BRIAN CZAJA’S MINIATURE DREAM HOUSES Guest Post by Caroline Hatton

Mini-house by Brian Czaja (31" long, 10 1/2" high)

My friend Caroline Hatton, a children’s writer and frequent contributor to this blog, met architect Brian Czaja at the 2025 Seattle Miniature Show, where she kept coming back to his display to see the mini houses he had made. All the photos in this post are courtesy of Brian Czaja.

As a lifelong fan of miniatures, I was in heaven last March at the 2025 Seattle Miniature Show. Dozens of exhibitors displayed and sold minis: finished houses, kits, building materials, tools... real-life tools (such as scissors) and mini tools (such as scissors only half an inch or 1.5 cm long), mini furniture, appliances, pots and pans, potted plants, pies and pudding, mini grab-and-go sushi deli boxes with a plastic-wrapped fortune cookie smaller than my smallest fingernail clipping...

House 1 living room.

House 1 bedroom.

My absolute favorites were the miniature contemporary homes designed, built, and furnished by Brian Czaja. Alas, visitors were not allowed to take photos in the exhibitors hall. Fortunately, Brian agreed to help me put together this blog post, so that you too can enjoy seeing his works of art.  

The three photos above show his House number 1. it is 31" (roughly 79 cm) long and 10 1/2 (roughtly 27 cm) high. The size of House 1 is 1:24 scale (one twenty-fourth of real-life size, which minieatureists also call 1/2" scale because 1 foot in real life becomes 1/2" in miniature.)  

At the show, my guess that he is a retired architect was correct! He went to Syracuse University School of Architecture in New York state, then studied and taught at the University of Bristol in England. He had his own practice in Buffalo, New York, for almost 30 years, worked for other firms in Phoenix, Arizona, for almost 20 years, then in northern California, and now lives in Salem, Oregon.

I asked him why he makes mini houses. “To keep active thinking and doing what I’ve done for a very long time,” he said. “It’s fun to design and build.” His mini houses reflect the way he has always designed, especially as a believer in simplicity.

House 2 design.

Brian begins the process with an idea and imaginary site—on a hill, by the ocean, in a meadow. He develops the idea in his sketch books until he is satisfied with what he has designed. His requirements are simple for all his designs—a house for two artists. Once the idea and design are set, he starts developing “construction drawings.” These can be quite detailed depending on the design. “Just like in the real world, you have to know how it’s going to be built.”

House 2 construction.

Once the construction drawings are finished, Brian orders materials and begins building, using his preferred woods: basswood, cherry, and red oak—only three kinds, to keep the inventory under control in his mini lumber yard. He makes all his houses from scratch, using no laser cutters or purchased windows and doors.

House 2.

When the house is done, he starts on the interior. He designs it (furniture, planters, etc.) at the same time as the house, but doesn’t make it until the last step.

House 3.

The above photo is a view of House 3 from across the pond, with the living and dining areas on the right end. The size of Houses 2-5 is 1:48 scale (one forty-eighth of real-life size, which miniaturists also call 1/4" scale because 1 foot in real life is represented by 1/4" in miniature.) 

House 3 living and dining areas.

The height of a real chair is 18" (or roughly 46 cm) to the top of the cushion. The chair height in Houses 2-5 is 3/8" (or 9.5 mm) on the 1:48 scale.

The mini paintings are scale reproductions of real-life paintings… by Brian! The man needs more than one outlet for his endless creativity.

House 4 living, dining and bedroom levels.

House 4 living room.

For House 4, Brian didn’t have to imagine on what plot of land he would build it. In his travels, he happened to spot a hillside home with ocean view and couldn’t help but dream up what house he would build there instead.

House 5 main entry.

House 5 back deck.

A big difference between Brian’s mini work and his past, real-life work is that now, he is both the architect and the client, so if he has any complaints, all he has to do is talk to himself! Seriously, this dual role allows him to take liberties, such as adding or deleting rooms as he wishes. Other pleasing differences are that things like site and weather are no problem. He can make the imaginary site fit the house and he can build in his workshop even if it’s raining or snowing outside.

I decided to write about this because many of the miniatures I have seen, including some of the finest museum pieces with plenty of character, don’t feel unique or even distinctive, so I don’t tend to remember them specifically. In contrast, Brian’s houses struck me as memorable.

