iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 04/10/2025

New sign to keep in my car. Y’know, just in case.

Neon yellow sign with black letters reading “ICE checkpoint ahead”

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 02/09/2025

Finally getting produce from my much-neglected garden. This is the time of year I vow to do better next season

A small tray with one cucumber, one orange tomato, some peppers, and a handful of cherry tomatoes

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 25/08/2025

Bailey, f/k/a Beetle (shelter name), f/k/a ??? (first 14+ years of his life are a mystery) Feb. 25, 2009 - Aug. 24, 2025. He was a good boi.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

Bailey is very cute when he sleeps

A little tan dog with slightly curly hair lies on the carpet sound asleep. His ears are sticking up straight and he is oblivious

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 09/08/2025

Look at this face. Maybe you’re at maximum cats for your household, but also maybe you know a friend who needs feline companionship. If so please tell them about Banjo. I think if properly introduced he do well in a multi Animal household. He loves company and playing and not being bored

A gray tabby cat looks up from his food bowl to look at the camera and is not exactly thrilled. He doesn’t want his dinner interrupted

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 07/08/2025

Seriously, how can you not want to bring this guy home?

A gray tabby cat lies on his back, limbs sprayed and belly temp Tingley displayed. It is probably a trap but you wouldn’t be able to help trying to rub it. Or bury your face in it.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Reminder: Banjo is affectionate, playful guy, and available for adoption

A gray tabby cat holds a pickle-shaped toy between his front paws, back legs prepared to kick it. He looks at the camera with curiosity

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 03/08/2025

Anyone in the DC area need mire feline affection in their lives? Meet Banjo, a swet, sociable, playful guy I’m fostering

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Little dog has fallen asleep on my foot. Am trapped; send help!

A tan dog with slightly curly fur is sound asleep resting his head on a person‘s foot

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 25/07/2025

Trombone Shorty! A great night at Wolf Trap.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

First summer harvest. The shishitos are just getting going. There is also the promise of banana peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, a single (volunteer) eggplant, delicata squash, beans, sunchokes, and possibly ground cherries. Not bad for a season of neglect.

Picture shows three small, elongated green peppers. There is no scale provided, but they are about 2” long.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Final day, Lisbon. (The official tour ended on arrival but I stayed two more days to see the city.) Banksy museum. Did you know there’s a Banksy museum in Lisbon? I did not before this visit. Loved it. All are reproductions, presumably from photographs, so far as I can tell.

White wall on left with text reading, “It’s a very frustrating feeling you get when the only people with good photos of your work are the police department.” To the right, a picture of a man in black and white striped clothes climbing down a rope with a typewriter as a weight to steady it.

“Show Me the Monet”
Famous idyllic picture of a bridget crossing a forest stream reinterpreted with a traffic cone and two shopping carts cluttering the stream.

Mickey Mouse on the left and Ronald McDonald on the right hold the hands of the child from the famous “napalm girl” picture. I hadn’t seen this before and was totally stunned by it,

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Lisbon. Multi-story buildings decorated in the famous local tiles; A view up one of the city’s many hills; the Rua Augusto Arch built to commemorate the city’s rebuilding after a devastating earthquake in 1755

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Still Porto Santo, in the Christopher Columbus house museum. He lived here a while after marrying a Portuguese woman. I do not know who St. Catherine of Alexandria was, but she seems to have kicked ass.

Statue in gold and brown shades of a woman wearing a crown and carrying a sword. She is dressed in a short tunic which appears to be masculine garb for the time. Oh, and there is a man’s severed head at her right foot. He is bearded and seems to be gazing up at her.

Sign text:
Saint Catherine of Alexandria
Portuguese School
First half of the 17th century
Polychrome, gilded and brushed wood with lime base.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Porto Santo Island, Madeira Islands. First we were driven around to appreciate beautiful scenery.

View from an elevated spot showing a curved coastline and an island off shore in the distance.

Spit of craggy land reaching out into the ocean and sheltering the industrial buildings just seen at the bottom left.

The off-shore island from the first picture, seen from a sandy beach closest to it.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

More Funchal. A huge ring of flowers decorates the road. We were there during a flower festival but missed the parade unfortunately. Statue and ducks in a pond in the park, and very cool vendor table with jewelers from upcycled n espresso pods.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Cruise day 7, Funchal, Madeira Islands. Morning bus to top of hill to see view and church, cable car/gondola ride back down.

View from the top showing the cable car towers and gondolas, with ocean at the bottom of the ride.

After the trip to the top, we had to walk further to enter the church, This picture shows the altar with very fanboy decorations all around, At the center of the altar is a doll, which allegedly appeared miraculously to a small girl and triggered the building of this church. I never fully understood why a small girl reporting that a new doll she had just appeared to her was taken as a miracle, but whatever, It was a pretty church,

“Candles” inside the church. Two are lighted. They are electronic and can be lit to pray for someone, but it doesn’t quite have the emotional impact of candles.

