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September 30, 2020

TESSA & GRAMP & AUTUMN

... john and i wanderabouted until we ended up at the wire bridge, where we shared our subway sandwich picnic supper with the autumn splendor ...
      
    
... my brother, michael, and i made a visit to new hampshire to witness for ourselves the famous (my apologies to r.l.stevenson) "dr. tessa & ms. hyde" ...
      
      
    
... outside i reclined on the little grassy hill and enjoyed the color ...
      
    
... a kid, a swing, the world is perfect ...
      
          
... my brother, with mr. charlie oliver in the background ...
      
    
... tessa "makes faces" to adrien's cues ...
      
      
    
... once again, "there is as much color in a single leaf as is displayed by the entire forest" ...
      
    
... this one's from the wire bridge ...
      
    
... p.s. as i write this my "student," danny, is busy doing seat work ... due to intermittent power outages his peers attending the "brick & mortar" classes in oakland are now waiting for their buses to take them home ... "how come i have to keep working" ... "because when you're done you get to play on the computer blasting zombies and aliens, that's why ... now go back to work" ...
      
    
... howling wind outside, i'm much afraid the foliage isn't going to survive ... still, the forest desperately needed the water ...
      


August 31, 2020

... AND STILL TICKIN'

... john, "is a surprise where we're heading" ... for both of us, that's pretty hard to do in the state of maine, so i was excited ... after a bit of a drive we departed the state road and slowly negotiated a rather rutted and rocky backwoods track until we arrived at a somewhat spooky olden-time house ...
      
     
... blueberries ... millions and billions and zillions of them ... blueberries, from where i sat all the way to the horizon ...
      

     
... weird things, too ...
      

... a gone to fallow blueberry barren, biding time until it can be incorporated into protected public lands ... thus, of course, a most secret location ...

     
... one of the finest vistas of the western mountains i've ever enjoyed ...
      

... later, we stopped at an old favorite ...
      

     
... cool summer's-nearing-done air ...
      
 

... we met these nice ladies ... i had their names memorized—two weeks ago ... my bad ...
      
 
     
... again, of my most favorite spots in the entire world ...
      
     
... i took liz to the secret barren ... she carefully guided her ma's car up the road, i was impressed ... we managed to make a tiny little dent in the field's inventory ... yum ...
      

... john took me to lunch—in castine—for my birthday present ... fresh haddock enjoyed at the edge of a rather choppy-surfaced bay, then some picture taking ... this is four frames, stacked and merged ... nothing else done 'cept a minor edge sharpening ... i'm quite pleased because this is exactly what i saw on the highlands above the sea ...
      
     
... this one, too, only it's from seventeen frames ... "mysterious," that's what i felt ...
      
    
... and red berries, which overwhelmed me with their redness ...
      
     
... okay, out of sequence ... the narrows bridge ... yes, as you know, i do not like cable stay spans ... having admitted that, i'll also 'fess up that i like taking pictures of them, as i do of almost any bridge ... i like bridges ...
      
     
... my partner in crime ... interesting, no matter how much beauty we collect the remainder never seems any less ... hmmmm, perhaps one of those "modern math" things ...
      
     
... don't ask, i'm still trying to figure why i saw this ...
      
     
... while exploring a little beach on the west side of the peninsula we spotted on the distance shore this abandoned ship ... as we headed back we made a brief pause to investigate ...
      
     
... it is striking ... fabulously photogenic, especially if you're a zone-system kinda picture taker ...
      
     
... each of these images is the result of merging five frames in photomatix, then converting them to monochrome in photoshop ...
      
     
... this—this place is magical ... me, of the shore, for a brief moment in that most transitory of all places between land and sea, forgetting all my own story to hear the whispering, then listen, mesmerized, as ever so slowly enticed i become entrapped in the ship's tales of distant ports in places exotic and gales driving and beating, testing the strength of the bond binding sailor and craft to one another ...
      
     
... here, even as it timelessly dissolves and disintegrates in to the sand, still it carries a cargo of wanderabouting ...
      


Our anchor we'll weigh,
And our sails we will set.
Goodbye, fare-ye-well,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well.
The friends we are leaving,
We leave with regret,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

We're homeward bound,
Oh joyful sound!
Goodbye, fare-ye-well,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well.
Come rally the capstan,
And run quick around.
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

We're homeward bound
We'd have you know
Goodbye, fare-ye-well,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well.
And over the water
To England must go,
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

Heave with a will,
And heave long and strong,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well.
Sing a good chorus
For 'tis a good song.
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

Hurrah! that good run
Brought the anchor a-weigh,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well.
She's up to the hawse,
Sing before we belay.
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

'We're homeward bound,'
You've heard us say,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well,
Goodbye, fare-ye-well.
Hook on the cat fall then,
And rut her away.
Hurrah, my boys, we're homeward bound.

