Bird relief, London, UK

Layered relief sculpture-painting of a bird, dominating the wall of a tall building in London.

Rectangular grid, London, UK

I think this rooftop array of concrete rectangles is purely decorative, but I cannot tell for sure.

Striped skyscraper, London, UK

Stipes of narrow window and concrete in this brutalist-adjacent London skyscraper.

Rounded modernist building, London, UK

A close-up on the bulging columns of windows in this building.

Rounded modernist building, London, UK

In contrast with the black and white theme of the main of the building, the elevator is a highly contrasting deep red cube.

Rounded modernist building, London, UK

A neat rounded modernist building with its elevator slotted into a groove in its exterior.

Reflective building, London, UK

Another view of the reflective sky.

Reflective building, London, UK

Sky reflected in a glass-walled building.

BT Tower, London, UK

British Telecom broadcast tower, stretching high above London.

Curving archway, London, UK

Mediterraeanesque architecture in an old London building.

Internal and external angles, London, UK

I like this combination of angles from out-thrust vertical and horizontal window structures, entangling visually with the angles of the stair inside.

Alice at the library, London, UK

Alice contemplates the Cheshire Cat in Wonderland on the sign for the British Library.

Android elevator stack, London, UK

Googles HQ-in-progress in London announces itself with little colorful Android icons on the sides of the elevator stacks, always the first things to rise in a modern construction site.

St. Pancras Station, London, UK

Immediately beside Kings Cross, St. Pancras Station presents a more modest and old-school profile.

Platform 9 3-4, Kings Cross London

On the wall at Kings Cross Station is a simple sign indicating that Harry Potter referenced this place. Before the sign surges a great throng of people, queued up to pay to take their pictures in front of said sign.

Kings cross ceiling, London, UK

The ceiling of Kings Cross Station in London now has some beautiful lighting that highlights its triangular patterning.

A skyline across centuries, Cambridge, UK

No matter how modern other parts of it are, from the fens on the South side of Cambridge city center, the view might well have been unchanged for many centuries.

Cycle dog, Cambridge, UK

Motorcycling dog, stenciled on the side of one of the more modern Cambridge buildings.

Bike shop ET, Cambridge, UK

ET hanging out in the corner of a bicycle shop window, appropriately enough.

Porcelain elephants, Cambridge, UK

A long line of tiny porcelain elephants in a shop window, each one's pattern different from the rest.

Sculpture at night, Cambridge, UK

Flower-like marble sculpture visually (but not literally) flowing in the darkness.

Sundial, Cambridge, UK

Dual sundials around the corner of a Cambridge building.

Giant Locust, Cambridge, UK

I really do not know what this giant devil-insect's deal is, perched atop a golden wheel, but I suspect it's somehow allegorical.

Exuberant boar, Queens College, Cambridge, UK

A boar with, like, the biggest tusks in the world, exuberantly oinking on the gate of Queens College, where I was lodging.

Reproachful saint, Cambridge, UK

Some saint or similar religious figure looking down at me reproachfully from their building nook.

Mouthy building, Cambridge, UK

This building turns me into a child: the bay windows on this building look to me like a big mouth with big white teeth going "NOM NOM NOM."

Stained glass scholars, Cambridge, UK

In this college hall, the stained glass holds not saints but scholars.

Goblet of Fire, Cambridge, UK

So, I know it's not really, but seeing this enormous bronze basin in a courtyard immediately made me think of the "Goblet of Fire" from Harry Potter.

Kings College, Cambridge, UK

Kings College from the back, across the river and the fields on which it still maintains cows.

Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, UK

I had a surprisingly emotional reaction to the massive bulk of Kings College Chapel, not because I have any particular relation to the church per se, but because it had become our family tradition, when I was a child, to decorate our tree on Christmas Eve while listening to A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, broadcast live from this building. Seeing it in person grounded a series of happy moments of my childhood and took me back to those pleasant memories.

Kings College entrance, Cambridge, UK

A closer look at the central clock tower over the entry portal.

Kings College entrance, Cambridge, UK

The pointy medieval entrance to King's College, Cambridge.

City in Bronze, Cambridge, UK

A map of the city center, cast in bronze. Enduring landmarks only, please.

Narrow streets, Cambridge, UK

Narrow streets in Cambridge, surrounded by ancient buildings.

Punts on the Cam, Cambridge, UK

Punts at a rental dock, lined up and waiting for people to take them out.

Punters on the Cam, Cambridge, UK

Other parts of the Cam are narrow, squeezed more tightly between the buildings of the city.

Punters on the Cam, Cambridge, UK

In fact, the main lack of peace on the Cam is the fact that on a nice day, there are so, so many punters, many of them tourists profoundly unskilled at the effort.

Punters on the Cam, Cambridge, UK

The rive in Cambridge is a slow, peaceful stretch, much of it going through the park-like grounds of the colleges, and on any day one is likely to see people "punting" - going up and down on flat bottomed boats pushed by long poles.

Jerwood Library, Cambridge, UK

 A very narrow, stylishly modern college library by the river Cam.

Old facings, Cambridge, UK

Old Tudor-style buildings in the heart of Cambridge.

Maple wings, Cambridge, UK

Outside a hotel in Cambridge, two enormous metal maple seeds raise their fairy wings to the sky.

Umbrellas, Heathrow Airport, UK

At the start of a trip to England last summer, colorful umbrellas hang in the sky outside a Heathrow terminal.

Roofdeck sunset, Iowa City

The, touching down upon the rooftops, seeming to shine right through.

Roofdeck sunset, Iowa City

The sun a livid ball of molten fire, dropping toward the hilltop buildings of the hospital.

Roofdeck sunset, Iowa City

Sunset streaming through the twice-divided sight lines of a roofdeck restaurant in Iowa City.

Sunlight streamers, Iowa

Banners of streaming sunlight emerging through the clouds.

Roller coaster, Altoona, Iowa

On our way home from that trip, we stopped for an afternoon at an amusement park which featured, among many other things, this intricately twisting roller coaster.  We didn't ride it, but I liked the look.

Cropdusting helicopter, central Iowa

This helicopter was flying very low, swooping back and forth and banking aerobatically above the road. As we came closer, it became clear that this was happening because it was extremely thoroughly cropdusting a field, the first time I've ever seen any sort of cropdusting at all going on in Iowa.

Windmill rising from the corn, central Iowa

To me, a truly iconic Iowa countryside sight: giant windmill rising above the corn. This was just one in an farm of hundreds stretching as far as the eye could see.

Tree frog, Decorah, Iowa

Tree frog, chilling in the morning on the cool inside rim of an outdoor water tub.