Boozy Bomber, Trier, Germany

In this liqueur stand in the Trier Christmas market, many unusual brandies stand in tall elegant bottles, and a few in more fanciful garb like this little airplane built around a brandy bottle.

Christmas Market, Trier, Germany

The heart of the Christmas Market in Trier Germany is an open square surrounded with stalls selling hot drinks and pastries, packed absolutely elbow to elbow with socializing revelers.

Blacksmith, Luxembourg

A collective of blacksmiths working away at their wares in the midst of the Luxembourg Christmas market.

Alpen trainset, Luxembourg

A train layout displaying all sorts of seasonal toys (including ubiquitous Nutcracker) in the Luxembourg Christmas market.

Bobbing for ornaments, Luxembourg

The Luxembourg Christmas market also has all the usual manner of junky carnival games, though with Christmas themes, like this one where the usual ducks or boats to bob for have been replaced with floating ornaments.

Christmas trampoline, Luxembourg

Children bouncing high on a bungee-cord trampoline at the Luxembourg Christmas market.

Christmas Ferris wheel, Luxembourg

Another Christmas ride at the Luxembourg Christmas market, this one a Ferris wheel taking people up to see out over the whole panoply and down to the lower city.

Christmas carousel, Luxembourg

In addition to the food and crafts, there is a veritable state-fair carnival of Christmas themed rides and games at the Luxembourg Christmas market, like this Christmas carousel. I'm not sure just why a Victorian rocket-ship is part of its collection of conveyances, but there it is just waiting for kids to climb on board.

Bored crepe sellers, Luxembourg

Remarkably bored looking crepe sellers at the Christmas market in Luxembourg.

Skating tent, Luxembourg

A tent with a skating rink set up in a public square on one edge of the Christmas market in Luxembourg, filled with couples courting and families pushing little kids around on orange rental skate-sleds.

Smoking fish, Luxembourg

Fish smoking on metal planks, soon to be on sale at the Luxembourg Christmas market.

Sausage seller, Luxembourg

Piled high many varieties of sausages for sale at the Luxembourg Christmas market.

Candle towers, Luxembourg

Traditional German candle towers for sale in the Luxembourg Christmas market: you place candles at the base, and the rising hot air spins the fan at the top, making the little wooden figures spin around.

Christmas treats, Luxembourg

Great piles of Christmas treats, round crispy pastry balls in many indulgent flavors, each nearly the size of a baseball, in the Luxembourg Christmas market.

Steaming stall, Luxembourg

A food stall at the Luxembourg Christmas market, steaming out warmth and good smells into the winter air.

Christmas Market, Luxembourg

In the middle of the main square of the Luxembourg Christmas market, the stalls surround a tent filled with standing tables where revelers lean while they drink they wine.

Christmas Market, Luxembourg

Across Europe (and especially German-speaking areas), there is a wonderful tradition of Christmas markets: outdoor fairs that run for weeks in December, full of shops for gifts and stalls selling traditional Christmas foods (any number of sweet, hot pastries) and drinks like gluhwein, a hot spiced mulled red wine. When I found myself in Luxembourg in December a couple years ago, I discovered their Christmas market is spread across multiple areas and well populated all through both the day and night.

Christmassy cafe, Luxembourg

This wonderful cafe in Luxembourg, rather than doing the apparently sensible thing of operating only its indoor portion, instead embraces the season by providing its patrons with warm and fuzzy blankets in Christmas colors.

Dallas arena under construction

Another perspective on the same arena construction site, catching it sideways to show the arc much better.

Dallas arena under construction

Some sort of arena-style building under construction near Dallas: I like the bending arch of the half-finished roof.

Dallas toll plaza

The road bulges out around a sunset-lighted toll plaza near the Dallas airport.

Sky crossing

While airplanes are required to keep many miles from one another at the same altitude, they can cross paths even quite closely as long as they are at least 1000 vertical feet apart.  For the observer in the airplane, this means that you sometimes get treated to the sudden appearance of a flight blasting away from under or over you at a tremendous rate of speed, reminding you just how fast you're really moving to create that slow visual crawl of the ground so far below.

Dead goose, Iowa City

A poor dead Canada goose, floating by frozen into the ice on the Iowa River.

Squirrel twister, Iowa City

Clearly, the squirrels were playing Twister in the thin snow outside our front door.

Railroad bridge stalactites, Iowa City

Not actually icicles, just looking like it: these stalactites are forming from the slowly dissolving concrete beneath a railroad bridge.

