Big Night in the City Different - A Celebration of Nicaragua

This Friday in Santa Fe, NM, I'll be joining two other photographers for the opening of a photo exhibition featuring images from a trip we took to Nicaragua last November. The exhibition is a fundraiser for various humanitarian projects in Nicaragua.

"Humanitarian" being the kinder, gentler word to mean "extreme poverty". Poverty, indeed, is complex in its discussion and understanding. Nicaragua, however, after Haiti, is the second poorest country in the western hemisphere. One out of every six people in Nicaragua simply does not get enough food to eat; and one out of every three children in that country suffers from chronic malnutrition. In simpler terms: every third child you see in Nicaragua is starving and the sad truth is that our pets are better fed then most of the population of Nicaragua.


These are heady statistics and you've heard them all a million times before juxtaposed against an endless assortment of impossibly heartbreaking images proffered before you again and again. The sad truths of Nicaragua, a legacy we Americans helped create in the 1980's, are often ignored and dismissed. Too often we are steadfast in our refusal to believe what we already know to be true. And often overwhelmed by our own problems - we too easily harden hearts and turn our backs and are empathetic only to the point that we can easily imagine our own condition to be equally daunting - ignoring the fact that we'd be hard pressed to find a doctor anywhere that would describe us as malnourished.


Friday night will be the first time that my photography is shared to the public outside of the virtual world of blogs and websites. It will be the first time that I will be formally introduced in public as "a photographer". Am I nervous - just a little bit. But no more than then the first time I posted a photo on my blog two years ago with then what seemed like outrageous audacity to brand the label ©TR Ryan under it. I took a big breath and pushed the send button. What followed has changed my life, needless to say.

I am imagining the event this Friday as nothing more than a big live blog post. The only difference is that my virtual thumbnail images are now impossibly embiggened and framed and I'll actually be standing in the comment section when curious onlookers decide to post a comment before passing on.


Seriously though: what really makes Friday a "Big Night" for me has much less to do with finally getting to dress in the professional moniker of photographer for a few hours and much more to do with finally seeing the fruition of my steadfast belief in the power of photography to create awareness, open a space to begin a conversation and, most importantly - open a window to a world most people can't see. This is the moment I'd hoped for when I made a commitment two years ago to take photography much more seriously. The fact that my first exhibition is in the third largest art market in the United States is just a little extra nerve-wracking icing on the cake.

The road to Nicaragua was born in the highlands of central Mexico two years ago in a private class with National Geographic photographer Raul Tuzon sponsored by Santa Fe Workshops. From that encounter - an invitation was extended by Santa Fe photojournalist Susan Boe to join a private photographer's donor tour designed to explore some of the incredible humanitarian organizations waging the war against poverty in Latin America's poorest country.


Our host for the week was the Nicaraguan charity Empowerment International and it's founder Kathy Adams. An encounter with two street kids while working in Costa Rica as an engineer right after college graduation changed Kathy Adams' life forever. She never left Central America and since 2003 she has been the founder and director of this successful grassroots organization that addresses poverty through education. Empowerment International helps to break the repeating cycle of poverty by working with parents to keep their children in school and by providing children in high risk areas with the physical and emotional support needed to stay in school.

Susan Boe and I were joined in Nicaragua by other extremely talented Santa Fe photographers including Morgan Smith, journalist and former Colorado congressman, and Judith Cooper Hayden, celebrated photographer of the definitive photographic design and travel tome "Oaxaca - The Spirit of Mexico". I don't think any of us, all wizened world travelers, were prepared for how quickly we would lose our hearts and souls to the captivating beauty of both the land and people of Nicaragua. Never in all my travels have I seen such resilient courage and uncomplicated joy flower so beautifully from the muck and mire of such desperate circumstances.

Our trip that week not only wove through rural and urban barrios but also in and out of some of the country's vast geography of mountains, volcanoes, forests and wetlands.