To see Brian’s houses with your own eyes, consider visiting him at the upcoming  Portland Miniature Show in October 2025 and Seattle Miniature Show on March 5-9, 2026.

I can’t wait to see his new creations!

SCOTLAND GEOLOGY; The Northwest Highlands, Guest Post by Paige Arnold

View of Sango Bay, Scotland.

With many thanks to my granddaughter Paige, a student at Amherst College, for sharing her photos of her trip to Scotland in June and her breadth of knowledge of Scotland's geology. 

During my second semester of this past school year, I took a geology field trip class where we learned all about the geologic history of Scotland. This class culminated in a week-long trip to the NorthwestHighlands of Scotland, during which we traveled around to different sites of geologic interest and had the opportunity to see the rocks we had been learning about all semester. Here are some pictures from the trip!

This bridge gave us a great view of some old lake terraces in Achnascheen! Each step you see on the sloping edge of the hill in the center represents the bottom of an ancient glacial lake, with the upper steps being the earlier lake bottoms which were then cut down through by increased meltwater supply to create the next step.

A horse near our hostel in Torridon with Loch Torridon in the background. Loch Torridon is a sea loch, meaning it’s connected to the ocean, so where the water met the land varied a lot over the course of our stay–I believe this picture was taken at high tide.

View of Slioch mountain halfway up Beinn Eighe.

Another view from the Beinn Eighe hike where you can see the paleogeography of an old landscape preserved in the mountain. The slight upward curve about halfway up this mountain represents the upper boundary of the Lewisian Gneiss, which would have been the land surface until it was filled in by the Torridonian Sandstone (above the line) starting around 950 million years ago!

The holes in this rock give the rock its colloquial name “pipe rock”. They are remnants of old worm burrows in sand that has since been lithified into quartzite. These worms would have been alive and forming these burrows in the early Cambrian, around 520-510 million years ago.

Both sides of the Moine Thrust, with the Moine Schist on top of the Durness Limestone. The Moine Schist is older than the Durness limestone, but it’s been thrust up to lay on top of the limestone by tectonic movement. This kind of stratigraphic inversion is only possible via tectonic movement, and Scotland is where thrust faulting was originally discovered!

View from our hostel at sunset.

A chunk of Lewisian gneiss at Achmelvich Beach. There isn’t much to say about this picture but the clarity of the banding is pretty awesome.

Some sheep we saw from the van. I’d say we saw about half as many sheep as people.

Clachtoll Beach! It looks tropical but I promise it was just as cold as you’d expect the North Atlantic to be.

These stromatolites are some of the oldest life on Earth that is preserved in the rock record, dating to around 1.2 billion years old. Stromatolites are a kind of algal mat that accumulate in the wet season and dry out in the dry season, trapping sediment and forming these wiggly lines.

This large black stripe is a Scourie Dyke, it’s about 2 feet across and is intruding into the body of rock around it. Around 2.4 billion years ago, the body of rock around the dyke was split by tectonic activity, allowing hot magma to push up into it and solidify into this stripe.

My friend in the distance at the Arnaboll Thrust.

My friend and I touching both sides of the Arnaboll Thrust! Here the Lewisian Gneiss has been thrust upon the Cambrian Quartzite, which we can be at peace with now but is something that caused a lot of problems among geologists of the 19th century. This thrust fault caused SirCharles Lapworth (eminent geologist of the time) to have an intense mental breakdown due to visions of the entire Scottish Highlands crushing his body, as thrust faulting hadn’t been discovered up until this point and it was just all too much for him to handle. Luckily I was well prepared and was able to enjoy the rocks without descending into madness.

On our last day we “saw” some puffins (these pictures were taken by my friend with a good camera–I only saw more than a black speck once he shared his photos with us) from the cliffs of Faraid Head, which I think was a pretty solid wrap up to the week!

I hope you’ve enjoyed these rocks and maybe feel inspired to take a trip to the Northwest Highlands! I can’t promise it’ll be as sunny as it was in these photos but it’s worth it nonetheless.

TOURING UGANDA, THE "PEARL OF AFRICA": Guest Post by Owen Floody

Lions in tree in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda.