August 16, 2020

SUM-SUM-SUMMERTIME

... adrien wanted some help watching the dogs and cat and chickens, so i made a little wanderabout over to new hampshire ... sarah's flowers are, as always, wonderfully attractive ...
         

... no, not a sad child ... at least, not this time ... this was result of a prompt from daddy, "show uncle pat your sad face" ... no doubt, such acting ability evidences adrien's coaching skill ...
         

... twelve frames, aligned and focus stacked ... not usually a magenta fan, here i absolutely adore the hue ...


... tessa's into "collections" ... here she demonstrates her blues' harmonica skills before she carefully assigns the mouth organ its proper place in the stack ...
         

... "chillin'" ... that's the word ...
         

... ellen, my friend and owner/operator of "the childrens' bookcellar," gave me this tiny window display cardboard house ... i set it up in tessa's room and when she came home said, "there's a surprise for you upstairs" ... she seems to really like it, thank you, ellen ...
         

... no turquoise-blue caribbean sea in which to float, so ma and daughter enjoyed "mangos in the sink" ...  ...
         

... takin' a break ...
         

... i especially like the shadows in this one ...
         

... yellow can be difficult in digital polychrome, but it's always great fun when playing around in monochrome  ...
         

... my new 80mm f/1.8, with an inexpensive +1 diopter lens affixed to the front, turns out to be an rather nice macro glass ...
         

... perhaps the beginning of another "great american novel" ...
         

... revisiting a favorite image of a favorite place ...
         

... on main street, i like the juxtaposition of the dog amidst the fluidity of the reflections on the car body ...
         

... i'm pleased with this, but for the life of me i cannot explain why ...
         

... yes, indeed, what a wonderful world ...
         

July 27, 2020

WANDERABOUTING IN THE TIME OF CORONA

...  a bit of this and that, here and there, some images meant to calm and settle in a time when all seems spinning out of control ...

... john accompanied me on an expedition i had to make to nh to collect a cable for my "steampunk" computer project ... on the way home we stopped for a little exploration of the south portland waterfront ... across the bay, silhouetted by the setting sun, is downtown portland ...
     


... bug light, well over 100 years old ...
     


... bug light is constructed of curved cast iron plates ... the joints are cleverly hidden by the decorative corinthian columns ...
     


... although it is quite possible that gan de in china did so two thousand years earlier, in the western world it was galileo's 1609-1610 observations of the tiny lights orbiting a brilliant "wandering star," the planet jupiter, that were to be the foundation for a new relationship between humanity and the heavens ... through my ancient all manual 300mm ed nikkor perched atop my rooftop porch: io, europa, ganymede and callisto ...
     


And who can doubt that it will lead to the worst disorders when minds created free by God are compelled to submit slavishly to an outside will? When we are told to deny our senses and subject them to the whim of others? When people devoid of whatsoever competence are made judges over experts and are granted authority to treat them as they please? These are the novelties which are apt to bring about the ruin of commonwealths and the subversion of the state.
GALILEO GALILEI
     
... late in the evening john and jeff and i went down to messalonskee lake where we shared a wonderful view of the comet neowise ... the "tail," a minuscule amount of ionic material that is being pushed away from the five kilometer diameter slushy dust/ice ball nucleus by the sun's radiation, is currently pointed in the direction the comet is heading ... by the way, the tail is over 5,000,000 miles long ... thanks for the show, neowise, we'll see you again in about about 6,000 years ...
   


... a revisiting of an image of waterville/winslow's 2¢ bridge ...
   

... on a bluff above the columbia river, adrien and i came across this truck ... this is another image i enjoy reinterpreting ...
         


... how appropriate, that this image is from circleville, ohio ...
     


... if you know about the zone system then you know how irresistible ferns (and peppers) can be ...
     


... john's "liberty tree" ...

     


... the harbor in friendship ...
     


... what i call "the under-the-sea" road ... it's only exposed at low tide, giving access to privately owned garrison island ... john didn't want to drive it, so i'm going to have take my car down for a go ...

     


... the ridge leading to the island is another display of maine's convoluted geologic story ...

     


... "life on mars" ... ??? ... if these fellows can survive being dried out in 90°f heat, submerged beneath a dozen feet of salt water, frozen in winter's -20°f  arctic air, and for much of the year being covered with huge sheets of ice, well, i imagine mars should be a breeze for alien life forms ...

     


... john strolls the under-the-sea road ...

     


... cultivated garden blossoms and their hardy wild kin ...
     
    

... while high humidity and southern style heat blanketed lincolnville beach a family enjoyed a pleasant respite in the calm, cool sea ...
     


... theresa and mary, from dixmont and portland, two pals waging war against the corona boredom ...
     


... was the drink drew my attention ... if i did drink i think i'd want to try one of these ... vodka and cranberry juice, if i recall correctly, which would mean it's healthy, too ...
     


... what a wonderful world we live in ...