Journalist Barbara Falconer Newhall reports from the the second half of life — on books, writing . . . her husband, house, aging relatives and grown-up kids.

Is the Yosemite high country even more beautiful than the Himalayas?

That's Al, very tiny between trees and rock. c 2011 BF Newhall

My hiking pal Al Aistrope thinks so. The Himalayas’ claim to fame, of course, is all those high, spectacularly high, mountain peaks.

Yosemite, on the other hand, abounds in beautiful sights, large and small — rocks, trees, wildflowers, river beds, meadows and mountains.  (For more pix, check out the posts below.)

Al knows whereof he speaks. He spends a lot of time in Nepal.

Right now he’s in Katmandu, where he looks after orphans through his program Virtue’s Children Nepal. He’ll be having Christmas dinner with them.

Some day I’ll have to ask Al how his charity got that name. It’s probably something about the amazing loyalty and generosity Al has observed over the years among the orphan children he’s met there.

You can see Al in this picture. He’s very tiny between the rocks and the trees. For a closer look at Al, go to the Virtue’s Children Nepal website.

© 2011 BF Newhall