Kanji practice, natsu, Summer...

 

Deer and Bell Tower in Nara

 

first day of school!!!!

 

Muir Beach Summer painting

 

Summer at the Beach painting snippets

 

Happy 4th of July!!!

 

End of the summer season last days of warmth by the pool catching the coolness of early Autumn

 

playing and exploring along and within the refreshingly freezing cold waters of Beaver Creek #calaverasbigtrees #watercolor

...playing and exploring along and within the refreshingly freezing cold waters of Beaver Creek #calaverasbigtrees #watercolor over ink sketch #dougwittnebel...

Zephyr Cove boulder and Bonsai setting

Explorer John C. Fremont first saw Lake Tahoe in 1844 from the top of Red Lake Peak, which is located south of the basin and what is now Carson Pass. He named it Lake Bonpland after a botanist, but then changed it to Mountain Lake. Subsequently it was named Lake Bigler after a California Governor. The US Department of Interior didn’t care for it either, and commissioned Dr. Henry Degroot, a journalist, to come up with a name. Degroot suggested “Tahoe” an Indian name meaning “big water”. It took decades before the name finally stuck, thanks to action in 1945 by the California State Legislature...

Shaved Ice at Snow Bro in Taipei

And sometimes I love to paint the scenery of the delicious food while I travel...

Shaved Ice in Taiwan is a wonderful treat in the hot melting summer months.  Snow Bro is a very cool dessert place with lots of topping options for your shaved ice or snow ice... the service guys are quick and hip and the mango special is to die for... here are the two offerings we tried.  

Summer, swimming, pools, and watermelon, fireworks...

Beach balls and swimming times 

Watermelon on the 4th of July 

Chicago in the wet summer fog.

Chicago in a wet June mood

Wandering around the Myojyoji Temple on the Noto peninsula...

... a portion of the scene from the temple grounds...

Founded in 1294 by the Japanese saint Nichizo, a disciple of the Nichiren Sect, the Myōjō-ji Temple is located in on the Noto Peninsula south of Wajima, and is now the head temple of the Nichiren Sect.

Myōjō-ji Temple consists of a set of large buildings, set on atop a hill, which were created over the last six centuries. One of them is the priest’s living quarters, built in 1593, and some of the more striking ones include the Goju-no-To (35m tall 5 storied pagoda) built in 1618 and the Joroku-do Hall, located at the very far end of the temple.

I spent three humid hot hours wandering the grounds of the temple and buildings.  Dragonflies darted in the shadows and Semi (cicadas) were singing in the trees.  It looked like it would really rain but no water ever touched the ground...

Friday morning TV Tokyo characters

It's Friday in #tokyo on the morning #TV show for #children like me! #kinyobi #きんようび 

4th of July!

Swimming pools in the summer time

Summertime watermelon delight

A painted view of the sandy stretches of Ohki beach in Kochi on the south west end of the island of Shikoku...

Hundreds if not thousands of small red crabs live in the moist territory off of the beach and above the highway 321, skittering and scampering in flight to hide under the rocks and between the cracks in the ground... this view is from the dining room area of the Kaiyu Inn...