1 30 13

ISLAND IN THE SKY

 

January 30, 2013, 8:10 am, and it's 67 degrees here south of the sun.  Going to 80 most likely, but we're supposed to get some storms.  The big lake just froze and we're at spring time temperatures.  Go figure.

 

Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining.  As I season, I can tolerate cold weather less and less.  I always wondered how stupid my mother was in her later years...wearing sweaters and stuff in the middle of summer.  Now I know.  The blood thins and there is less alcohol in it and you get cold when the normal world is wandering around in shorts and wife beaters.  Why the H do they call them wife beaters anyway.  If anybody knows please write in and let me know.  I am always looking to further my education.

 

Yesterday, we had a chance to go up to Newbury to look at a  piece of property Sheri's cousin wants to clear and build upon.  It got up to the low seventies and my major worry was wandering into a sunning copperhead or rattler or moccasin along the lake's edge.  I don't worry about a snake I can see...it's the one's I can't see that give me chills.  Phobia's are strange.  But I really don't want to have to undergo shots of anti-venom, wired up in some emergency room.

 

Anyway, not snakes to report.  The dog got wet and smelled all the way home.  We talked to the guy who will be bush-hogging the place.  There's another word whose source would prove interesting.  Bush-hog?

 

I do understand "Island in the Sky" however!

 

Happy Hump Day.  And I do understand the origin of that!

 

 

 

 

1 29 13

FOR THE BIRDS

 

I am not sure of just what the attraction is, but birds in a wild setting do peak my interest.  When I first started to take pictures and thought stupidly that I would like to be a pro photographer, it was the birds to which my concentration was directed. 

 

I have done some portrait photography and one (that's 1) wedding.  People photography is probably where the money is, but ducks don't talk back and that was always important to me.  I once had a lady say that the photographer who did her portrait five years ago made her look so much better than my efforts.  Well!  Duh lady!  You're five years older and those wrinkles were there before Photo Shop.  So, I stayed with birds.  Throw them some food and they're friends for life and never bad mouth ya unless you run out of seed.  Squirrels at the feeder are another matter.

 

I guess I have taken photos, like the one above of a cattle egret, from Maine to Florida and a lot of spots in between.  In the far north, there just aren't the numbers of them that we see in the south.  That makes them smarter than us because they stay were it's warm and you don't have to work so hard for food.  And then you have to learn migration patterns, mating patters and just the locations in which they like to hang.  So, I guess you could say that you just don't go outside and go "Click,click" to get that photo.

Places that are fun to visit and productive in wildlife area range from Acadia in Maine, Fire Island in New York, Bombay Hook in Delaware, Black Water and Chesapeake Farms in Maryland, Assateague Island in Virginia, Great Smokey National Park in Tennessee, Ding Darling and the Alligator Farm in Florida.  I guess there are a lot more places on the East Coast, but I have been blessed to be able to visit those.

Then there is the most stable place of all to photograph our feather friends.  The back yard bird feeder is probably the easiest place to photograph the little critters.  Also the cheapest place to go.  All you need is a feeder (0$ to $35), a bag of black oil sunflower seed ($25) and a lot of patience.  Tack a branch or two on the feeder and you have a place for them to land, preen and argue.  And it looks more natural when they land there.  A friend of mine who photographed "The Mad Bluebird" (and made a million on it..no kidding) claimed that he cut all the other branches off a particular tree...thus forcing the bird to land only on the one he wanted to photograph.  OK, maybe that works but I am not so sure.  And the bluebird was on top of a fence post anyway so I guess he cut all the other posts down.  Probably not!

Me, I'll just sit in a nice warm car with a long lens and let them put on a show for me.  Have my Pike Place Roast all nice and warm and fire away.  Lazy....yep!  But I'm old and worked hard at being lazy for a lot of years so I deserve it.  Besides I probably have a thousand images of a bird just like that one over there in the thorns and brush.  Pass the donuts please!

 

1 26 13

IN THE ICE BOX OF MY MIND

 

As some of you know I spent 45 years fishing with the same five or six guys on Lake Winnepasaukee in New Hampshire at the end of April.  That story is buried in this blog over the past four years and you can find it, but it would take a heck of a lot of work.

 

  Known by locals as the big lake, this year it never froze over until this past week.