With many thanks to Owen Floody, a frequent contributor to The Intrepid Tourist. In 1971, Owen and my husband Art participated in a field course in animal behavior in Uganda. The descriptions in Owen's post below bring back many memories of that first trip to Africa.

Rhinos.

This column describes a 12-day June 2025 safari in Uganda that was run by Wilderness Travel and ably led by Robert Sunday, of Classic Africa Safaris.  After one night decompressing in Entebbe, we began the first of several long drives, aiming for Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda’s northwest.  Fortunately, the drive was broken up by an hour at the Ziwa Rhino Sanctuary.  There, we had great fun tracking white rhinos on foot.  The high point was a standoff between one male and several females: Dust was raised but we apparently didn’t merit any actual contact.

Murchison Falls.

One of the beauties of Murchison Falls is the variety of activities it offers.  We took two Nile cruises, one to the base of the falls, the other to the Victoria Nile Delta in search of Shoebills.  For balance, we drove to the top of the falls, where we surrendered our barrels and marveled at the volume of water being forced through the tiny opening in the rock.  

Giraffe.

In addition, we went on several game drives, during which we even managed to tear our eyes off the giraffes for long enough to enjoy the many other animals and birds (e.g., Ground Hornbill.)

Ground hornbill.

Of course, experiences of this sort can’t go unpunished, so that we then piled back into the Land Cruiser for the long drive south to the Kibale Forest National Park.  This park is one of the relatively few in East Africa consisting of rainforest rather than savanna.  Naturally, then, it features rainforest creatures, chiefly chimpanzees and other forest primates.  The highlight of our visit was the two hours that we spent alternately crashing through the undergrowth and quietly hanging out with a troop of chimps that seemed to ignore us completely.  Out of the forest, we enjoyed a walking tour of Bigodi village, including visits to a coffee farm, banana-beer brewer, and native-plants herbalist.

Chimpanzee.

Fortified by the coffee, beer, and herbs, we hit the road again for the mercifully short drive to Queen Elizabeth National Park, perhaps Uganda’s best known savanna park.  Accordingly, we sought grassland animals, on our own and along with researchers tracking radio-collared lions and leopards.  

Lioness.

And we came back to the theme of cruises, as we enjoyed a small-boat ride on the Kazinga Channel.  Along with the Nile cruises at Murchison Falls, this is among the best known and most pleasant water experiences in Africa.  The hippos were impressive and the hyena an unexpected treat, but it was the multitude of Pied Kingfishers and other wonderful birds that stole the show.

Pied Kingfishser.

Finally, it was time for our last stop, at the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, near Uganda’s southwestern corner.  Like all other visitors to Bwindi, we were there for up-close-and-personal views of Mountain Gorillas.  We did the smart thing and hedged our bets by scheduling two gorilla treks on separate days.  This was fortunate and speaks to the care with which Wilderness Travel planned this trip.  The first trek was difficult and culminated in limited views.  

Gorilla.

Apparently, no one had told the gorillas of the fans hoping for an audience.  But the word got out overnight and resulted in an easy trek and incredible views the next day.  It is simply amazing how gratifying it is to see these majestic animals so completely at ease and at such close range.  Was it the small plane or gorilla memories that transported us back to Entebbe to begin the long, but satisfying trip home?

ROAD TRIP TO THE ITALIAN ALPS: Bergamo, Valle Camonica, Lake Iseo

View from our room in Capo de Ponte, Italy.

In early June, after spending four days in Milan, we rented a car and did a short driving trip to the Italian Alps. It was a trip we had done before, in February 2003. This time, the weather was warmer, days longer, and we spent more time in the Valle Camonica. We started in Bergamo, just an hour or so north of Milan.

Looking over the city walls, Bergamo, Italy.

Bergamo dates back to Roman times, when it was known as Bergamum. It has two parts, a lower city on the flat plain, and the Citta Alta, or upper city, perched on a hill and surrounded by an ancient wall. The cobblestone streets in this medieval city are narrow and there is almost no available parking. On the advice of our hotel, we parked in the underground parking structure, took the elevator to the top, and bumped our suitcases over the cobblestones for the seven-minute walk to our hotel. 

Evening's bread supply for the hotel restaurant.

View from our room in Bergamo.

