Hubbard Glacier Alaska
This summer we went on a cruise to southeastern Alaska with the Celebrity Infinity. On the way we passed the Hubbard glacier for some photos. Hubbard Glacier is the largest tidewater glacier on the North American continent. It has been thickening and advancing toward the Gulf of Alaska since it was first mapped by the […]
Lovely Lemurs in Madagascar
Last year I had the privilege of visiting Madagascar to see the unique animals and plants often found only there. The prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana separated the Madagascar–Antarctica–India landmass from the Africa–South America landmass around 135 million years ago (mya). Madagascar later split from India about 88 mya, allowing plants and animals on […]
Beautiful Larger Birds in Southeast Arizona
The larger birds of Sierra Vista are outstanding in terms of their colors and shapes. Arizona is a vast landscape of bold color, formations and piercing beauty. The southeastern corner is no exception. Isolated mountains called “Sky Islands” rise abruptly from the arid desert highlands, harbor a tremendous variety of plant and animal life and […]
Exotic Birds in Madagascar
When I visited Madagascar the focus was really on chameleons and lemurs. There was little time to explore the beautiful and unique birds of Madagascar. What I lost in numbers I gained in quality. The birds I did see were colorful and unique many of which found only on Madagascar. The distance from Africa to […]
Israel
The notion of the “Land of Israel”, known in Hebrew as Eretz Yisrael, has been important and sacred to the Jewish people since Biblical times. According to the Torah, God promised the land to the three Patriarchs of the Jewish people. On the basis of scripture, the period of the three Patriarchs has been placed somewhere in the early 2nd millennium BCE, and the first Kingdom of Israel was established around the 11th century BCE. Subsequent Israelite kingdoms and states ruled intermittently over the next four hundred years, and are known from various extra-biblical sources.