 

I have never fished it through the ice

but this morning's cam capture sure looks like that sport could soon happen.

 

We would wait until just after that winter covering would melt and sink.  The ice would push all that warmer water down below to the top and the small bait fish called smelt would head to the surface followed by the bigger, hungry trout and salmon.  If we timed it right we would watch it sink just as we arrive in Wolfeboro, where we would buy what food, snacks, adult beverages, fishing licenses and new sure fire lures that we deemed necessary to withstand the rigors of non stop fishing and poker playing.  It was a ritual! 

 

But in the deep winter of my brain this morning, I was seeing different images.  Maybe it's just all the medication or just plain memory on steroids.

 

 

January through March is the time of year when a young fisherman's thought processes are hot even if the body is frozen in with the season.  This is the time when equipment is primed for the upcoming seasons and anticipation is honed to a fine edge.  The mental images  float to the surface, just like the smelt and salmon.

 



I cannot begin to tell you the number of hours spent in this old tin boat on those ice cold waters, but suffice to say it was in the hundreds.  That old craft, simply called "Putt", caught more fish over those 40 plus years than all the rest of the newer fancy craft we employed.  I am sure even with all the ice and snow she still to this day is lying upside down on the small beach called "Winter home", waiting for us to show up and put her to work.  Sorta like having an old bird dog waiting by the door as you put your boots on and grab the old double barrel.  Can't wait to get started.

 

 

But now the trips have come to an end and we are all looking at the sunset.  This is the way I prefer to see that image resting peacefully in that portion of my brain that has survived the lobotomy of life.

 

Good times.  Good people.  How can I be so lucky.  Thank you Lord!

 

 

1 25 13

PRESSURE COOKER!

 

Anyone around that actually remembers what they are?

 

  You new folks probably think the the modern day "Pressure cooker" is your job!  Your life!  I know I feel that way sometimes.  It seems that the only way to deal is to caffeinate, hydrate and exacerbate our lives just to make it through the day.  I mean there's the alarm clock routine, shower and dressing for the occasion, commute, coffee, doughnut, email and memo check before the requisite meetings with people who are "some do and some don't ers", lunch either at the desk or with someone who ends up wasting a couple hours.  Maybe a couple hours of real work before the needy little heads of employees and colleagues poke into your "Private Office".  All the while taking care of personal business with spouses in the same soup, kids at school learning to be little thugs, or relatives who need a loan to get the double wide back up on the blocks.

 

And yes "Virginia" there is somebody that can do it and it's you!

 

Then, ya retire and die! 

 

Well, no I got news for ya.

 

when you retire, or even semi like me..........there is still a pressure cooker.  Aren't you glad that you have that to look forward to?

 

Sure 1% retire wealthy and can walrus up on some sunny beach someplace...but that ain't us!

 

Here's a few beans to put in that retirement pressure cooker.

 

 

I just had a favorite uncle pass away at the age of 101......Ya mean I got that much longer to do this stuff?

 

Now I have to go and chase that damn squirrel off the bird feeder.

 

OH, and did I mention that the Semi- part of retirement means that I still have to work on the pics, blogs, and social marketing just to pay the bills.

 

 

The definition of a "Real" pressure cooker is an old pot being heated to extreme temperatures with a air tight lid that when mistreated is likely to blow half cooked calves brains all over the kitchen ceiling. 

 

But that's for tomorrow's bucket list.

 

No sitting around and rusting for me!

 

 

 

 

1 24 13

EXAGGERATED!

 

Need a dominated color to go with something else?

 

 

No. 5

 

No.4

 

 

 

No. 3

 



 

No. 2

 

 

No. 1

 

No problem!

 

1 23 13

COLD!

 

It's called Winter, Son! 

 

So cold that the big lake looks like it will finally freeze this year for the first time.

 

Here's last night

 

 

And this morning!

 

 

New Hampshire of course.  Two cam captures on the northern end of Lake Winnepasaukee.

 

It did make freezing here earlier, but nowhere near what's going on up north.  Last weekend's adventure included a day at the Biltmore in Asheville, NC.  First time and nothing but opulence.  Course I wish it was my opulence, but not so.  I took a bunch of photos which cannot be sold because of their policy ..... it's all about making money dontchyaknow.  But that's OK.  I suspect that I can use a couple on here as nobody is paying anything for this stuff.  If you haven't been, it is quite an experience in the early wealth generated by those evil entrepreneurs in this country.  But don't get me started about how the early capitalists only built the country that you and I enjoy today.  Pure evil!