Nicaragua enjoys a biodiversity nearly unmatched around the world and very little of it is truly protected. It was in that context, within this harsh juxtaposition of impoverished humans and stunning landscape that I finally understood the inexorable link between poverty and the loss of biodiversity. Conservation cannot and will not happen until the issues of poverty are addressed and alleviated.

Empowerment International also understands the complex intersection of poverty and conservation and knows that protecting the biodiversity of Nicaragua is intrinsically linked to the human well-being of the community and to celebration of place. To that end, Adams' photography program, Mi Camera - Mi Mundo, which puts a camera in the hands of many of her impoverished students is nothing short of brilliant. It not only provides students with a creative and artistic outlet but, through the lens, also engenders an overwhelming connection to place and an awareness and appreciation for the natural beauty of Nicaragua.


The amazing thing about the social media phenomenon right now - us bloggers, facebookers, and tweeters - is that we suddenly discover that we are straddling that fine line between storytelling and citizen journalists and often find ourselves in unique situations to shed the light of truth in places more conventional media ignore. This is the path that I follow with my camera and this is the path that leads me from the darkest depths of a desperately poor barrio in Nicaragua to the swank wine-swilling crowd of a Santa Fe gallery this coming Friday. I walk this path with outrageous hope and unabashed faith that the connection I make between my camera and the people and places of this world can and will make a change - no matter how small.

I know most of you can't make the gallery opening in Santa Fe this Friday. But I encourage you to follow the links to Empowerment International and see first hand the amazing work of Kathy Adams and her team. And come meet these special people from the barrios who's enduring human spirit rises from this once voiceless, powerless place - carved out of obscene oppression and the abysmal failures of democracy and politics.

And while there, maybe drop a few coins in the bucket. The little funds Adams mines out of that bucket have already gone a long way to foster the continued self-empowerment of several rural and urban communities in Nicaragua.

I'll be sharing much more of my trip to Nicaragua here all month long.

Urban Birding By Butt

Great Egret - Lake Hefner - Oklahoma City

Oh the places you can go - when you have a kayak! There are some moments when the grace and subtle beauty of nature is better captured without a big, long lens - this is one of them.

In Oklahoma City, you can try urban birding by kayak every Tuesday at Lake Hefner via the fantastic OKC Kayak. For the definitive source of kayaking in Oklahoma check out the Kayak Oklahoma blog.

This is Oklahoma!

Sky Watch: Storms on the Prairie

Oklahoma in springtime - where, without any warning, a day turns to night in a matter of minutes; where the entire world seems to stop and hold its breath. Nothing moves - not a bird, not a single blade of grass. Electricity and anticipation fill the air.

Trust me when I say there is nothing nimble about a cumulonimbus cloud. Huge anvil clouds sweep in like some gigantic anchored thing lost and drifting at sea.

Spring storms define this landscape - shaping it with its errant winds, fire from the sky and flash floods of unexpected rain.

Born from this unstable air; swirling, cooling downdrafts. A downy feather remains unmoved while a nearby leaf tumbles up to heaven.

Its on these occasions that nature makes sure man knows his place in the order of things.

It is the storms that tame us.

SkyWatch Friday is here:

From Bermuda: Nature Blog Networking

Skulking through the understory near my hotel room in Bermuda, this little non-native Jamaican turquoise anole (Anolis grahami) reminds me that even in the middle of a hectic work day - even in the most unexpected places - nature abounds. Even if its out-of-bounds -- Jamaica is far, far form here my little multicolored friend.

This may be as close as I ever get to the ocean this week - on location we're on the clock 24/7. I stop every chance I get, though, to marvel at this turquoise blue water. I walk by this vista a dozen times a day and every time I am still not prepared for how it will take my breath away. We live in a rich, rich, colorful world -- if only we would take time to notice it.

I stop to breath in turquoise - it gets me through this long day of air conditioned ballrooms, moldy carpet, and the vastly over-perfumed.

