation for everyone.

moon temple pueblo

moon temple pueblo –

white crescents cascading down

adobe brick wall

The temple of the moon, on a hill beneath a mountain, is a magical place, and even the little pueblo at the foot of the hill is full of mystery, like this adobe wall beneath a tile roof. Someone has painted some words on the brick wall and over the words, a series of overlapping white crescents, the paint dripping down and nearly obscuring the letters. I can make out "Altalde" below the crescents, but not the letters above. Is this a political slogan? The presidential election is about to take place and the names of candidates and parties are painted on walls everywhere. But if this is a name, did someone purposefully cover it up? The white paint looks like crescent moons, and the temple of the moon on the hillside above is dedicated to the mysterious, changeable feminine aspect. The roof tiles repeat the feminine curves of the crescents. The entire wall looks like an abstract painting, an act of creativity, intensely feminine.

a laughing baby

a laughing baby

playfully held high above

mama's beaming face

Peru is a place of the heart, the heart of Pachamama, Earth Mother, and this quality of motherly love is very evident in this scene. A young mother, sitting in front of a shop in Aguas Calientes, is enjoying playing with her baby, smiling up at him as she holds him above her head. And each time she lifts him up, the baby lets out a delighted laugh.

between the train tracks

between the train tracks

and hot springs a young mother

nurses her baby

Beyond bearing a baby, the most intimate act of motherhood is nursing. This young mother is sitting outside her little shop on the steep street that leads from the train tracks to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes, quietly feeding her infant, completely at ease while all sorts of people pass by.

mama with bebe

mama with bebe

wrapped in a red k'eperina

snug against her heart

This mother and baby are standing in the pedestrian street outside the school with its colorful murals. She is carrying her baby in a k'eperina, Quechua for a handwoven rectangular cloth used for carrying children and other goods. Often red, with intricate striped designs, it is used by both men and women, even by those who wear modern dress, like this young mother in jeans and a sweater. The baby wears a hand knit chullo on his head. This first cap is traditionally knit by his father and the color white indicates that the baby is a boy.

blue door, yellow wall

blue door, yellow wall –

reflections of sky and sun 

transform wood and clay

We are on the bus, leaving Cusco for our destination in the Sacred Valley. Fascinated by the colors and textures of the buildings, I keep up a steady barrage of snapshots, hoping to capture a small fragment of the passing scenery. I am always amazed by a lucky catch like this one. The bright blue paint on the worn wooden door and the ocher plaster on the adobe wall bring the essence of the Andean sky and sun down to earth. So it is with earth-bound humans, always reaching for what lies beyond.

Urubamba market

Urubamba feria –

two women in monteras

chatting in Quechua

Each area of Peru has a distinct traditional costume. These women at a street market in Urubamba are wearing tall-crowned monteras, one of felted alpaca and the other of woven straw. The style of these hats may have originated with the Spanish colonists and are worn by both men and women. The full skirts may also be of colonial derivation. The women wear several layers of polleras, as many as five for special occasions. The woman on the right wears a chuspa hanging from her waist, a small pouch used for carrying coca leaves or corn. She also has a red k'eperina on her back, a rectangular woven cloth tied with a knot in front, used like a backpack. The women are chatting in Quechua, the most widely spoken Amerindian language. The people who speak this language refer to themselves as Runa, "the people," and their language is Runasimi, "language of the people."

life's little hurdles

life's little hurdles –

climbing over a fence to chase

a pig in the mud

After the bus got stuck in the mud high on the hill, we walked down to the highway to wait for another bus to pick us up. A little pueblo is stretched out on the lower part of the hill. It starts to rain so we take shelter under an overhanging roof. While I am looking over the adobe wall next door at all the laundry getting wet, I spot a black pig trotting under the clothes line. Then a woman climbs over a low fence and chases the pig through the muddy yard. Life in a pueblo is lived out in the open and close to the earth, sometimes literally in the mud.