Frozen swing, Iowa City

Frozen swing, with just a bit of melting forming a tendril of ice to connect it to the ground.

Frosted bush, Iowa City

Delicately frosted needles on a bush in our yard.

Frosted steps, Iowa City

Snow sticking to our front steps and walk in an unusual pattern, where the edges were cold enough not to melt, but the snow in the middles did not stick.

Sunset over St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

One final tropical sunset over the Caribbean before we say goodbye are return to colder climes.

Cactus sunset, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Despite their lush appearance and frequent rain, many parts of the Virgin Islands are quite dry, with poor soil that cannot hold rain all that well. Cacti lace the forests, sticking up their sharp pointy cylindrical arms like these captured in silhouette one sunset.

Traces of old termite paths, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Whether due to breaks or other perturbation, termite paths are not stationary, and will reroute their way up a tree over time. When they do, however, you can often still see traces of the old paths in scarring on the trunk, as in this case with the oldest path site on the right, the last abandoned path in the middle, and the current path on the left.

Snail being chased away by termites, St. John, US Virgin Islands

I don't know just what the ecological relationship is between them, but these termites definitely did not like having this snail crawling on their path, and were chasing it away down toward the ground.

Termites repairing a break in their path, St. John, US Virgin Islands

When the termite "covered highway" is broken, they swarm out to start repairing their sheltering construction.

Termite trail into canopy, St. John, US Virgin Islands

The operations of termites can be quite remarkable to behold. On St. John, you often see trees with a dark line meandering up their trunk, from the ground to the canopy, as on this one. This is a sort of covered highway created by termites, linking their ground-based sources of forage with a bulbous lumpy nest suspended high up in the tree. The nests are often hard to spot, and the lines much easier, but if you didn't know what it was, it would be easy to mistake for some sort of parasitic vine.

Ruins near Francis Bay Trail, US Virgin Islands

In the thick Caribbean woods, anything not well maintained rapidly turns into a ruin. The formed concrete in this one make me think it may be rather modern, while others nearby in not much worse shape date back to the Danish settlement of the 1700s.

Francis Bay Trail, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Much of this beautiful trail through low wetland woods is carried on a long raised walkway. In the mud below, innumerable little crabs sit with arms raised, depending their little holes but scuttling down out of sight when something larger like a human approaches closely.

Sea duck near Francis Bay, St. John, US Virgin Islands

A colorful sea duck sailing quietly in its salty topical pond.

Diving Pelicans in Mary's Creek, St. John, US Virgin Islands

There were a dozen or so pelicans fishing in the bay at the base of the hillside where I was having lunch. Their antics entertained us greatly, but were challenging to capture without some sort of telephoto equipment.

Pearly-eyed Thrasher, St. John, US Virgin Islands

A Pearly-eyed thrasher, perched on a rail as it attempts to filch food from humans. They are a beautiful but aggressive species of bird, dispersing in a highly invasive manner throughout the Caribbean.

Dr. Seuss-style fruit, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Big lumpy tree fruit that seems as if designed by Dr. Seuss.

Showy tropical flowers, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Bright and showy tropical flowers on St. John.

Boat crew, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Boat crew giving passengers instructions, hidden behind her mirror shades.

Weathered surfer, St. John, US Virgin Islands

This man and all his possessions seemed young but heavily weathered by outdoor island life.

Pop art taxi, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Bus/taxi covered with pop-art paintings of apparently random kids media figures.

Caneel beach, St. John, US Virgin Islands

A sparsely populated beach beneath a lovely line of palms.

Caribbean blue, St. John, US Virgin Islands

Brilliant blue water over white sands on the edge of St. John.

Rainy Caribbean afternoon

A tropical rainstorm washes warm across the sea in the US Virgin Islands. I used to go down to St. John about once a year, for a rather unusual professional meeting. When Hurricane Irma devastated the island in 2017, however, the meeting was forced to relocate. I have many fond memories of times on St. John, some of which I plan to share over the next few days, and hope to go there again as they continue to rebuild.

Miami Airport

The Miami airport is an airy place, with high white ceilings and subtle lighting.

Wooden ceiling in Portland Jetport

Another bit of OMG, So Maine in the Portland Jetport: wooden ceilings and trim giving the terminal the gestural style of an overgrown camp lodge.

Bears, Portland Jetport

The airport in Portland, Maine seems to go out of its way to be So Damned Maine, like with this chainsaw carving wooden statue of two bears.