A great kiskadee calls from the treetops on the hotel pathway. I break ranks and run outside to listen. I feel fortunate that from my office I can hear a kiskadee calling

or flush a turquoise-tailed lizard from under my chair.

The virtual world of nature is never faraway, either. Often, if feeling overwhelmed by spread sheets and memos and mail merges - I sneak off for a moment and visit my friends in the nature blogworld and discover that Motmot's painting some marvelous looking bird in a Panamanian rainforest, Zick and the Baker are sniffing out morels on Indigo Hill; Mary is working rat snake patrol for a couple of lazy lizards and Doug has found an atlas moth. These friends and their discoveries also get me through the day.

Yesterday I toggle the keyboard and up comes The Nature Blog Networks Featured Blog: From the Faraway, Nearby. Hey! That's me. Thank you, Wren, for the interview and the opportunity to be featured on the Nature Blog Network. I am extremely proud to be a part of this incredible community of nature bloggers. The Nature Blog Network is now home to 932 blogs dedicated to bringing the very best of the natural world. Be sure to stop by and check out a few.

Two nights ago an early evening storm here gave way to sky full of mangoes and raspberries. The perfect dessert with which to end the night.

The cool damp air brought in a couple of these little flying guys toward the brightly lit desk lamp - gnats? ants? wasps? I had no idea but I was fascinated. Now, let me show you Nature Blog Networking in its finest moment. I am marveling the odd shape of this phenomenal looking little bug. At just that time my Skype icon chimes on the computer alerting me that a mutual friend is in the room. I take a peek - there is Debby Kaspari, nature blogger extraordinaire, fresh off the plane from the jungles of Panama instant messaging me from home in Oklahoma. I'm telling her about these ant-wasp-gnat creatures that are converging all around me. She says take a pic. I do and email it to her while we are in full chat mode catching up on our respective travels and time away from home - she whips the photo off to her husband Mike Kaspari, a renowned ant ecologist, who at that moment is black lighting for queen ants in a pitch black forest in Panama and he makes a positive ID: a male dolichoderine*.

Lower right, Nature Blogger Debby Kaspari in Oklahoma video chats with ant ecologist Mike Kaspari, holding a ginormous queen ant, in a field lab in Panama while TR in Bermuda listens in via Skype chat.

From a hotel desktop in Bermuda my little ant goes to Oklahoma for inspection and is instantly forwarded to the jungles of Panama to be examined by an ant expert who is Zero degrees removed from E.O. Wilson! This is nature blog networking at its finest! Indeed, we are part of an extraordinary community.

Tomorrow - my last day in Bermuda - I cannot wait to get back home. Purple coneflowers are calling, the butterfly bushes must be in full bloom and the passion flower vines are surely arching over the deck by now.

I'll miss my turquoise-tailed little friends from my portable office. Thanks for the company

*Dolichoderinae is a subfamily of ants, which includes species such as the Argentine antLinepithema humile), the erratic ant, the odorous house ant, and the cone ant. This subfamily is distinguished by having a single petiole (no post-petiole) and a slit-like orifice, rather than the round acidopore encircled by hairs that typifies the subfamily Formicinae. Dolichoderine ants do not possess a sting, unlike ants in some other subfamilies, such as Ponerinae and Myrmicinae. This subfamily is not currently divided into tribes, but there are 24 genera.

Spring Back, Fall Forward

We had a late, wet, very cool spring this year in Oklahoma - and the blooming things, although showing up a tad tardy, went wild. In New Mexico, I could never grow this state flower - gone too often I was to keep it wet enough to survive to bloom. But in my little Oklahoma garden - blue flax ruled for a couple of weeks - a colorful homage to my home away from home.

A slow economy has its small rewards - and I found myself home for once at the same time the bleeding hearts were blooming. Life contemplated in the company of a bush full of bleeding heart blooms seems flushed with promise.

The hostas rise up to fill in the shady spots - slowly unfurling their painted leaves with the promise of spiky hummingbird goodness later in the summer.