View from the church looking down a hill at the toboggan station. Visitors can ride these sleds down the hill, although not all the way to the port. Each one carries two people, and two of the drivers ride on the back to steer. The drivers wear traditional costume of a straw hat, navy jacket, and white trousers

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Telescopes and the road back down.

Clear blue sky above fluffy clouds. Looking down at 6 different telescopes along a ridge that’s lower than the photo’s point of view. Second from the right, at the far edge and not easy to make out, is the round dome of the Isaac Newton telescope which was the first one at this site. It used to be at theRoyal Greenwich Observatory but they realized that London is not a great place to do astronomy and determined that La Palma was very nearly an ideal location

Flora on the road down. Spiky leaves point down at the base forming a rough sphere, and a purple or green stem points up several times its height. No idea what its name is.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Cruise day 6, Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands. Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. Another drive up steep, windy roads to 7,860’ above sea level.

Looking across water (an inlet from the ocean?) to mountains rising almost directly from the shore.

View back at the port from the drive up. Wildflowers in the foreground, houses and other buildings on a sliver of land near the sea, fluffy white clouds over the background.

One of the large telescopes at the observatory. Constructed from multiple hexagonal mirrors. They were working on building another like this and we actually saw them mounting one of the mirrors

After a visit to the very informative visitor center we didn’t have time for the promised tour inside a telescope, but drove to the highest point to get a view of several. This is a view back down the slope showing that mirrored on and the visitor center looking quite small, with rocky terrain and dark clouds above.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Day 5, the road to and from the Teide Obervatory. Unfortunately no good pix from the observatory itself, but it was an interesting tour, including a chance to view the sun through a properly fitted telescope

The way up. Sedimentary rocks at roughly a 30 degree angle from flat, showing how much uplift there has been.

Almost there. Roadway that is temporarily level. Mountains in the background, and on top of the highest one to the left can be seen several telescopes.

Bright blue sky in the top right, more of that impressive sedimentary rocks at roughly with its layers at a significant angle to the road. The way down.

A road leads into a tunnel, and above mountains rise very high above, and very steeply

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

Cruise day 4 was a day at sea. On day 5 we visited Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, and made the first of two visits to observatories.

Blue flag with a white cross on a government building. We were told emphatically that this is the municipal flag, not to be confused with the Scottish St. Andrew’s cross.

Do I remember what building this is? No. Did I keep notes of things like that? Of course not. But it’s interesting architecture. I think this is made from what used to be the most common tree on the island. It has many good properties but is also extremely flammable so few of these old.buildings remain

The picture shows the upper story corner of an enclosed courtyard so two walls are visible. They are decorated with fine woodwork.

Entrance to a church, with people standing along the path. Focus of the picture is on a tree, possibly called a dragon tree. It kind of looks like something out of Dr. Seuss, with spiky leaves only at the top and all pointing upwards.They grow very slowly, so this is an extremely old one.

After walking around the old town and a lovely lunch. we boarded a bus to head up the mountains to the observatory. The picture shows a blue sky up top with fluffy white clouds below in the distance. Unfortunately a red and white stick mars the view. The land under the clouds is sloping at a steep angle, so this is an attempt to convey how steep and twisty the road was

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

The meal after the tea was something else.

A place setting for our lunch. Gold flatware, gold-rimmed plates, gold embroidered napkins and table cloth.

Two huge platters covered with food. One seems to have olives and chicken, the other vegetables and couscous. It was yummy, and far more than we could eat, but we were assured nothing would go to waste

Desert platters Pineapple, bananas, oranges, pears, nectarines, apricots…

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

After lunch on Gorée, we headed for the ship and left harbor around 4 p.m. Day 6 (Day 2 of the cruise) was a day at sea, so not pictures. Nice to have a chance to rest and feel less ill. Cruise day 3, Dakhla, Western Sahara.A

A desert scene, looking from the road to the ocean in the distance. A number of tiny dots are visible just above the water. If you look closely you may be able to make these out as parasailers (sp?). Apparently this is a great spot for it.

En route from the port to our first site, a static sand dune. This view shows the road along a bleak desert landscape with large flat-topped structures at the horizon

The famous dune. People for perspective on size; I’d estimate the dune is 5-6 people tall. It’s an odd site, pure sand shaped into a dune by natural forces. It is near the ocean (not shown in photo) but more or less at right angles to it, so not a traditional dune.

Along the road to/from downtown. A giant teapot statue, its lid open. Several palm trees surround it; these were among the few we saw that were in any way healthy.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Day 5, Île Gorée. Beautiful island with beaches, dining, vendors. Historically played a role in the slave trade and the fort where people were held before being shipped across the Atlantic is an important site.

