Pictures Taken By you...

[Themis]

The sky over Vienna, a few minutes ago. I thought it looked great.



It's a little blurry since I couldn't use photoflash. (But I did in another picture and that looks like this - scary )

[Virgil]

Hey Virgil!! Glad to see you were in California! You took some great pictures. My dad was looking at them and said you were probably up in Santa Monica or Redondo beach. But if you are taking the PCH then it is quite easy to just drive on up and down the coast! I did that last summer. I can't wait to spend my time there this summer! Hope you enjoyed your stay...when were you out here?

Petrarch tells me that I was at Newport Beach (she recognizes the pier), and yes I was staying in Santa Monica. I was there in March. Thanks all on the compliments.

Great pictures Moria, Themis, and Bunny. I enjoyed them all.

[Monica]

Really wonderful pics everyone!
Steveh i remember when that happened. Cant believe that was 2005 though!
Monica thats a really nice picture of south dublin Bay.

Thanks We were really lucky with the weather when we finally managed to get off Dublin and visit some nearby places like Bray, Greystones or Portmarnock. Great places. All of them.

[SteveH]

Not by me, but of me: on Brighton seafront at the end of the London-Brighton Bike Ride, 2005: 54 miles on my 54th birthday.

[kiz_paws]

Great pics, everyone.

Steve, congrats on a bike ride well done. I love my bike too, and maybe someday I will do a long run like that! Nice picture.

Here is an entry point for a field near my place, we see a lot of deer here, and it is quite picturesque:

[kilted exile]

i thought it was funny how you got a Do Not Enter sign behind your deck, but yeah, what did you use to get the paint off, i've pwerwashed my deck a number of times to peel the dirt and stain off so my dad can stain it again, when he gets around to it, after he gets the bunkbed for my great-grand-children to sleep in, (meaning he won't do it, and most likely neither will i)

Using a powerwasher alone will get rid of the dirt, but it isnt going to do a thing about the stain. Because of the very nature of stain when applied properly it soaks into the wood and is a real pain to get off, I was lucky that what I was removing was just a paint finish (even that took long enough). I used a product called stripex on the base of the deck. It is an envirofreindly alkali based liquid which you paint onto the surface you want to remove, leave it on (instructions say 1/2hr but I found it was better to leave it for a good 2hrs to work properly), then wash it off - again instructions said low pressure, but more effective with high power nozzle on power washer.

This worked for the deck surface itself, but it drips down the struts and railing so you dont get the required contact time. For the struts I had to use my hand sander & some 60 grade paper. Just be prepared for it to take a long time and lots of paper. Because you used just stain, the stripex may not be as effective so you may have to sand the entire thing.

Great deck! I wish we had room for something as great and welcoming as that!!!

It is a very basic deck design, & really if you are not in an apartment building you can have a deck just need to be creative with placement

[kilted exile]

Nice work Kilt. Yes I think a cedar stain would look nicer.

Yeah, I think so. I just finished putting the lost coat of the stain on 15mins ago. Some of the red just wouldnt come off so the whole thing now has a kind of rustic look to it:

Kilted, I love that darling gray kitten. How old is she/he? It looks to be really young... and so sweet. Love kittens! You deck you built is so nice. I wish my son would build me a nice deck like that and plant those lovely bushes for privacy. I would sit there and read all day long. Good choice - the stain instead of the paint. Must have been a lot of work stripping it off. Wow, good for you - you are a fine builder. I hope you mother enjoys it and appreciates her thoughtful son.

The kitten is now 2months old, her latest trick is trying to climb the curtains. Building a deck is not really difficult, I learned how to do it one summer building boardwalks through marshes for nature trails. The basic philosophy is the same.

[BunnySummers]

Great pics, everyone.
Here is an entry point for a field near my place, we see a lot of deer here, and it is quite picturesque:

Love this picture, kiz_paws. It looks like something I might see around here.

Here's one from a road near my place.

Clicable thumb

[kiz_paws]

Wow, Bunny, if that doesn't make one want to paint, nuthin' will! Beautiful!

[Virgil]

My wife and I had a vacation to Arches National Park in southern Utah a couple of years ago. Here are some photos.

This is a famous arch that you may have seen in pictures. The park is called Arches because there are many natural arches formed.

[Virgil]

Other sections of the park had some weird rock formations. I think this was called the three gossips.




And this looks like something out of a sci-fi movie:




And we did a good bit of hiking, and here is from one our hikes:

[Virgil]

We took a rafting ride down the part of the Colorado River in that area. Here are a couple of pictures from our raft ride.







We stayed at a hotel outside the park. The dining room had a great view. The hotel was used for many famous western movies. There was a lot of filming in the past here. Unfortunately I can't remember which movies. This is outside the restaurant and it rained one day and we had a marvelous rainbow and even a double rainbow, which I had never seen before.







A sunset view:

[Virgil]

And finally, the hotel had views of these marvelous plateaus (they called them buttes) in the distance that the afternoon sun would hit. I would sit outside with a glass of wine and watch the sun hit them and take an occaisional photo.

[Turk]

I didn't know there's this kinda things in Utah. Is there a lot of Morons in Utah too?

[Virgil]

I didn't know there's this kinda things in Utah. Is there a lot of Morons in Utah too?

Utah is a very very strange state. It has lots of strange natural sights. It's almost a world from science fiction.

You mean Mormons, not morons. Yes there are lots of Mormons in Utah.