 

  Even the gargoyles are classic and interesting and I wish I knew the story behind them.

 

You could eat off the stable floor, they were so clean!

 

 

Just a couple of generic photos as a tease.  You really must take the time to go and visit the place.  Huge estate {a castle actually}, rolling hills  and mountains in the background.  A real treat. 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

1 19 13

BREAKFAST

 

 

 

Just finished it and am sitting back, chewing ma cud, with my second cup of Pikes Place and thinking that it can't get much better than this.  Of course you could go to the site and buy something and that would help, but all the same life is pretty good.  It's cooler this morning and a small fire in the fireplace just seems appropriate.

 

As you, my astute and knowledgeable readers know, I started a new Gallery yesterday consisting of  digital images of old or antique lighthouse postcards.  There are some of the same lights in my Lighthouse Gallery to match those antiques I will be posting.  So have fun with that and take a look at what one of your favorite lighthouses looked over fifty or a hundred years ago.

 

I will be soon switching my favorite coffee out for some tea this afternoon.  We, Sheri and I, will be attending something called "Rocket Man" tonight at the Kroger Center for the Arts here in town.  It is a Tokyo Joe Production for the benefit for a children's shelter.  It's a tribute to Sir Elton John.  So presumably we will be "Rocking" along with 1200 of our newest and closest friends.  Gotta drink a lotta tea!!  Also have to leave enough time to go out and get my ear pierced, just so I feel appropriately dressed.  Sigh!

 

Then tomorrow we will take off for a day and half to see "The Biltmore" property in Asheville, North Carolina.  Only wish we would have time to go into the Smokies from there, but probably not.

 

I can pretty much guarantee that I will be taking a photo or five during our little escapades.  I would have loved to have my three grand daughters with us at the Biltmore....it is a castle you know and just the thing little and big princesses would love.  Of course being kids, they wouldn't tell you that they loved it till 25 years later when you're on your deathbed.  "Hey Grand dad....do you remember".  As I'm sitting in my rocker just a slurpin and droolin.  At that point I don't remember.  Who is that kid anyway?  All that is probably coming sooner than I care for.

 

Oh, and btw....all of my FB friends who are retired English teachers or just self appointed gramaritists (? I know it's not a word), a lot of this drivel is gramatically incorrect.  But I don't give a Bulldog's Butt. And without spell check, it would be even better.   It's my blog so suffer...I think you will get the drift about that which I speak.  Enjoy it and if you want to be critical...go ahead, I always need a good laff!  Love you all and keep the light on for me!

1 18 13

A New Gallery

 

When I started photographing lighthouses, I also started to collect lighthouse postcards.  I kept eBay in business during their early years.  The only mistake I made was not buying their stock when they went public.  Some capitalist/evil investor I am!

 

During those early years in the 1990's I would buy postcards and scan them into files on the computer, wait a period of time and sell them back.  So, the cost of the digital collection is probably pretty close to zero.  I also sold 5x7's of my own photos and was doing pretty well.  Of course, eBay was new and I was new and made all the rookie mistakes.  Long story short, I have a pretty extensive library of old postcards.  Lighthouse and otherwise.  You will begin to see them listed now on Fine Art America as another type of wall art available to you.  It's fun to see the old image with the old clothing, old paint on the towers, and old settings around each light.

 

 

The above is one of my images taken of the lighthouse at New London Harbor in Connecticut around 1980.  If you look closely at my image, the covered walkway from the keeper's house to the tower still remains.  In New England a great number of the houses had these walkways because of the very cold and snowy winters.  Made getting to the tower in the dead of night during a blizzard so much easier.  This is now a private home with a dozen warning signs along the street to "Keep Off"!  I can understand the owner's need for privacy and took my pictures from the middle of the adjacent street which is legal but limiting in nature.

 

The one below is from a post card made between 1908 and 1918. 

 

 

 

 

1 16 13

Hey all of my lighthouse fans!

 

There will be more new stuff on FAA in the coming days and weeks.  Yup, lighthouses!  But the images coming are not my own photographs, but digital scans of more than a couple hundred antique postcards of lights I have collected.

