The Peril of a Beautiful Garden - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

The country-side of Provence in summer is beautiful. The fields of pasture grass, sun flowers, lavenders and wheat compete for attention by putting on the most glaring show of colors and textures. It’s so beautiful that we forget that they are there for practical reasons - farming.

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I have a garden and I try my best to keep it beautiful and bountiful. However, it has not been free from struggles. Lately, I’ve been dealing with a rodent problem.

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As if the garden is up for claims, they’d be stepping right in, climbing up and down, picking the fruits, plucking the flowers and even chewing off plants to their hearts’ content.

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I have been furious at the least, frustrated a lot of times and scared of them outnumbering us recently.

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I have a small garden that is far from being up to par with what I saw in Provence in terms of both size and beauty. If I struggle this much with the rodent problem, I wonder how the farmers in Provence keep up with the pests.

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If Looks Could Kill - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

If looks could kill, I just about died upon sighting of this tiny fluff ball. At a standing height of roughly 10 inches, a burrowing owl is only slightly larger than an American robin.

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Thankfully, I did not let the fierce stare-down discourage me and chose to give it space, along with a plethora of compliments. One of the two, or something else, seemed to have worked. She allowed me to be around her for half an hour until I absolutely had to leave, during which time she was giving me all kinds of looks (remember the red fox from Hokkaido?), including this one. I don’t know about you, I’m convinced that she really likes me. :-)

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If looks could kill, I would have died many times. Thank you miss big-eyes.

To my human friends, happy owl-o-ween!

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Boys Will be Boys ...... - Los Angeles Travel Photographer

I love it when children are like children, like the ones that chase bubbles with all their lives. What I didn’t realize is that boys will be boys and stay that way for a long time. I had this epiphany while in Arezzo, Italy for its Giostra del Saracino. Over there, I got to observe them doing what they do best.

Boys play:

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Boys fight:

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Boys would be playing to fight:

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It seems that they each have a boy in their ever-maturing human bodies, rent free. What I need help figuring out is, at what point, the boy gets evicted. Or does he ever? I mean, do you see a boy lurking underneath this gentleman’s skin?

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