Unleash the Beast~

On September 23, 2024September 23, 2024 By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, HOLLER HAPPENINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, Tech Marvels, Uncategorized, Wild Life244 Comments

(click/tap to enlarge)

Meep Meep’s secret speed source revealed!

(Let’s keep his secret just between us.)

Cheers to you from The Holler’s Monster Energy drinking always running Roadrunner~

WAYMO Better~

On May 11, 2024May 11, 2024 By cindy knokeIn Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels, TRAVEL REVIEWS226 Comments

(click/tap to enlarge to see the happy passenger!)

We are on the road again.

A Jaguar driverless taxi,

is a great way to roll!

No need to keep up conversation with your taxi driver.

There isn’t one!

Optimal for cruising over-crowded San Francisco.

You can fully enjoy the scenery without bickering about directions.

Back seat drivers are pointless because the car doesn’t care!

There are lots of these taxis ferrying people around Presidio National Park in San Francisco.

The Presidio,

is a blooming beauty this time of year.

Cheers to you from Presidio National Park in San Francisco~

(Note- WAYMO is a fleet of fully autonomous electric vehicles owned by Alphabet the parent company of Google. It has taxis available throughout San Francisco, and in designated areas of Los Angeles, Austin and Phoenix).

Twin Trippin’~

On March 9, 2024March 16, 2024 By cindy knokeIn MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels, TRAVEL REVIEWS, Wild Life201 Comments

With the boys who are five.

Lots of cannonball jump & splash,

and desert exploration,

with Ricardo Breceda’s,

creepy creatures.

Cheers to you from the desert in spring~

Toast ~

On May 13, 2023May 17, 2023 By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels, TRAVEL REVIEWS, Wild Life286 Comments

(click to enlarge) This blog is burning,

but, unlike California deserts,

there is no rain on the horizon.

The blog continues to be overwhelmed with WP errors. There is the unfollowed followers issue and there are now 26K+ and growing daily, PHP warning in my WP site logs linked to WP installed/managed plug ins.

PHP warnings are caused by unwanted errors in code or script. They are warnings that there are problems that are likely to cause bigger problems in the future.

Additionally, Google has identified 1.26K blog pages not able to be indexed by google due to redirect errors.

I am not hopeful that this will be fixed.

So, unlike the rain in the desert,

making wildflowers, rivers and waterfalls,

this blog continues,

to burn.

Cheers to you from the wet and happy Sonoran Desert~

Note: Desert wildflowers in order are: Bristlebush, Prickly Pear Cactus, Desert Willow and Desert Marrow.

Saker Falcon~

On November 5, 2022November 5, 2022 By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, HOLLER HAPPENINGS, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels257 Comments

Incoming,

at 88 mph!

I duck,

he nails his prize,

and promptly mantles so I won’t steal it.

Saker Falcons have been falconry birds for 1000’s of years.

They are an endangered species, native across Central Europe to China.

This is Katie Pnewski, a brilliant and comitted bird trainer,

and bird lover, who works at Avian Behavior International,

a conservation and bird advocacy organization near The Holler in rural Southern California.

I spent an incredible day here today, and will be introducing you to more of their amazing birds and conservation efforts in my next posts. For more on this worthwhile organization see:

https://avian-behavior.org/about-us/conservation/

Cheers to you from the phenomenal Saker Falcon and his devoted human~

Doors Off Moloka’i~

On August 10, 2022August 10, 2022 By cindy knokeIn Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels, TRAVEL REVIEWS234 Comments

Check out,

a bird’s eye view,

of Moloka’i,

taken from a helicopter,

with the doors removed.

Oh, to be a bird and soar over these islands!

I flew solo with a skillful pilot named Nick.

No one in my family wanted to go with me.

I can’t imagine why not!

It was an incredible experience.

We flew over other places too, so stay tuned & Cheers to you from Moloka’i~

Rock Talk~

On June 26, 2022June 26, 2022 By cindy knokeIn Conservation, EXTERIOR & INTERIOR DESIGN, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels, TRAVEL REVIEWS161 Comments

This is Picture Canyon in Arizona.

The canyon is covered in petroglyphs,

that are 800-1300 years old.

The oldest petroglyphs are geometric in nature.

Later rock art depicts animals, rivers, planets and human figures.

This is The Mojave Desert in the southwestern US,

and it is where Jim and I went hunting for hidden petroglyphs.

There is historical rock art all over the southwestern United States. Most thought to be 800 to 1000 years old. Much of it hidden and unpublicized. I even found some at The Holler.

Here is the blogger that led us here. I have no idea who he is, but, as we all know, bloggers are precious resources:

https://harryhelmsblog.blogspot.com/2008/01/petroglyphs-of-kelbaker-road-california.html?m=0

Below are some links to my prior posts about more amazing southwestern pictographs and petroglyphs, much of it quite older:

Those Who Came Before~

Between a Rock and a Hard Place: An Ancient Refuge~

Cheers to you from The Talking Rocks of the Southwest~

Falls Creek Sacred Site~

On June 20, 2022June 21, 2022 By cindy knokeIn Conservation, EXTERIOR & INTERIOR DESIGN, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels, TRAVEL REVIEWS151 Comments

Falls Creek, in southwest Colorado, is one of the most important ancient sites in the southwest. It was once a village and had burial sites.

It contained mummified remains of individuals, and has antiquities from the ancestral pueblo basket maker period from 1500-2000 years ago.

Look carefully to the right, below the waterfall and under the overhang (tap to enlarge).

You can see more here.

This sacred site was heavily plundered in the 1930’s and it is now protected, with no public access. It is under the protection of the tribal nations who are descendants of the original occupants.

I am not an archeologist. I am a psychotherapist by training. It is hard to get information on the place and it is difficult to find. Still my husband and I were curious to see what we could, without trespassing or violating the site. This is as close as we could ethically get, and these are full zoom shots. Our interest was piqued by the objects in the lower right quadrant under the overhang (enlarge to see better).

For more on this fascinating place check out the following two links:

In Ruins

https://www.mail-archive.com/nativenews@mlists.net/msg03828.html

If anyone reading this has more knowledge about Falls Creek, and would like to share it, I would be eager to pass on the information.

Cheers to you from the mysterious and sacred Falls Creek~

Walnut Canyon National Monument~

On June 15, 2022June 16, 2022 By cindy knokeIn Conservation, EXTERIOR & INTERIOR DESIGN, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, Tech Marvels, TRAVEL REVIEWS174 Comments

Southeast of Flagstaff Arizona (click to enlarge and spot the cliff dwellings hidden in the rock face),

on a plateau,

is a six hundred foot deep canyon,

carved by Walnut Creek, a stream that flows east into The Grand Canyon.

Walnut canyon has been occupied by people for thousands of years.

The first permanent residents,

who occupied the region from CE 600- 1400,

left approximately 800 remaining structures.

We visited here as part of an exploration of lesser visited, and even unpublicized cultural sites in the American Southwest. In the next few posts I will show you some of what we have found. But our explorations are still ongoing. It becomes quite addictive finding sites that aren’t widely known. We even found some at The Holler.

For more about Walnut Canyon see:

https://www.nps.gov/waca/learn/historyculture/people.htm