A fistful of wild flower seeds planted last spring come to life a year late - exploding in the cool, damp weather with colorful mysteries.

And then of course, the pièce de résistance of spring -- the little dogwood I planted my first fall that veteran Oklahoma gardeners said would never bloom in my city backyard - blooms again for the second year in a row. It's a happy little tree, blocked from the Oklahoma wind and bursting with bloom in the fleeting understory sunshine that comes before the pecan and oak trees above it leaf out.

These are the things I marveled in the weeks before heading off for the New River Birding and Nature Festival in West Virginia. This is the beauty of spring that I always long for in the seemingly endless, cold winter months. And these spring flowers held my attention rapt as I packed for three weeks of work in Argentina. Forgetting, for a moment, what happens when one travels far enough south of the equator in springtime...

Fall is exactly what happens when one ventures 34 degrees south of the equator in early May.

Disconcerting to say the least. My head spun like a top -- but rotating counter clockwise, of course, as things do below the equator. The feeling of having lost summer was overwhelming. It all felt a little Rip Van Winkleish - as if waking up from a short nap to discover the loss of time and a cherished season.

These brilliant red cypress leaves could not for a moment assuage the feeling of having lost the rest of spring and all of summer.

In no time at all, golden-flamed leaves consumed the part of my brain that triggers appetite and I found myself with a feeble hankering for turkey and cranberries and sweet potatoes and butternut squash. Traitor! screamed the part of brain still holding on to the once not so distant promise of sweet corn on the cob, steaks on the grill, strawberry shortcake and watermelon slices.

Oak trees

and sweet gum trees were in on the ruse

on this path that leads to winter.

I want no part of it! Get me out of here.

I want to spring back!!!

Tango Noir

Esquina Carlos Gardel Tango Palace - Buenos Aires, Argentina - I think these images taken from the back of the room in low lighting with a little pocket camera capture the evocative grace of tango in an entirely different way.

I like the expression of movement captured in these quick shots - an expression not easily translated in perfectly focused still shots. Tango is much more than a provacative dance step - in its rawest form it is nothing short of the physical expression of poetry - elegant, sensual and emotional.

Bird by Bird: A Celebration of New River with Pablo Neruda

Now
to look for birds!

The high iron branches
in the forest,
the dense
fecundity of the soil,
the whole world
is wet,
rain or dew

shines, a tiny
star
in the leaves:
in the early morning
mother earth is
cool,

the air
is like a river
that shakes
the silence,
it smells of rosemary,
of space
and roots.

Above,
a wild song,
a waterfall,
it's a bird.

How
from a throat
smaller than a finger
can the waters
of this song fall?

Luminous grace!
Invisible
power,
torrent
of music
in the leaves,
sacred conversation!

Clean, washed, cool
is this day,
resonant
like a green zither,

I bury
my shoes
in the mud,

I leap over springs,
a thorn
nips me and a gust
of air like a crystal
wave
separates on my chest.

Where
are the birds?
Was that one, maybe,
that
whispering in the foliage
or that fugitive ball
of gray velvet
or that sudden shift
of perfume?

That leaf
which the cinnamon tree let go,
was it a bird? That dust
from the irritated magnolia
or that fruit
which fell resounding,
was that a flight?

O invisible little cretins,
fiendish birds,
go
to hell
with your twittering,
with your useless feathers!

I just wanted
to stroke them,
to see them glisten,
I don't want
to see their lightning embalmed
in a showcase,

I wanted to see them alive,
I want to touch their gloves
of genuine leather,
which they never forget in the branches,
and to talk with them
on my shoulders
even if they leave me like certain statues
undeservedly whitened.

Impossible.
They can't be touched,
they can be heard
like a heavenly
whisper or movement,
they talk
precisely,
repeat
their observation,

brag
about whatever they're doing,
comment
on whatever exists,
master
certain sciences
like hydrology
and know for certain
where all the grains
are being harvested.