Pachatata sunrise

Pachatata sunrise –

a yachac offers Inti

red and yellow flowers

On the twin peaks of Amantani Isla in Titicaca Cocha, there are two temples, one to Pachamama, Earth Mother, and one to Pachatata, Earth Father. We begin our climb to Pachatata temple at 4:30 am in order to arrive before dawn. At the ancient stone temple, our Inka medicine men prepare for the sunrise ceremony. They have brought their flutes, yachac headdresses, and bags of coca leaves and kutata blossoms. They gather petals from a yellow wildflower growing on the hillside, thanking each flower for its offering. With the flowers they create a beautiful pattern on the ground in front of the temple gate, forming a double circle with the yellow petals to represent Inti, the Sun god, and a double heart with the tubular red blossoms for Pachamama, Inti's wife. As the rays of the sun stream out between the sapphire lake and the blue-gray clouds, Amaru leads us in a ceremony to greet the life-giving light.

t'ikas on her braids

t'ikas on her braids

a vendor waits by her cart

of many colors

Punenos, the inhabitants of Puno, love bright colors, especially brilliant turquoise. Here it is seen in the tall shop-on-wheels and even the waste basket and plastic bag next to the cart. The large t'ikas on the ends of the vendor's long black braids are typical of southern Peru. She is standing in the narrow calle near our hotel, while her precious cart barely straddles the narrow sidewalk. Puno hugs the shore of Lake Titicaca, the largest lake in the world above 2,000 m. The founding of Puno dates back to the late seventeenth century after the discovery of silver mines in the area. Beautifully crafted silver jewelry is readily available in many shops, although prices are steadily rising as the supply of silver declines.

a ball in each hand

a ball in each hand

a street peddler balances

a pole hung with toys

One of the more ingenious street peddlers I've seen in Peru, this man is carrying a pole overflowing with inflatable plastic toys, including a can of Coca-Cola. In addition to the pole, he is wearing a bulging red backpack on his chest and holding a striped ball in each hand. He looks as cheerful as his wares as he strolls along Jiron Lima, the wide pedestrian-only street in Puno.

woman in red skirt

woman in red skirt

entering a turquoise door in

a mango courtyard

On Amantani Isla we are staying at a charming hospedaje run by a local family. The paneled wooden doors radiate the same intense turquoise as the sky above Titicaca Cocha, and the earth-plastered walls exude the color of ripe mango. While I am washing up at the communal sink, a woman in a red skirt passes by and pauses at the threshold of a bright blue door on the far side of the courtyard. There is something inviting and mysterious about a threshold. What lies beyond?

latch on a blue door

 

latch on a blue door

on a stone house on a stone street –

dog waiting outside

Portals fascinate me, that gap between outside and inside, here and there, open or closed, allowing in or keeping out or passing through The latch on this door in Ollantaytambo has obviously been used a lot, from the circular mark worn through the blue paint, but there is no lock on the latch and the door is slightly ajar. Anyone might enter, or exit, at any moment. The dog, standing outside, head down, does not seem to be guarding the door but rather to be patiently waiting for someone to appear.

a pair of wild geese

a pair of wild geese

guard their four fuzzy goslings

pecking by the pond

The big news in our neck of the woods is that a pair of Canada Geese hatched a brood of four goslings on Rusch's pond. In this photo, courtesy of Denyce, the gander stands guard on one leg while the goose takes a break from her goslings, who follow her in a line everywhere, in and out of the water. Only three of the goslings are visible near the water's edge, which may be why the gander is looking around for his wayward child. The goslings can't fly yet, but shortly after they were discovered they vanished from Rusch's pond. They were seen walking down the road. They were spotted at Jack and Ton's pond, about a quarter of a mile away. From there they relocated again, but where? Another neighbor says the parents visit their pond but he hasn't seen the babies. I have been on a wild goose chase for the past few days, with no more luck than my hunt for morels.

woman with baskets

woman with baskets

on a sidewalk in Cusco –

white hat white apron

The street vendors of Peru prefer corners where more traffic passes by. This woman in Cusco has placed her basket of wares on a stool in the street while she perches on a shorter stool on the narrow sidewalk, keeping a watchful eye on her goods.