PEACHFRONT SPEAKS

Recent entries july 4, 2018 - 2018-07-04 the triangle continues of courtney, boobear, & nyota - 2018-07-03 Cookie so cute telling, "Hello" to sparrows - 2018-07-01 lovebirb in love - 2018-06-30 wren with fluffffff - 2018-06-24 Read my new book, The 10 Best Things You Can Do For Your Bird at Amazon or at many other fine distributors like Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, and more. By public demand, and after a delay of an embarrassing number of years, I've finally put my notorious essay, Ender and Hitler: Sympathy for the Superman, free on the fabulous internets. A bibliography of my published books and stories. Here's a simple card-counting FAQ to get you up to speed on the basics. Here's the true story of the notorious DD' blackjack team, told for the first time on the fabulous internets. No other team went from a starting investor's bankroll of zero to winning millions of dollars. A Sadean take on Asimov's classic Three Laws of Robotics can be found in Roger Williams' NOW REVIEWED ON SLASHDOT!!! The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect. Adult readers only please -- explicit sex and violence. For updates on the "Dead Tree Project" and other topics, you may visit the official fan site, Passages in the Void.. My Bird Lists -- My Louisiana State Life List, My Yard List and, tah dah, My World Life List. HEY! What happened to the Peachfront Conure Files? The world's only OFFICIAL Peachfront Conure site now features free peachfront conure coverage, including a magazine length Intro to Conures previously published in American Cage-Bird Magazine, now free on the web. I offer the best free Peachfront Conure information on the internet. If you have great Peachfront Conure info, stories, or photos to share, contact me so I can publicize your pet, your breeding success, your great photograph, etc. on my site. Thanks.

i conquer the castle 2009-03-29 - 6:03 p.m. all photos � 2009 by elaine radford the castle looming over u�hisar My breakfast was late today. Methinks my host forgot about the time change, heh. I went hiking over to U�hisar, the Castle Town. Going over, I walked along the road, going from overlook to overlook. Spectacular. The tour buses must have been running late as well, because I had the place to myself. As I picked my way across the frozen ice and snow from viewpoint to viewpoint, I really had to wonder if my photos can tell the story of blue mountains, snowy mountains, the long red plateau or mesa, and then the endless bizarre stone formations. overlook on the road from g�reme to u�hisar The Castle is the highest point in Cappadocia. Its pretty wow just to walk up to the base of the thing and look down, but for the small fee, you can climb up the multi story structure yourself. Of course Peachfront cant turn aside from such a challenge. I made it to the top despite the snow and ice, because Im not a bit embarrassed to crawl up on all fours where needed. Hey, I will never see those snickering British tourists again so let em laugh. doorway at the top of the castle I had the top to myself for a brief few minutes, so I enjoyed my picnic in the most spectacular possible setting. Going down was a little scary in places. The castle was not the only victim of cave in and earthquake. Large parts of the town are these no doubt deeply historic ruins, many of which you are welcome to buy yourself. I somehow found myself wandering in a large area of tumble-down buildings, most abandoned but some of which were being used for livestock guarded by two chained but unfriendly dogs. Yikes. At least the wandering ducks and muscovies were easy-going. this town is just chockfull of no doubt deeply historical ruins for sale After a spooky experience of drifting through the disaster zone, I got back on track and found the Pigeon Valley Trailhead. It was meant to be. I descended (very, very slowly) into the beautiful valley. The boxed-in walls meant I never saw any tour busloads peering over at me. In fact I didnt see a soul except for the European dude who asked me where he was. Uh oh. When I spotted him coming my way, I was about to check with him that I was stıll on the rıght road to Goreme -- until he asked first. But we were both pointed correctly, and I turned a corner and discovered I was back in Goreme only an hour into the hike. The signs debated whether its a 2 km or a 4 km hike. Considering I had to do some vertical descent on ice (equals slow as heck) I vote its 2 km. The 4 km might be the round trip. the castle that once guarded the highest point in cappadocia has fallen victim to erosion and earthquake note the omni-present pigeon houses on the castle The Pigeon Valley was white with snow, the only sound the music of melting snow -- the waterfall of snow melt, then the running of the creek. Mysterious stones, a wealth of ancient pigeon houses. descending into pigeon valley With several hours of daylight left, I couldnt do another long hike, but I was in no mood to quit. I decided to head back to the Valley of the Swords, because it was both close and relatively birdy. Most of the snow was gone on this side of Goreme, so I had the added benefit of not having to keep stepping so cautiously for fear of slipping on ice. All in all, it was a wise decision. I got Rock Nuthatch for sure and Eastern Rock Nuthatch for maybe -- need to have my photo looked at and check some range information to be 100 percent. I looked down and almost fell off the nearest cliff, because in the same unexciting (to my eye) scraggly bit of land where I saw the owl, I saw a beautiful Eurasian Hoopoe. What else? A Common Kestrel showed himself well enough to be identifıed. Lots of Linnets, including a few spring males. Oh, and a couple of White Wagtails in front of the horse farm along the path. One of the last structures I wandered into was an unusually large and well-preserved mausoleum, which is not to say that it had been spared the ravages of the past 1000 years. But you could still see the bizarre red-painted symbols. No restless spirits there, they lived a good life in a beautiful place. You might expect a creepy sensation from, lets face it, an ancient grave long rotted and exposed to the elements, leaving only the outlines of where the bodies were. But it didnt feel that way at all. there's a good 360 degree view from the top of the castle, here is a view overlooking the road i walked from g�reme to u�hisar back - next All Rights Reserved, Copyright 2002-2017 by Elaine Radford