 

 

 

In some cases I do have my own images taken much more recently than this 1909 view of Bridgeport Harbor Lighthouse in Ct.  Be aware that these are scans of old paper and hence the quality of the image is such as you cannot make huge prints.  But they will be great accent pieces.

 

So, keep your eyes open and buy, buy, buy!

 

This morning I will be joining the hoards of folks trying to get their guns bought before the high noon announcements from the central controllers in Washington re: the new gun laws.

 

  I think that everyone misses the point here.  It's not that they want to limit the amount of hunting, but rather the amount of self protection we can do.  I don't want to get into a huge discussion about this, but criminals and sickie's don't follow the law folks.  Just honest people who, God forbid, have to protect themselves from those same criminals and sickie's.  Oh, and did I forget that the founders gave us the right to bear arms not in case of criminals and sickie's but in the case of an overbearing government?  Sickies?  Yup!

1 15 13

THE HAY DAY OF THE HOBO

The long lonely wail of a train whistle woke me at 6:30 this morning.

 

 

I thought that I should have gotten used to it by now.  They hit the horn at every RR crossing on every street and are only about eight blocks away.  So kinda loud. 

 

 

We have two granite quarries here in Columbia and the trains of stone are travelling twice or more a day.  Pretty neat holes in the ground, but still need trains to get the stuff moved.

 

In my half delirium before waking and listening to the horns, my mind drifted to what it would be like to just jump one of those freight cars and wander to wherever it led.  I guess the hay day of of the "Hobo" was back in the real depression of the 30's, where folks so needy of jobs and out of money would just jump a freight to wander the country.  Come to think of it, maybe I should jump a couple just for practice and in case!

 

Of course today we couldn't call them Hobo's.  Not politically correct you know.  Would just destroy their self esteem you know.  Maybe "Job deprived wanderers" would be more correct.  Or "Displaced persons of non-descriptive origins without sexual orientation or definition who are the downtrodden because of an oppressive society not of their doing".  Or whatever BS deemed appropriate by some bureaucratic dunce at the lame stream media.  C'mon sheeple feel sorry for those guys and gals who have to ride the rails. 

 

But think of it.

 

  The freedom and all.

 

  No job to commute to.  No boss on a power trip to deal with.  No worry about whether the next paycheck would make it in time.  No strings of responsibility for anyone or anything.  Health care taken care of by a benevolent taxpayer.  At least until they run out of money too.  Need a drink, just go out and panhandle.  Need a meal....collect your food stamps.  Then get back on the next cross country and ride off into oblivion.  Freedom to destroy yourself!  Or maybe actually find a job somewhere over the rainbow!

 

 What a life that must have been. 

 

We're close to the Congaree River where a number of lost souls seem to congregate during the warmer weather.  Like the Hobo's of yesteryear.  Yea, they're dirty, smelly and probably a little "Off", but they have no responsibility but to themselves to go out and find the next meal.  I don't know whether Hemingway did that kind thing, but it would have been something he or Jack London would have done just to expand their library of experiences.

 

God, I should have just rolled over and gone back to sleep.

 

Now I gotta go to work. 

 

 Responsibilities you know. 

 

To myself at the very least.

 

Here's lookin at ya Wilbur!

 

 

1 14 13

January Thaw!

 

You know there was, once upon a time, a period in January when the weather got very nice for a couple of days before we went back into the deep freeze.  Of course it depends upon where one lives, but here south of the Sun the last couple of days have been very nice.  Pushing eighty during the day and allowing me to sit by the pool with dancing girls waving fans all over my body.  Talk about delusional!

 

I did some reviewing, studying, planning and other business analysis over the week end to try to find the keys to Valhalla.  It seems that sales in Fine Art America were led by lighthouses and scenic images.  Those two comprised about 79% of sales with images of the Chesapeake adding another 8%.  Now that I know what happened, the question is will it continue to happen.  Probably not.  You know when somebody says something to you and two days later you come up with just the right smart "A" answer to the comment.  Day late and a dollar short my father used to say...God rest him.  But for the time being expect to see more of the three categories show up in "The Galleries".

 

 

 

The above image of Cape Lookout lighthouse just might qualify for both categories, but the one below of the beach scene in South Carolina certainly qualifies in the scenic group.

