Ah, the beach

 What's better at the end of a long day's work than a walk on the beach.
Aahhh....

Petrified forest

That's a forest out there.

A petrified forest of trees turned in to rocks; I think that's fascinating.

What was once a very different climate has left behind some incredible evidence of its existence.

Some trees are as big as 9 feet in diameter

To turn them from wood to rock, some of the trees were buried by volcanic sediment before they could decompose.
Ground water dissolved silica from the volcanic ash and carried it through the logs. This solution filled the wood cells and crystallized them to quartz.  What's left shows every detail of the former logs--the rough bark surfaces, the growth rings, sometimes even cell structure.
The quartz, in the shape of the logs often has a beautiful rainbow of colors.

It's so beautiful that, depending on the report, 1 ton to 12 tons per year are stolen.  People just want to take a piece home with them.

The petrified forest is something people have always found fascinating.  Here are a few photos of around 100 years ago...

Papago park

 There's a hole in this rock.

It's the Hole-in-the-Rock at Papago Park.









And it's a great place to go for sunset.

Though you'll have to join the crowds of others who made this short climb to watch the day's end over Phoenix.

But just look at that Arizona sky.

Climbing Cathedral rock

There in the distance is Cathedral rock...waiting for me to climb it. 

I don't climb mountains, so it posed a challenge to me.











Yet those heights still beckoned.

Even half way up, the view over Sedona valley was beautiful.

I made it!

Just look at what you can see from way up here.

A beautiful day in Arizona.

Coffee pot rock

This one looks like a coffee pot. 












Isn't that a cool thing out in the mountain range of Sedona?
I wonder if the people are awakened by the view and the smell of freshly brewed coffee...

Bell rock and Courthouse rock

That is Bell Rock out there in the outskirts of Sedona.

And this is the path to get to Bell Rock.













And here's Bell Rock's neighbor Courthouse Rock.






....I wonder who gets to name the rocks...

Sedona's red rocks

 The red rock formations of Sedona are beautiful.







Photographs of formations like the Cathedral Rock show up on calendars year after year.

To recognize rocks as "something famous", that's saying something for a rock.

Juxtaposition

This is an interesting picture.
Ah juxtaposition.

Prostester upon protester, and a giant advertisement.

Hanes: Comfort you can feel. Royal Concept.

The words do not match.
What comfort? This is a picture from the center of Kashmir with the feel of dissatisfaction, not comfort.
Royal concept. Is that what freedom is?

There are a lot of images coming out of Kashmir these days. Some of them very disturbing. Others heart rending.

And there are some angry people there who might be confused about the object of their anger. The rocks being thrown come closer to home than I would wish.

A part of my heart will always belong to you, Kashmir, but can we please stay focused on what it is you really want?

Stone throwing

The protesting in Kashmir continues and the rest of the world hears very little about it. But for them, it is ALL there is to talk about.

The article this picture comes from says that women have come out to join the protesting and that their sentiments are: why shouldn't I throw stones?
Why?
Because those rocks come from the walls that built your city? Literally and figuratively.

But I understand that an unheard voice needs to find a way to be heard. And Kashmir has been unheard for years.
That makes people angry. That makes people yell and throw stones.
I watch video like that below, with footage put to the song Stones in My Hand, and I do not know what the answer is.

Summer disease

The political unrest in Kashmir is like an infectious disease that flares up every summer.
I read this article in the Times of India and I thought about how it seems better for winter and cold weather to remain in Kashmir, for as soon as warmer weather comes, so does the protesting.
2008 was a bad summer. June and August, especially, were full of unrest. Curfews and strikes and angry people with rocks in their hands wherever you went. But when I watch this video, it seems to me that the young men with rocks are bolder than they used to be.
When violence escalates the way it has, there is rarely a right or wrong side anymore.
These are not "innocent" youths pictured here.
I think it must be a lonely job to work for the CRPF.
I think it must be awful to have lost a son to a bullet fired into a protesting crowd.
Living in Delhi means I have to go looking for news about what happens in Kashmir. People here go on as if nothing is happening. I do the same.
But I do remember the enforced stay-at-home days, the tires burning in the roads, the school boys who attack cars.
I may not live there anymore, but peace in the Valley of Kashmir is still something I long to see.