Approaching on the ferry. A small island can be seen its entirety with a round fort at one end, dark blue water below and light blue sky above

The colonizers and slave traders lived in those upper apartments.

Pink building with two sweeping staircases leading to a second floor balcony.

Captives were held in rooms like this, sometimes 20-30 to a room.

Picture shows dimly lit stone walled room with tiny windows for ventilation.

The “door of no return.” Allegedly, enslaved people went through this door and boarded ships, or alternatively jumped into the ocean and drowned. There was no return. Whether that is historically accurate or not, it is a powerful symbol.

Picture looks from a dark interior through thick stone walls to a small sunny space with low walls. Through the upper part of the door the Atlantic Ocean is visible.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 23/06/2025

Day three. Thursday, May 1. Labor Day, major holiday in many countries. Did I think to check this before leaving? No, no I did not. So I did not visit the African Art Museum or the Museum of Black Civilizations. The African Rennaisance monument ent does not close, so visited that.

Steps leading up to a very large statue of a man holding a child who points forward (across the atlantic and a woman who points backward. I did not manage to climb those stairs but was able to drive to the top later when my driver, Matar, negotiated with the police/soldiers guarding the closed off road.

Palm trees in front of a black iron fence. A soldier in olive drab with a machine gun stands to the right, and a guard in a red hat and coat stands right in front of the gate. Behind him, seen through the gate, is a 2-story white building with a flag flying over it. Turns out this is the President’s residence, their “white house.”

A view of the city scape taken from behind a concrete something, framed by two trees, one on either side of the upper corners

Me and Matar.

On the left is a black man in a brown cap and dark jacket. On the right right is a white woman in a green shirt and grey turban (covering chemo hair). Palm trees visible in the background.
I met him early on when I took a cab somewhere, and we connected so he became my guy. I’d let him know when I’d be going out and he was always available to meet me. Very nice man, helped me get access to things, and it meant not having to pick from the scrum of drivers waiting outside the hotel

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Day 2, Bandai Almost at the end, I promise. But the animals were so cool!

Zebras! And the baby is nursing from mama

Feeding time! A truck with hay is drawing the rapt attention of a couple of ostriches. The female (gray) lifts her head to check out the payload of the truck, while the male (black and white) stands behind her.

Baobob tree, one of the largest and most impressive we saw. Humans for scale — the tree is at least 10 humans tall.

More zebras. Varying gradations of darkness on the stripes. Giant antelope in the background. My notes say there’s an albino zebra so maybe it’s the one standing in the middle of the herd with light brown stripes, not black.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 18/06/2025

Okay, catching up on posting the promised pictures. Not many are engaging with these posts, but I said I’d share here and not FB because I’m really trying to migrate.

Bird (I think a heron) on a dead-looking tree in a swamp

Southern Giraffe stretching up to eat leaves from a tree

Male white rhino walking towards the road (and therefore the camera)

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Day 2, continued. (Wednesday, April 20)

Hyenas. Fierce predators, hence the enclosure and the pointed bars to keep them from the rest of the animals which are (almost?) entirely plant-eaters

Impala! Picture of an impala on an open area with trees in the background. The characteristic twisted horns are clearly visible.

Another picture of the impala. (I was so happy that this was the first free-roaming animal we saw inside the park. Only people who knew Impy will understand.) The impala is at the left side and has turned away to make the shape of the horns clearly visible.

A beautiful tropical blue bird perched on a branch. My notes have gotten a bit messed up but I think this is a Roulier d’Abyssinnie

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Returning to posting pictures while monitoring news from No Kings day. Day 2, first full day in Dakar. Trip to Bandai safari park and Somone lagoon.

Bandai Safari park. Sign saying “Please do not feed the monkeys” in French and English.,

One of the aforesaid monkeys at the edge of a large puddle at the vehicle entrance to the park.

Close-up of a monkey on a fence, with a little monkey seen below.

Tortoise. We drove past a few pens like this before getting to the open park.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Okay, time to start posting the promised pix from my recent trip. I’ll try to do one day per day, but adding the alt text can make it rough going. Day 1, arrived late afternoon Tuesday, April 29

Dakar Day 1. View from my hotel room. Just past a line of low buildings is the Atlantic Ocean, looking fairly calm. To the upper left a small island can be seen in the distance. I think this is Gorée island, of which more later.

Screenshot of a satellite vies of France, the Iberian peninsula, and northern Africa. It is nighttime and there are lights visible throughout the land masses except for Spain and Portugal, other than the very northern edge. This was taken during a blackout and kind of made me wonder about the destination I was heading for.

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

I had never seen this before and it truly felt like a gut punch on first sight

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Beth Kingsley @ejkdc.bsky.social · 09/05/2025

Having a drink in the municipal garden on Funchal and its flower festival month and I think this group of traditional dancers is about to perform and am unreasonably excited