THE SONGS OF A NIGHTINGAIL

       My great grandmother, Ella Chase Taylor (seated), and her sister, Eliza Taylor (standing) My Grandma B, Harriet (Hattie) Bell Smedley Bradley, daughter of Ella Chase Taylor (Smedley), with her daughter, Frances. My Grandma B with her second eldest granddaughter, me, when I was around 2 years old. Me with our son in 1972 High & low:  Youngest daughter, eldest daughter, and son in 1976. Low & High:  Youngest daughter, eldest daughter, & son in 1993.  Seventeen years makes a bit of difference! J The bridesmaid – our youngest daughter – with her nephew - the ring bearer - our eldest grandson and eldest son of our son.  He was 5 years old at the time and handled his ring bearer duties perfectly. :) Stairs make a perfect place for a family portrait with high & low seating.  I have always loved this picture especially because of the interplay between granddaughter and Grampa.   That granddaughter is now 28, a college g...

  Watching an eclipse of the sun looking high through a layer of fog.  This in Alaska in 2017. Watching an eclipse of the sun looking low to the ground - or in this case, to a deck.  Giant Sequoias can grow well over 200 feet high.  The “Discovery Tree” in Calaveras Big Trees State Park was 287 feet high before it was cut down.  The “General Sherman” tree, still living in Sequoia National Park, rises 275 feet in height. This Bonsai Sequoia is a few inches low. A high-rise Sunflower! A tiny little flower surviving in a crack of asphalt. High grass. Low grass. Mount Watkins in Yosemite National Park, seen on the left, is 8500 feet high in elevation.  Its reflection on Mirror Lake, which sits at an elevation of 4098 feet, is 4492 feet lower.  This photograph was taken in the 1800s.  “Mirror Lake” no longer exists like this.  The lake was created by dredging out the sand and dirt carried down each winter from the mountains by Tenaya Creek.  ...

  Going high:  My granddad, Frank Herbert Bradley, and a friend sitting at approximately 8000 feet in elevation on Overhanging Rock on Glacier Point, 3214 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor. Going low:  Yours truly, 7 years old, looking up out of a granite hole in D.L. Bliss State Park, Lake Tahoe.  Actually the hole was at a relative elevation of 6500 feet. Going high: My husband atop 13,061 ft. Mount Dana in Yosemite National Park.  He climbed this mountain 20 years ago.  He was in pretty good shape but even so, during the last 1000 feet or so. said because of the ‘thin’ air he could only take a half dozen steps at a time before having to stop for deep breaths! Going low, or in this case, subterranean: A few years earlier – in 1983 – we had gone to visit friends up north and wound up visiting the Oregon Caves National Monument in Cave Junction.  Those stairs go way down there!   Going high:  My three kiddos up a pine tree.  “Hi ...

  The R  ppell’s Griffon Vulture, with an 8 foot wingspan, can reach a flying height of 37,000 feet! The little blue Fairy Penguin is a flightless bird who lives at sea level on the shores of Australia and New Zealand.  It is only 12 to 13 inches tall and is cute as the dickens. J    The sweet little Inaccessible Island Rail bird of Inaccessible Island, an extinct volcanic island off the coast of Tristan de Cunha in the South Atlantic Ocean is a flightless bird with small useless wings.  Its ancestors must have been able to fly once upon a time, however, which is how the birds came to be on the island, but as no predators exist on the island, the birds have no need to fly and have gradually lost the ability to do so.  Humans have lived there from time to time, but no one lives there now.  The terrain is not all that inviting.  See the next photo . . . The little flightless Inaccessible Island Rail lives on the beaches and central plateau of the i...