Split Rock

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Taken in Joshua Tree NP.

Dave

[francois]

Reminds me of some stone walls around Machu Picchu or other pre-Columbian structures.
Well seen.

[Rob C]

Tell me, Dave, did you catch a whiff of the Gram Parsons ghost?

Rob

(From an over-heated Mallorca, where the sea has hit 33 degrees C. This is decidedly not good news. I once did some research and discovered that the Mediterranean had dried out three times.)

[degrub]

We are right there with yah -
https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/contour/contour.small.gif
Persian Gulf may beat us both to it though !

[Rob C]

The Gulf of California, bounded on the west by the Baja peninsula, has stuck in my mind from the days long gone when I was obsessed with boats. Somebody had written and photographed an article about sailing there, and the colours were out of this world. I remember it as being before the advent of Photoshop, so maybe just a trick of Velvia?

Whatever the truth, it really did look like it had that magic that one used to long to find for calendar gigs with girls. Maybe Sports Illustrated went there once; they had the budget, the models and as many capable photographers as anyone could desire. I believe that their “swimsuit” edition outsold all the other ones that they produced. I get that; how times and mores have changed!

I suppose that, today, it’s probably a happy hunting ground for pirates and drug runners. Perhaps not the wisest of locations for sailors or photography teams, then. ;-(

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Reminds me of some stone walls around Machu Picchu or other pre-Columbian structures.
Well seen.

Thank you 

Tell me, Dave, did you catch a whiff of the Gram Parsons ghost?

Rob

Wow Rob, that's a really obscure connection you made to my shot there. I had to look up who Gram Parsons was - HERE to find out what you were referring to.

But now having seen who he was and what he did and his contribution to music. My old brain does seems to remember him - even though a lot of G&Ts have flowed under the bridge since then 

You have an amazing amount of old, but very interesting info stored in your noggin Rob 

Thanks for the comments...

Dave

[Rob C]

Thank you 

Wow Rob, that's a really obscure connection you made to my shot there. I had to look up who Gram Parsons was - HERE to find out what you were referring to.

But now having seen who he was and what he did and his contribution to music. My old brain does seems to remember him - even though a lot of G&Ts have flowed under the bridge since then 

You have an amazing amount of old, but very interesting info stored in your noggin Rob 

Thanks for the comments...

Dave

Comes with the years, a ruinous youth (my own, I mean) and a love for those G&Ts as well, shared by my late better half.

I remember sitting beside her in the bar of the old Hostellerie de la Paix in Payrac, in the Dordogne area, nursing one of those chemical delights, when in trouped a group of British cyclists. An elderly gentleman wandered over to us and asked what we were drinking. When we told him, he said “how civilised!, which kinda made our day. He must have been, then, much younger than I am now…

We never got back there, despite it having been our regular last road stop before Spain, and the Barcelona ferry home to Mallorca. My first heart attack meant Ann pulling down the curtain on road trips. After she died, I played (too long) with the idea of a solo trip back there, but never had the nerve to try to find out if it was worth it without her. In the end, fate and the death-blow of the new motorway systems meant it was game over for the hotel…


P.S.

You can break you own heart in so many gentle ways.

[Christopher Sanderson]

Amazing photo & rock. There are some mind-bending tricks being played on my brain with scale.
At first I look at the tree/shrub at left which makes the rock seem humongous.
Then I spy what appears to be a dark toned bottle or carafe on the right which shrinks the stone back to 'normal'. Fascinating.

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Comes with the years, a ruinous youth (my own, I mean) and a love for those G&Ts as well, shared by my late better half.

I am truly sorry for the loss of your wife Rob. But as I keep saying to my other half. The problem with living beyond our allotted time, is that we have to watch everyone else, passing away.   

But enough of the melancholy, here is what I do to create my perfect G&T 

First of all, keep the gin in the freezer and the tonic in the fridge.

Next use a tall glass (40cl - ish) and pour in two fingers of Gin (preferably Plymouth Gin, because it really is the best - although Greenall's or Gordon's will do at a push).

Then add in four ice cubes and one slice of lemon - you only need one slice of lemon, as you only want a hint of the lemon flavour.

Next pour in the tonic, which has to be Schweppes and not any of that diet rubbish.

Then drink - no stirring required, as you already mixed it by pouring the tonic over the lemon, ice cubes and gin.

Then rinse and repeat, about every hour or so

Amazing photo & rock. There are some mind-bending tricks being played on my brain with scale.
At first I look at the tree/shrub at left which makes the rock seem humongous.
Then I spy what appears to be a dark toned bottle or carafe on the right which shrinks the stone back to 'normal'. Fascinating.

I see that Chris and it isn't a bottle, but just a shadow in the rock. But anyway, glad you like my shot 

Dave

[Dave (Isle of Skye)]

Reminds me of some stone walls around Machu Picchu or other pre-Columbian structures.
Well seen.

Thanks Francois 

Dave

[Chris Kern]

. . . here is what I do to create my perfect G&T. . . . and pour in two fingers of Gin (preferably Plymouth Gin, because it really is the best . . .

Nope.  Tanqueray.

[Christopher Sanderson]

Nope.  Tanqueray.

+1

[degrub]

TnT as we used to call it...

[Rob C]

I am truly sorry for the loss of your wife Rob. But as I keep saying to my other half. The problem with living beyond our allotted time, is that we have to watch everyone else, passing away.   

But enough of the melancholy, here is what I do to create my perfect G&T 

First of all, keep the gin in the freezer and the tonic in the fridge.

Next use a tall glass (40cl - ish) and pour in two fingers of Gin (preferably Plymouth Gin, because it really is the best - although Greenall's or Gordon's will do at a push).

Then add in four ice cubes and one slice of lemon - you only need one slice of lemon, as you only want a hint of the lemon flavour.

Next pour in the tonic, which has to be Schweppes and not any of that diet rubbish.

Then drink - no stirring required, as you already mixed it by pouring the tonic over the lemon, ice cubes and gin.

Then rinse and repeat, about every hour or so

I see that Chris and it isn't a bottle, but just a shadow in the rock. But anyway, glad you like my shot 

Dave

Reminds me of the old tv commercial for Schweppes:

“You can always spot a rotter by his total lack of Schweppes.”

When you think about it, political correctness took away some of the cutest tv eye-candy you ever saw. Oh, those tropical islands and all that tanning lotion, not to mention little Shakespearean cigars! Even coffee powder was sexy, and whisky looked interesting splashing over rocks. Of ice. In a crystal glass. What innocent pleasures and mind adventures today’s viewer have lost! Oh well, there’s always the friggin’ smartphone with which to spend the evening. So exciting to see what a stranger’s pudding looks like.

Well, for us, it was Gordon’s. The local stuff used to be awful; not to mention any brands, but the one I had in mind (starting with an L) might, on a bad night, be confused with the rope a cowboy would have his poor old nag carry.

But never mind cowboys: you could take a White Horse anywhere. If memory still serves, it was one of those White Horse ads that had a forgotten Hasselblad A12 back appear on a shelf in the background. Wonderful years to be in advertising. As the Americans are fond of saying, you could put your kids through college on the money that was splashing around in that amazing, creative industry. Hello AI; nice of you to continue with the killing of that business model and sucking out its last, lingering breath.

[Paulo Bizarro]

Fine shot.