Love Vandalism, Bristol, UK

I love everything about this graffiti / mural, including the fact that there is no window on the wall.

The Ship, Bristol, UK

I love The Ship pub's stylized logo painted broad across their wall.

Hoop art, Bristol, UK

Colorful bending hoops on poles mark this streetcorner public art installation.

Fragments of culture, Bristol, UK

Shard-like mural spraying fragments of different cultures across the surface of a building.

Stone building, Bristol, UK

Nice stone peaks of an old church-associated building.

Colorful windows, Bristol, UK

Dense modern housing that's entirely homogeneous except for its brightly assorted colors of protruding window frames.

Please go!, Bristol, UK

I think these furious chickens are actually pleading with us to go vegan, but the vandalism of the sign improves my enjoyment of the message.

Tower outside Bristol, UK

Tiered tower on the outskirts of Bristol, presumably all filled with broadcast equipment of various sorts.

M4 Motorway bridges, UK

I like the style of these heavy, shallow-arched concrete motorway bridges.

Heathrow bridge crossings

Extensively long, claustrophobically low-ceiling pedestrian bridges over the roads near a Heathrow terminal.

Heathrow Hotel, UK

My flight arrived late at Heathrow due to an emergency stop in Dublin, just late enough that rental cars were impossible and I ended up at a last-minute stay in an airport hotel. But at least it these really awesome looking room number signs!

Chicago in early March

Chicago lurks cold any grey in the dawn in early March.

Ice docks, Chicagoland

Whiteness marks weak regions of the ice extending out around from every T-shaped dock in this artificial lake.

Partial development, Chicagoland

Another partially completed development, with the completed hours placed with no apparent pattern.

Snow-de-sacs, Chicagoland

On the outskirts of the Chicago area, an incomplete development is sketched by the differential texture of the snow in its cul-de-sacs.

Polygonal farm, Illinois

Most of the Midwest is carved into very rectilinear shapes and farms, but this farm here has a complex polygonal boundary of human-reshaped watersheds.

Winding tree-lined road, Illinois

Somebody has got a long winding road (driveway?) with one precise layer of regularly planted trees along its oddly winding track.

Looping fields, Illinois

I'm not sure what these concentric loops are, though I love their patterns.  Perhaps bunched lines of hay?

Snow Sprites, Illinois

Drifting little sprites of low-lying cloud, rising to catch the sun above the still-shadowed plain below them.

Rotated city center, Illinois

Two chunks of city at perfect diagonals to one another.

Silent farm, Wisconsin

Very classic-looking small Midwestern farm sitting isolated in the midst of the faintly snowrippled fields.

Fine-grained farm, Wisconsin

Whatever this farm is doing has caused it to be divided into a great many small plots, highlighted by the different ways the snow is textured on them. Near the farmhouse itself, long white half cylinders mark some sort of greenhouse / hoophouse structures, perhaps being used to grow greens in the winter.

Valleys near Dubuque, Iowa

My next sequence is bittersweet: photos of what I am thinking of as "the final trip", when I spent March 4-13 traveling to the UK for a conference. I departed on a wintry morning in March with COVID-19 a growing concern but not yet an emergency, and returned the day before the US border went crazy. On this outbound flight from Iowa, however, all felt calm and normal as I looked down on the wrinkling valleys stamping fractal darkness in the snow.

Riverfront Crossings Park, Iowa City

I love the angles of this sculpture at the entrance to the new Riverfront Crossings Park in Iowa City.

Red rippled sky, Iowa

A closer look at those hanging folds of red-purple clouds.

Red rippled sky, Iowa

A lovely red rippled sky at sunset near us.

Rusted holes, Iowa City

Rusted holes, who knows from what, in the walls of an old college building.

Hanging lights, Iowa City

I enjoy that old-school shapes of these suspended light fixtures.

Sludge Lagoons, Iowa City

In the park surrounding the city water plant, these signs sit atop high berms and always make me think of how 80s movies treated toxic waste, like at any moment some sort of mutant creatures are going to start climbing over the top.

Duck Tracks, Iowa City

When the river rises downtown, there's are areas of the river-side path that are designed to flood and help contain the water. then it goes down and leave patterns of mud that the ducks and geese explore.

Ice storm trees, Iowa City

Evergreen with decorating ice.

Ice storm trees, Iowa City

Another webwork of shining branches near our local supermarket.

Ice storm trees, Iowa City

Hanging drops of water sit frozen in the light.

Ice storm trees, Iowa City

Ice on the trees glitters from its surrounding of holiday lights.

Ice storm trees, Iowa City

More ice-storm affected trees, with mistaken red unseasonal buds from the warm Christmas weather helping to decorate an intricate maze of branches.

Ice storm trees, Iowa City

In honor of the winter weather predicted for today, here are some pictures of how an ice storm earlier this winter decorated the trees around our area.

Concrete Daisy, Iowa City

Hidden in a bicycle tunnel beneath the railroad tracks in a residential part of down, this beautiful daisy mural bloom on the concrete walls.

Cosmic Eye, Iowa City

The cosmic eye gazes down upon us all from a rooftop above downtown Iowa City.

Nothin' but crust

My seven-year old carefully expressed a distinct opinion regarding the crust of her sandwich, an act which took quite a bit of delicacy and dedication.

Dino Swarm, Iowa City

Last Halloween, in addition to snow, we encountered this startling swarm of dinosaurs ravaging our neighborhood together.

Ghosts, Iowa City

A great swarm of ghosts, ready for a game at a kid's Ghostbusters-themed birthday party last summer.

No Bad Days, Iowa City

Found on a car, and feels like a good message at the moment.

Noon-Years Balloons, Iowa City

Great billows of balloons waiting to be released at noon for a kids New Years' party in a local family brewpub (yes, that sounds a bit contradictory, but it really isn't).

Tire Christmas, Amana Colonies, IA

Christmas decorations made of tires, out in the Amana Colonies.

Durga Puja display

On a smaller scale, Durga Puja in our home.

Durga Puja, Coralville, IA

Another holiday past: Durga Puja last fall.

Frog and deflated pumpkin, Iowa City

Glaze-eyed frog sitting stiffly beside and entirely too relaxed pumpkin on a shelf.

Crumpling pumpkin, Iowa City

The ghosts of holidays past: a crumpling pumpkin last November.

Sunset, Riverside, IA

Luminous sunset over the little town of Riverside Iowa, the official future birthplace of Captain James T. Kirk.

Stage lights, Iowa City

A stylized representation of stage lights outside of a local theater.