Jeanine celebrated her 62nd birthday today. It was the first time in her life that this auspicious occasion found her in the presence of snow. We enjoyed breakfast at the Colonial Inn with friends and Nico before attending the raising of Concord’s new and substantially larger American flag.

Later in the afternoon, we caught up with our good friends Dave and Sarah before a roaring fire, the perfect antidote for the unseasonably cold weather.

Jeanine has been known to stretch out her birthday celebration for days if not weeks. This year, she decided to cram it all into one day.

We joined Maya, Nico, Jeanine’s friend Stephane, and her son Ben for drinks and appetizers at the Mad Monkfish in Cambridge before walking over to the Havana Club where we hit the dance floor for Bachata and Salsa dancing.

Ending a tumultuous week on Wall Street, temperatures also dropped, leading to an uncharacteristically late snow here in Concord. Fortunately, I completed a third day of yardwork before the weather arrived.

When we purchased a bistro table base for our patio, I fashioned an octagonal piece of bluestone (salvaged from the original house) for a top. Unfortunately, it was a bit too small and not uniformly thick or particularly flat. To address this, I ordered a circular granite top that arrived today. I still need to affix it to the base but wanted to do a test placement first.

For the first time in days, the sun was out and it was not raining. Jeanine and I took advantage of the weather to do some spring yard work. Among other tasks, I removed the straw waddles that were in place to prevent soil erosion while our plantings took root. Jeanine said that our neighbors might be interested in reusing these. Let’s just say I was a bit skeptical. Even more so when I explained how hard they would be to transport. They are bulky and heavy, especially when wet. Our neighbor suggested draping them over the roof of his car. It is an idea I would have never considered but it certainly proved effective as shown in this photo from one of our security cameras.

My first introduction to Patricia was during the excavation phase of our house-building project. She introduced herself and asked if she could take some of the clay that was abundant in the mounds of excavated earth. I told her she was welcome to as much as she wanted.

Today she arrived on our doorstep with a beautiful housewarming gift that she had crafted in her ceramic studio. She had hoped to use the clay harvested from our property but explained that the resulting plates were too fragile.

We were thrilled with the gift which will find a prominent place for display in our home.

The couch evaluation committee convened this evening and unanimously approved our new sectional before enjoying a lovely all-family prepared dinner.

It has been several months since we have all been on the same continent, and we were thrilled to catch up with the kids and to share tales of our adventure with them.

I spent some time today curating photos from our New Zealand and Australia trip. My goal is to reduce the keepers to less than a thousand. I am almost there having deleted more than three times that many. I also reviewed some of the short videos I made. I decided to post this one because a picture alone did not do justice to these beautiful falls in the Milford Sound.

Based on my experiences over the last decade, I can predict with some certainty that I will pass a kidney stone whenever I am on a flight that lasts for more than a few hours. I cannot explain why but there is no longer any arguing with the data. I passed the pictured stones after our flight to New Zealand and started passing another after the flight to Australia (still struggling with that one). I apologize for posting on this topic but this blog, now almost twenty years old, also serves as something of a medical history.

On a less gruesome note, I received a request from the Marketing & Communications Director at the Greater Cape Ann Chamber of Commerce in Gloucester seeking permission to use three of my photos in the Greater Cape Ann Guide & Directory for 2025. A sample of last year’s guide can be seen here: https://issuu.com/bostonguide/docs/cacc_2024_issuu?fr=sZTUyMTY2MDI3MDg. She found the photos with a Google search that landed her on my website.

I was happy to submit my photos and look forward to seeing them in print later this year.

While we were in New Zealand, my sister shared this photo of herself with Joe Canelos. He is the son of my cousin Alex (son of my mother’s brother). They met by chance at the Hudson Valley Tango Festival.  Joe has been taking Latin dancing classes with my mother’s former tango instructors and somehow Alissa made the connection.

It turns out that Joe is a budding professional furniture maker. Between my brother, Joe, and I, that makes three woodworkers on the branches of the Canelos family tree. Joe’s website can be found here.

While we were away, the new sectional couch we ordered last year finally arrived. Jeanine and I are both pleased with the new piece and believe it will address the key issue raised by the kids (the ability to sprawl out the way they did on the sectional we owned during their childhood. Nico has already tested it and issued a thumbs-up. Hopefully, Kyle and Maya will reach the same verdict.

Now we need to sell the 1-year-old sofa it is replacing (pictured in the foreground). For reasons that I am unable to ascertain, my Facebook Marketplace account has been suspended for something like the 6th time with no reason provided and a cumbersome process to reinstate. I have listed the sofa on Craigslist and will ask Jeanine to post it on her FB account as well. Reach out if you know someone looking for a like-new modern sofa for half the original price.

Our return to the US took 32 hours from start to finish. We flew from Sydney to Auckland to Houston to Boston. A proper neck pillow and compression socks helped make the journey more relaxing but strong turbulence on all three flights had the opposite effect. We were expecting to return to spring-like weather rather than near-freezing conditions when we touched down. Despite the cold weather, it was wonderful to sleep in our bed for the first time in 5 weeks.

