Good evening everyone (if there still is anyone here!).

First of all, the important stuff: Happy New Year! I trust al of you had a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday period? I hope so.

I’ve finally gotten the blog design done and figured out how to move the database over to the new host. I thought it would never end! Things are still shaky over there, but I’ll nail it down and get things regularly up and running again.

Please go to the new Laughing Knees home page (http://laughing-knees.com) and if it still interests you, please update your URL note for Laughing Knees.

It would be great to finally see everyone again.

peace and good medicine,
Miguel

This will be my last post for the next three weeks. I’m heading off to Vancouver, Canada today, for some backpacking, slow time walking the streets and sitting in coffee shops, sea kayaking, visiting friends, and, since I’m most likely bringing my bicycle, some riding the horizon. If I can I will write in every now and then, but aside from checking email, I’m going to try to remain computer free as much as possible!

Please click on the images to enlarge them and see them closer to the way they were intended.

The wind that issued from the mouth of the tunnel tasted stale and acrid.

Though the camera could see in the dark, I walked almost blind, feeling for the rough surprise of ogre skin.

End of the line: even as an adult coming across a human relic overgrown with the encroaching wood still conjures up the excitement of discovery of lost cities.

Please click on the images to enlarge them and see them closer to the way they were intended.

This was just a small one!

There is a whole different sense of privacy in Japan.

Something about tunnels, especially abandoned train tunnels, that flushes out the willies in me.

Please click on the images to enlarge them and see them closer to the way they were intended.

On such an innocent trail, even there, the spirits lurk.

Sundays have always been the time for the droning of a lone airplane, passing overhead outside the window.

When I read The Lord of the Rings as a teenager I often walked in the woods and imagined the denizens of the books hiding behind tree trunks and boulders.

Please click on the images to enlarge them and see them closer to the way they were intended.

When I lived in Naruto I would go on very long walks. One place that would bring me peace and make me feel less lonely was this quiet nature reserve about 20 minutes walk from my apartment.

I hardly ever saw anyone in this area. So few people passed through that the egrets and night herons and grey herons relaxed and settled down here to roost. I would sit for hours listening to their calls at night.

People often talk of their secret hideaways when they were kids, but seem to think they are unnecessary when we get older, but I think such places are even more important as adults. They help center us and soften the harshness of everyday life.