Well then,
invisible
birds
of the forest, of the woods,
of the pure bower,
birds of the acacia
and of the oak,
crazy, amorous,
astonishing birds,
conceited
soloists,
migratory musicians,

one last
word
before
I go back
with wet shoes, thorns
and dry leaves
to my home:

vagabonds,
I love you
free,
far from the shotgun and the cage,
fugitive
corollas,
this is the way
I love you,
ungraspable,
united and sonorous
society of the heights,
liberated
leaves,
champions
of the air,
petals
of smoke,
free,
cheerful

flyers and singers,
aerial, terrestrial,
sailors of the wind,
happy
builders
of the softest nests,
unceasing
messengers of pollen,
matchmakers
of the flower, uncles
of the seed,

I love you,
ingrates:
I'm going home,
happy to have lived with you
a moment
in the rain.

Ode to Birdwatching
Pablo Neruda

Bird by Bird
We have come to know the earth
at the New River Birding and Nature Festival

Beth from My Life With Birds

Nina from Nature Remains

Jane from Jalynn's Window on Nature

Barb from My Bird Tales

Kathie from Sycamore Canyon

Lynne from Hasty Brook

Laura from Somewhere in NJ

Bill from Bill of the Birds

Kathi from Katdoc's World

Mary from Mary's View

Jane from Wrenaissance Reflections

Kathy from Life, Birding Photos and Everything

Susan from Susan Gets Native

not pictured:

Kathleen from A Glorious Life

Julie Zickefoose

Jeff Gordon

Jim McCormac

What we discovered at New River, Bird by Bird:

(Remember to embiggen the photos)

pictured top to bottom: Ovenbird; New River Gorge; Wake Robin Trillium; Red Eft; Fiddlehead Fern; Black and White Warbler; West Virginia Woodlands; Spring Blooms; Pitcher Plant; Pitcher Plant; Millipede, Lichen, Water Glider Shadows; Pipevine Swallowtails and Nessus Sphinx Moth; New River; Cascade of White Violets; Red Eft; Marsh Marigold; Black-Capped Chickadee; New River Gorge Bridge; and the 2009 New River Nature Bloggers.

My World Today - New River, West Virginia

Northern Parula

Forests of poplar, white oak and hemlock

White-throated Sparrow

Ephemeral Woods

Scarlet Tanager

LBJ'S - Lincoln's Sparrow

Phoebe - a phirst for me

Enchanted at every turn

Black and White Warbler

Lifers

________________________

Most Recent Post: Earth Week: Local Heroes that Inspire

Earth Week: Local Heroes that Inspire

Turtle Island - Mother Earth - Gaya

We've been celebrating and protecting her for more than 10,000 years - why stop now?

Earlier this week, one of my favorite people on the planet, Jane Goodall, sent me an email. Well, probably not just me - hopefully a couple hundred thousand others - but nevertheless it was a timely reminder that this entire week is a celebration of our planet Earth. And as a fellow traveler with Jane on this fantastic, beautiful, planet - her note hit home:

"As I travel the world more than 300 days per year, I meet so many amazing people who are using their lives to make a better world. They understand that each of us makes a difference, every day, with even our smallest choices.

I'm only a 200-day-per-year kind of traveler - but nevertheless Jane's note reminded me too of some of the amazing and compelling people I've met in my travels recently who are also making a difference every day with their dedication and their brave choices on behalf of this place we call home.

On this special week designated to celebrate Planet Earth, I want to recognize some of these extraordinary people I've worked with this year and thank them for the inspiration they've given me and countless others. It has been a pleasure meeting them out there on this wonderful, wild ride of a journey:

Albania

Auron Tare

Auron Tare is not only a noted historian and journalist but also considered a pioneer of sustainable tourism in Albania -- promoting the country's cultural and environmental riches as a renewable source of economic development through tourism.

