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July 27, 2019

WANDERABOUTING THE WAVES

    
... visiting with bill in milbridge, his friend, john, invited us to enjoy a little across the waves outing in his lobster boat ... i was excited for a lot of reasons, one being that it would be good practice for the cruise mike and i are taking this fall ... after boarding and setting up a cozy lounge area, we were soon chugging across a relatively calm narraguagus bay ...
    

... i'm rather nomenclature disabled, so usually after a first meeting i only recall names when i remembered to work hard to do so ... this day i was having so much fun that, well, it ended up i had to get some help from bill ... my apologies for any mistakes, and, if you do find an error, please let me know via the little comment box ...

... madelyn seemed to disappear into the endlessness of the sea ...
    
    
... i know it was probably supposed to be a secret, but the stars of a very famous tv show were with us on our voyage ... here's "kelly," who has clearly perfected the skill of traveling incognito ...
    
    
... retired from acting, "jill" has taken up hat modeling ...
    
    
... still cool and calm, i think "kate" enjoyed a day being away from the hustle and bustle that comes with being a celebrity ...
    
    
... the island in our wake is a place that defined bruce's life ...
    
    
... until recently an isolated outpost dedicated to the safety of all who risked sailing this rugged and dangerous coast, now the lighthouse is a residence with an automated beacon ...
    

... turns out katie's from louisiana, and, small world, lived not far from where we lived while pa was overseas ...
    

... bruce and kathleen are of the friendliest couples i've ever been lucky to meet ...
    
    
... along the rocky shore of petit manan the gulls were having a little party ...
    
    
... this photograph isn't ever to make the cover of audubon, but i could care less because i got to snap a picture of a puffin ... way cool ...
    
    
... cap'n bill ...
    
    
... father captaining his son's boat, john's sure hands meld jason chipman's craft to the sea so competently that it becomes hard to imagine one without the other ... it is easy for me to believe that his grandson, wesley, will someday do the same ...
    
    
... from the sea can be seen things not visible from shore ...
    
    
... the stern deck of a small boat at sea is of the very best places to share ...
      

... 7,000 years ago the maritime archaic, the "red paint people," negotiated these waters in search of swordfish ... were any of those ancient mariners to be suddenly time-warped onto the deck of john's boat, or he back to the wooden hull of one of their superbly hand-crafted craft, i think there would be naught but handshakes and smiles, and lacking even a single common word still they would perfectly understand one another ...
    


The sea is never still. 
It pounds on the shore 
Restless as a young heart, 
Hunting.

The sea speaks 
And only the stormy hearts 
Know what it says: 
It is the face 
of a rough mother speaking. 

The sea is young. 
One storm cleans all the hoar 
And loosens the age of it. 
I hear it laughing, reckless. 

They love the sea, 
Men who ride on it 
And know they will die 
Under the salt of it 

Let only the young come, 
Says the sea. 

Let them kiss my face 
And hear me. 
I am the last word 
And I tell
Where storms and stars come from.
   
CARL SANDBURG

... good people, a sound ship, calm seas, and a steady hand upon the helm ... what an absolutely wonderful day ...


i stand warning
not of land's danger,
but that no matter the sea's seductive song
it can never be your
home
    
K.DALE

July 6, 2019

NH WANDERABOUT, FEATURING TESSA

   


... i made a little wanderabout over to new hampshire to spend time with adrien and watch the dogs, cat, and chickens while sarah, gordy and tessa were away on vacation in canada ... before they left i snapped a few pictures of baby little tessa, who is growing into being one crazy sketch of a kid ...
   
   
... playin' with "grammy socks, then lamenting the downgrading of pluto, she's always finding fun ...
   
    
   
... and she reads and reads and reads ... tessa owns reading ...
   
   
... it was hot and muggy while they were gone, so i contented myself to reading, watching movies, and puttering around in the back yard ...
   
   
   
... this is the result of aligning and focus-stacking 12 individual frames, then spending a great deal of time "tweaking" the image ...
   
   
... just playin' around ...
   
   
... my favorite ... first aligning and focus-stacking about ten frames, then creating multiple layers upon which i did all sorts of filtering and adjusting...
   
   
... as a desktop image ... right, i guess there are times modesty eludes me ...
   
   
... returning from canada, still enough energy to do a bit of horseback riding ...
   
   
... "daddy's out unloading the car" ...
   

... we went for a swim, ending with a scurry home to avoid the sudden thunderstorms ... for some reason this one ended up as an aged snapshot ...
   
   
... summer, perfect ...
   
   
... finally, from my "pickin' up groceries" outing ...
   
   
... from my point of view, a most wonderful vacation, indeed ...