There we climbed the steep stairs to our room on the top floor of the building, which, we were told, dates back to the fourth century. Our room looked over the hotel restaurant patio below.

The Citta Alta, Bergamo.

Most tourists come to the Citta Alta just for the day and arrive by funicular from the lower city. In addition to its historic churches and museums, the Citta Alta has one long shopping street lined with restaurants and shops--pizza, pastries, gelato, candies, souvenirs, clothing, jewelry—you name it.

Sweets for sale, Bergamo.

Puppet theater.

Among my favorite shop windows was one featuring animal masks. I was also intrigued by a book shop with a small puppet stage displayed in its window. When I was a child I would have loved to have had such a puppet stage

Mother and baby wooly mammoth models, Natural Science Museum, Bergamo.

The main focus of our visit to Bergamo was the natural history museum where we paid a visit to Eudimorphodon, the pterosaur fossil that was featured in my book Pterosauars: Rulers of the Skies in the Dinosaur Age, and to the wooly mammoth model, also a subject of one of my books. See my post at my Art and Books blog about the fossil and diorama of Eudimorphodon. We also visited the historical museum in Bergamo, where there are exhibits about the long human history in northern Italy, from prehistoric to Roman times to the present.

Prehistoric rock engravings, Naquane National Park.

From Bergamo we headed north into the Alps to the Valle Camonica, where our goal was to visit Naquane National Park to see the ancient petroglyphs. 

Rock with prehistoric engravings, Museum in Cemmo.

Our first stop was at the local museum, which provided a preview and information about the discoveries in the Valle Camonica. The ticket was also good for both the Naquane park entrance and another museum. At the park entrance we got a map that guided us to the major petroglyph sites. There wooden walkways allowed a close-up view of the images and sign-boards in both Italian and English explained the significance of the carvings.

View from our room at the Casa Visnenza B&B, Capo de Ponte.

In Capo di Ponte we stayed in a B&B tucked in the hills above the river valley. As I gazed out the window I felt like I had become part of a Renaissance painting. Over a hearty breakfast we got to know some of the other guests and the owner, whose mother had grown up in the house (the youngest of six children). She was very helpful in advising us where to go and what to see. The valley is filled with history and numerous tracks and hiking trails.

One evening, on a short walk, we met a curious pair of donkeys and their foals along the carriage track up the mountain behind our B&B.

Olive orchard and farmhouse at Agriturismo La Tesa hotel.

From Capo di Ponte we drove down the west side of Lake Iseo (through many tunnels!) to the resort town of Iseo, where we stayed for one night in a agritourism hotel in the hills above the town. The original farmhouse is now a hotel and restaurant. The olive orchard and berry vines are still maintained and part of the grounds. (Robot lawn mowers keep the grass perpetually trimmed.) 

Overlook of Lake Iseo from Agriturismo La Tesa hotel.

A short walk from the La Tesa hotel leads to the top of the escarpment with a panoramic view of Lake Iseo and Isla Isola.

Hotel Villa Malpensa, Milan airport.

 
Our last night in Italy was spent at a hotel near the airport. From the window of our room we could see the airplanes taking off just a mile away. But rather surprisingly, the hotel felt rural, surrounded by fields and next to a small village. 

Tower behind Hotel Villa Malpensa.

As we took a walk after dinner that evening we discovered a strange tower that looked like the perfect setting for “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!” Apparently, it was built as some sort of silo, or grain storage tower.

During the entire trip to Italy we relied on our phone's GPS for both walking and driving. We wonder how we ever managed to find our way on our previous trips to Italy, before GPS was invented! We must have relied on paper maps and verbal directions!

Path between petroglyph sites in Naquane National Park.

We always enjoy travelling to Italy and have been there numerous times—summer, fall, winter, spring. This was our first trip in June, and although the weather was warm, only two days were truly hot (above 90 degrees F.) and we had almost no rain. It was also the beginning of high tourist season, so popular sites like the Duomo in Milan and the main street of the Citta Alta in Bergamo were crowded. But our trip to the Valle Camonica was enough off the beaten track that we felt we had escaped the crowds. It was a good trip.

At the entrance to Naquane National Park.

My report of the first part of our trip, in Milan, posted on June 30, 2025.