I Is For...

Well, it's time for the "I" post in the ABC Along and at first I thought that would be difficult but as time went on, many things came to mind.

First, I is for insects and one of my favorite insects is the bee.


This insect is called a Hummingbird Moth and the only reason I know that is because I saw one on Marguerite's blog.

My favorite insect is a Pipevine Swallowtail. This one is probably one of my top five favorites of cards I have made.

I is for Iris. Bearded Iris are new to me, as in my home state one is more likely to see Dutch or Japanese Iris. These photos were taken at High Sierra Iris Gardens near me. I really love flowers that have infinite color variations like orchids, iris and pansies. Each one is a miniature painting from God!

These iris are another one of my cards. I like to take pictures of "twins" in nature.

And this photo brought two songs to mind, first "She wore blue velvet..." Here are the lyrics. My Grandma Johnson loved Bobby Vinton. He has a lovely voice, but he has joined the ranks of those freakily artificially preserved people who though well into their senior citizen years look much younger than me, unless you get in close range! LOL The second song I thought of was Deep Purple by Donny and Marie Osmond... and excuse me, but who allowed Donny Osmond to become a grandfather?! That's just not right! :o)

I is also for Idaho. This photo was taken the summer of 1956. My Dad on the left is 10.5 years old and Grandma Johnson is holding up my Uncle Jerry who was born November 1955.

I is also for Index where my Grandma and Grandpa Johnson had a beautiful lot on the Skykomish River. We spent many happy hours and camping trips there. This is Mount Index. (scanned from a dirty slide)

I is for ice. Look at all those icy and snowy glaciers. The large volcano is Mt. Baker which is "my" mountain, seen both from my home town and my adopted home town, wherever you go. The water above is part of Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands.

I is for Innsbruck, Austria, which I visited in July 1984 with my friend Jutta and her family.

We climbed a church tower and looking down we could see this. The famous Golden Roof is pictured at right.

Another view from the tower. Innsbruck is a beautiful city, though very crowded with many tourists. I would love to see it again as well as more of Austria.

Here is Friedhelm, Jutta's father, checking out a guide book. The architecture of the city is fascinating and I especially enjoyed all the arches.

And lastly, I is for Italy, which I also visited with Jutta's family in July 1984. Here Jutta and Friedhelm look out from castle ruins on a hillside.

The castle ruins from the photo above.

Every hill top seemed to be covered with a castle. This is in Sud Tirol (South Tyrol, which is northern Italy and in the Dolomite Mountains area).

It was so HOT, triple digit heat, but we did a lot of hiking. Here Renate photographs Jutta petting a horse on the side of the mountain.

Jutta, Renate and Friedhelm on the trail ahead of me.


The trail wound around the side of a hill. This is again, Jutta.




Amazing to me, is the European tradition of climbing and hiking and ending up in a restaurant out of nowhere! I never ended a hike in the mountains with a spaghetti dinner before! LOL

This is the city of Merano, Italy. We stayed near here.

The country side was beautiful. This is a zwiebel dome (onion dome) church, typical of the Tirol. This part of northern Italy used to be part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Vineyards covered the hillsides and were planted in all different directions. In some places they looked like green quilts on the hills!