Years ago he tirelessly worked to save an historic site near his home and in the course became one of the founders of Butrint National Park - which was eventually named a UNESCO World Heritage and Ramsar significant wetlands site. In 2005 he was awarded a one million dollar grant by the World Bank to address environmental issues in the park. He also formed the first exploratory expedition in the north of Albania on behalf of the Smithsonian Institute and the Royal Geographic Society. And with Albania poised to become the Costa Rica of Europe, Auron is quite keen to introduce the wide world of birders to his country's avian riches.

Auron has turned his passion for his country and the environment into political action and if his party wins the elections for Parliament this spring - he's expected to play a key government role in supporting Albania's stunning natural resources.

Siberia

Bashila- Crown Shaman of Lake Baikal

Born the eleventh child of eleven daughters in a small village in the Buryat Republic of Siberia, Bashila was identified early on by village elders as an heir-apparent shaman and was eventually chosen to carry on the centuries-old Buryat tradition of shamanism -- not always an easy role for a female in Buryatia, the northern frontier of the Mongolian world.

In time Bashila began to use her spiritual training not only for healing her fellow Buryats, but for healing the sacred waters of Lake Baikal as well. And in doing so - she restores the practice and the importance of caring and protecting the environment back to her people. She now partners with renowned Lake Baikal scientists to bring an indigenous voice to its conservation.

Oklahoma

Sue Selman

Sue Selman is a fourth generation Oklahoma rancher, former president of Save the Prairie and a tireless advocate against the destruction of intact natural prairie ecosystem by the growing presence of wind power companies. A pioneer in Oklahoma's burgeoning agritourism movement - the Selman Guest Ranch is a role model operation when it comes to using innovative ranch-based agritourism events to earn tourism dollars toward sustaining large family-owned tracts of nearly unchanged prairie and its subsequent maintenance and conservation.

Her 14,000 acre ranch was recently designated as Oklahoma's first Audubon Important Bird Area and her conservation practices have gone a long way in protecting the threatened lesser prairie chickens and snowy plovers that have existed in this habitat for centuries.

In 2005, Sue received a grant from the Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture to use toward a non-traditional, multi-species grazing system which used Droper/Croix sheep and goats to help control invasive plant species without resorting to chemical control methods. She is an indefatigable voice for the conservation of Oklahoma prairie and her in-depth research of wind power certainly begs a lot of questions as to the accuracy of its "green-ness".

Peru

Alan T.K. Lee

In 2002, Alan T.K. Lee walked away from a well-paying computer software career in Manchester,UK and rode his bike 6000 km across South America as an ambassador for the National Excema Society. Not ready to return to the corporate world, Alan remained in Peru and volunteered for the Tambopata Reserve Society. In time he became a resident naturalist and field worker for the Tambopata Macaw Project and began investigating the impact of tourism on the Peruvian Amazon for Project Fauna Forever.

His experience volunteering in the field at Tambopata turned him into a passionate advocate for the conservation of macaws and other parrots and he now serves as the co-principal investigator for Earthwatch Institute's "Macaws of the Peruvian Amazon" and manages the Tambopata Macaw Project.

He is also completing a related Ph.D program at Manchester Metropolitan University and is one of the world's leading experts on clay licks as they relate to parrot abundance. Alan is also keeping a watchful eye on the devastating impact of the new Interoceanic Highway that will soon connect the west coast of Peru to the east coast of Brazil.

Nicaragua

Kathy Adams

An encounter with two street kids while working in Costa Rica as an engineer right after college graduation changed Kathy Adams' life forever. She never left Latin America and since 2003 she has been the founder and director of a successful grassroots organization that addresses poverty through education in Nicaragua, the worlds second poorest country. Kathy's Empowerment International helps to break the repeating cycle of poverty by working with parents to keep their children in school and by providing children in high risk areas with the physical and emotional support needed to stay in school.