Danish architect Jørn Utzon won the design competition for the Sydney Opera House in 1957 with his innovative concept inspired by spherical geometry and natural forms such as bird wings, clouds, and shells. Construction began in 1959 but faced numerous challenges, including cost overruns and engineering complexities, leading to Utzon’s being forced to resign in 1966 amid political disputes. The project was completed in 1973 by other architects, transforming Utzon’s vision into a global architectural icon and UNESCO World Heritage site. Utzon never returned to see his completed work in person but did receive significant global recognition for his design. Australian architect Peter Hall completed the project resolving complex issues related to seating, acoustics, and glass walls. His significant contribution is often overlooked.

Since arriving in Sydney, I have photographed the Opera House at different times of day and from different angles.

Today, Jeanine and I took a tour and got to see all six of the performance spaces inside and to learn about the architectural features and engineering mastery that went into the building. I think I can safely say that this is the most magnificent and beautiful modern structure I have ever seen.

Manly Beach is located on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, stretching 1.2 miles and offering excellent surfing conditions. It got its name from Governor Arthur Phillip, who was impressed by the “confidence and manly behavior” of the indigenous men he encountered there in 1788. Phillip’s observation led him to name the area “Manly Cove,” which eventually became known as Manly Beach. Intermittent rain and high winds made for an adventurous ferry crossing from Sydney. We arrived mid-morning and walked up and down the full length of the beach before Jeanine found herself a manly man.

Norma’s Deli is not to be missed if you ever find yourself in the area. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch here, and it was all I could do to prevent Jeanine from buying our dinner for take-away as well.

Once fortified with food, we set out for Shelly Beach, a much smaller and intimate one south of Manly. Here, we made a short climb to the top of the pictured cliffs, where we got a birds-eye view of the surfers numbering in the dozens.

Some of the biggest waves broke close to shore and some of the best surfers risked everything for a sweet ride. Notice the proximity of the rocky shore to the dismounted surfer in the photo below.

On the path between beaches, there was an abundance of birds, and I felt lucky to capture the one below. It was my favorite photo of the day.

After hours of walking, we decided to reward our efforts with gelato, and Jeanine, as is her superpower, sussed out the best place. We shared a serving of chocolate almond with nut-infused caramel sauce. Kill me now.

We returned to Sydney by fast ferry (considerably smoother ride than the regular ferry we took earlier in the day) and relaxed at the Customs House Library until our 6 pm walking tour of the “Rocks” began. Originally known as Tallawoladah by the Cadigal people, the Rocks was established in 1788 as the site of Australia’s first colonial settlement. Initially a hub for convicts, sailors, and merchants, it evolved from a rough and tumble, overcrowded area into a historic precinct. Our guide shared stories of robbery, murder, kidnapping and general mayhem painting a vivid picture of life in the area during its early days. It was quite entertaining and led us to some nice vantage points for photography. By the end of the day we covered more than 10 miles on foot.

Sydney Harbor Bridge

Rock crushing car art installation.

This morning, I received a link to an article in our hometown newspaper about Concord United, the soccer team I have played with for the past 22 years. Good thing I will be missing our preseason tune-up match today. Otherwise, I would have had to endure some serious ribbing. The full article can be found here.

On the Australian front, Jeanine and I spent 5 hours at the Taronga Zoo. We ran out of energy before animals to see. The award for the cutest resident was a four-way tie between the baby koala, baby platypus (not pictured due to its nocturnal habitat), the blue penguin (not pictured because it was behind glass), and the baby pygmy hippopotamus.

As you enter the zoo, you will see what I interpret as a statue of King Kong with an open hand for Ann Darrow. It took zero encouragement for Jeanine to assume the role. She did a few poses feigning fear but I liked this one of her giggling the most.

As you would expect, koala bears are prominently featured at an Australian zoo. I photographed nearly a dozen, but this alert youngster was my favorite.

The greater bilby is a long-eared, rabbit-like marsupial native to Australia. It lives in burrows and is active at night, feeding on insects, fruit, or fungi. It was a runner-up in the cutest animal category.

Compared to a kangaroo, rock wallabies are smaller, more agile marsupials adapted to rocky habitats with shorter legs and more vibrant coloration. Kangaroos are larger, faster, and inhabit open plains with longer legs and more uniform coats.

This image is exactly what it looks like. A mother red kangaroo and her joey hugging. I am not anthropomorphizing here. I did not believe it at first, but after watching closely through my telephoto lens, the embrace was unmistakable.

These spiders were not on display. I spotted them on one of the walking paths to the consternation of Jeanine who has been studying up on all the poisonous snakes and spiders native to the country.

If not for the log blocking my view, this might have been one of my all-time favorite animal photos.

When Jeanine and I were in South Africa, I photographed giraffes in the wild with the kinds of African savanna backgrounds you would expect. I like this photo because I was able to isolate the giraffe against the limestone back wall of his enclosure for a composition you would be unlikely to find elsewhere. Whenever I photograph animals at a zoo, I try to do so in a way that does not reveal their captivity.

Born in January, baby pygmy hippopotamus Lololi is every bit as cute as internet celebrity Moo Deng. I shot and saved dozens of photos of this cutie.

The royal spoonbill, also known as the black-billed spoonbill, occurs in intertidal flats and shallows of fresh and saltwater wetlands feeding on crustaceans, fish, and small insects by sweeping its bill from side to side.

I was about 2 feet from this massive silverback gorilla when I took this photo (through the plate glass front of his habitat).

The smallest of all penguins, the blue penguin stands about 12 inches tall. The photo below of one swimming underwater is heavily distorted by the wide-angle lens used to make the image.