Kathy also understands the complex intersection of poverty and conservation and knows that protecting the biodiversity of Nicaragua is intrinsically linked to the human well-being of the community. To that end, her photography program, Mi Camera - Mi Mundo, which puts a camera in the hands of many of her impoverished students is nothing short of brilliant. It not only provides students with a creative and artistic outlet but, through the lens, also engenders an overwhelming connection to place and an awareness and appreciation for the natural beauty of Nicaragua.

Backyard Naturalists Across America

On this Earth Week we must not forget the local heroes of conservation who are doing their small part by turning suburban backyards into important wildlife habitat by replacing grass turfs with trees, flowering plants and ponds that sustain birds, butterflies, reptiles, amphibians and other suburban wildlife. For more information on turning your suburban backyard in to a wildlife paradise checkout this website.

Parents and Mentors

Eradicating Nature Deficit Disorder

And let's also not forget the parents and mentors of children who believe no child should be left inside. The greatest legacy we can leave to the Earth and its conservation is by inspiring the children we come in contact with to explore, interact, appreciate and conserve the great outdoors.

Nature Bloggers

And last, but definitely not least - a shout out to the Nature Bloggers who inspires us every day with pen and camera to love, cherish and respect our little corners of the world.

From left to Right:

Julie Zickefoose , Mary's View, Wrenaissance Reflections

Susan Gets Native, Somewhere in Jersey, Sycamore Canyon

Kat Doc's World, Nature Remains, Hasty Brook.

After two years of blogging, It will be a pleasure to meet these nine incredibly talented nature bloggers next week at the New River Birding and Nature Festival.

Photo Credits- Auron Tare on horseback from Facebook profile, Sue Selman by John Kennington, Kathy Adams from Kathy Adams, Nature Bloggers from individual blog profiles. All other photography ©T.R. Ryan

When I Grow Up - I Wanna Be Chet Baker

Hello World!  My name is Hugo Stone Quintanar and I am very happy to be making my blog debut.  I live with my two dads on 80 square feet of high desert Rocky Mountain scrubland.   And yes I am many-named just like the most famous dog in blogdom - but more on that in a minute.  Despite my canine propensity -- I am a Leo and for the moment it is all about me and my impossibly floppy ears.

This is my serious side - am I not ridiculously beautiful!  I thought you might agree.  I have butterfly ears and I am very proud.

Here is my playful side.  Do not hate me because I am beautiful.

And here I am appearing to be contemplative.  Actually I am passing gas - but with good manners you can convince humans of anything.

I live in a very confusing world.  People insist on calling me a Boston Terrier - but I have never been to Boston and have no immediate plans to go.  I think this portends a lack of major insight on the human species. Not to mention that we once had a president who called all bad people Terrierists and no one corrected him. "We are at war with the Terrierists".  Yeah, not a good name to have these days.   In fact, I prefer to be thought of as just a Santa Fe dwelling, high desert doggeh - through and through.

Being raised a good New Mexico Catholic dog, I have a god-daddeh and he's a bloggeh and his picture is on the right side of the blog you are reading.  Yep, that's him.  He's the best god-daddeh in the whole world and I love him for many reasons.  One is that he lets me lick his entire face without complaint and allows the occasional French kiss.  Two - he has an in with the two most beautiful girls in the world and seems convinced an arranged marriage is possible with....

the Licker Sisters - have you ever seen anything more beautiful or goddesses so divine?  With a little luck - in two weeks god-daddeh promises to have a prepuptial agreement for marriage with one or both of the Licker Sisters.  I guess it's a good thing I like older women.   Hubba hubba! Good luck in West Virginia God-daddeh, I hope Mary's view on puppeh love is the same as yours!

Hey! wanna know the real reason my god-daddeh TR is unbelievably cool?  - in less than two weeks he's going to meet my hero, the most famous doggie in all of blogdom - that's right Timmeh is going to meet - oh my gosh - I get chills just saying his name.....the one, the only, the incredible...

.......fabulous Baker Boy - Chet Baker Zickefoose Thompson!  Ohhhh Wow!!!!  I bow wow to you Chet Baker and I do SO want to be you when I grow up!

Blog star, centerfold, advertising mogul that's the dog I wanna be!!!!!  He da man!  

Oh but god-daddeh says I need a lot of work before I even come close to being Chet Baker when I grow up.  During his short visit to Santa Fe this week - he put me through a Chet Baker training course.

First up, chasing rabbits - but we substituted with cats.  Baker loves the bunnehs. Hugo loves the kittehs....same, same, only different weapons at the end of their feet.

And like The Baker, I mean business when I am in hot pursuit of furr-balls on four legs! Grrr....

I'm gonna get you kitteh - I've got to pass my Baker training course with flying colors and googly eyes.

The Baker says, unequivocally, you gotta know when to hold 'em --

and know when to fold em!!!  

But God-daddeh says The Baker would not have backed off so easily from a knife-wielding furr-ball.  I think I'm just smart!

The real key to success is being faster than the kitteh.

And now I will go into my superdog routine to impress The Baker

flying faster than a speeding bullet

jumping higher than a hollyhock...

is this superdog or superhorsey?  God-daddeh says I look like a dressage lesson gone bad or something you would ride up and down on a merry-go-round, anyway I cleared the tulips, flowers intact.  Wouldn't Baker have done the same!

If part of being Baker when you grow up is learning to love the outdoors - then count me in.  I love the wilderness and I am a hiker in more ways than one!

God-daddeh is teaching me to bird watch - just like The Baker.  Baker comes from a very famous bird watching family and if I don't learn my birds - I can never be Chet Baker when I grow up.

Actually Kenn, I disagree - the ear coverts are all wrong,  the lores bear further examination, the flank is too thick, and if you compare the tertials against the wing-bars and the primaries along side the under tail coverts it becomes quite evident that this is in fact a text book example of Columbia livia. 

Wawawawait God-da-daddeh - I see the best bird of all - the blue bird; fat, round, ground nesting and irresistible.

I must 'neak up on it with all my concentration.

Drat!  Foiled again by the human's incessant need to constantly propel things into the air for their own apparent amusement.

I am determined that bird will be all mine.  And I will test your endurance with a game of patience.  I am stoic - and I have a lovely lower overbite which will distract you with its irresistible cuteness and then...

that damn bird is all mine.  Silly humans - you will never win!

Next up in Baker training - animal impersonations.  This is my baby seal.  Again, please don't hate me because I am beautiful and adorable.

This is my weasel pose - it scares the kittehs every time.

Part of being like Baker someday - is learning to go on safari and stalk and destroy stuffed animals in the wilds of the human domain.

here is Chet Baker in his finest moment.  

God-daddeh - I bring you one dead bear.  Do you think The Baker would be proud?  Yes, Hugo - I do.  I think you are well on your way to being famous in blogdom just like Chet, maybe in another ten years.

Look! I've even almost got my ears to stand up Like The Baker.  Do you think I am as cute as The Baker?  Yes, no doubt you are cute Hugo but you have another 100 or so Baker-like poses yet to master.

Chet Baker - I wuv you.  And I want to be you.  It's all I think about.  I can has Chet Baker!

Bloggers Note:  In my travels I've had the opportunity to meet some remarkable people - celebrities, legends, world leaders, ambassadors, presidents, prime ministers, kings and yes a queen or two- but nothing compares to the opportunity I will have in exactly two weeks in West Virginia when I finally get to meet the most famous doggeh in the world - Chet Baker.  It promises to be a defining moment in my life.  I can't wait!!!  Here's to you Chet Baker! 

Photos of Chet Baker - pinched from Julie Zickefoose without approval

Photos of the Licker Sisters stolen from Mary's View with zero consent

Photos of Hugo - compliments of his talent agent

Need a Chet Baker look-alike for your next party - hire Hugo, now booking; operators standing-by!!!