 

 

 

Stay tuned, hang in and have a great week.

1 11 2013

11 Jan 2013

 

I sit here mulling through the upcoming day reading overnight news [big mistake], nursing the first Pikes Place and see that tomorrow and over the weekend we are to get up to eighty degrees.  Global warming has come to South Carolina. 

 

 

 

Stop driving your cars people.

 

  The world lost it's only wacko global warmist when Al Gore became a Muslim capitalist for a hundred million bucks.  I guess it's easy to give up principles for that amount...so the rest of us have to pick up the cross.

 

  I don't know, maybe it's just the caffeine or an overdose of the "Drudge Report" that's got me going.

 

  Pretty sick mess we have on our hands right now. 

 

Flu epidemic sending the news babes on all the lame stream media into orgasmic delight.

 

Biden and Obama want to completely trash the Constitution because after all it only created the best country on the planet over the last two hundred years.  And apparently they want to put an end to all that fun.

 

Biden wants gun control while the president gives himself lifetime armed guards.  Executive privilege don'tchaknow!

 

MSNBC claims  that Clarence Thomas doesn't represent blacks......isn't there something about a federal judge being impartial...what is wrong with you people?

 

Maybe I should just go back to bed, curl up with my 12 gauge and my Bible.  Wait for somebody from Washington to wake me up and tell me it's time to go to work !!!

  

 

Or maybe God will just knock on the window and tell me to get my lazy butt off the tracks cause he doesn't do physical labor any more and won't pick me up and move me.

 

And,

 

Here come the Train!

1 10 13

Creativity!

 

Of photography, I have always said...."You just have to have been there".  And I still believe,  reduced to basics, that is the secret to preserving that one 250th of a second of our lives, absorbed by our brains, then recorded on film, or placed in the digital ether.

 

   Ya just gotta be there, at least to start with.

 

  Sorta like if a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody there to see it.  Did it make a noise?  Or some sort of drivel like that.  I think I once took a course, probably psychology or something, in college looking at that same stuff about the tree falling.  Can't remember if it was pre-flunking out or post!  But the wild child stories have to wait for another time. 

 

 

The above image says "Boy were you lucky to be there at the right time". 

 

Sure!

 

 No, I just had to be there.  Take a small boat out of Annapolis, Maryland....cruise out the Severn River past the Naval Academy and into the Chesapeake Bay.  Lots of photo ops along the way.  Take about 10 rolls of slide film, at $9 a roll of 36 {yup that was when we actually used film}, get home, develop the film {at $9 per roll},  cull out three quarters of the photos made.....and then print something.  Well if you had a bluebird or grey sky, you pretty much had nothing but a postcard image.

 

But, if you were tricky in the darkroom, you could take the basic image of your liking, slap on a sky picture in another slide of the appropriate size...merge the two and make a new slide and print that.  Let's see is that cheating pure photography, or the art thereof.  It was all photography and darkroom.  Nothing else!  Ansel Adams was known not so much for his art of going click, click, but of his extraordinary work in the darkroom.  Of course if you had to lug hundreds of pounds of equipment up 5,000 feet of western mountains to take one picture you'd be known for something else as well.

 

Today we do the same thing in the "Digital darkroom" and it's called cheating the photographic process.  Basically the same thing only different tools.  Some would say better and more effective tools.  But isn't "Taking" the  picture digitally, the initial and basic cheat on the photographic process?

 

  No....no...no, it's a different art.

 

  We call it photography, but only for lack of another title....we are lazy in that regard.  But that is why my belly is growing and I got turkey neck and elbows. 

  

 

This is an image of the Chicago skyline taken with Lake Michigan in the foreground.  Kind of a crummy sky but the city is clean and tack sharp.  Probably a simple postcard image or one of those you see on the social media with some catchy phrase embossed like "Visit Chicago, the world's murder capital".  Or some other sort of degrading comment about the town, the mayor, the lake, the buildings, yada yada yada!  But you get the point.

 

What to do.  What to do.

 

How about this!

 

 

  A different form of creativity!

 

Will it sell....well, we'll see.  It would be fantastic printed on metal for a lakeside office or condo.

Or maybe there was a reason for flunking out?

1 9 13

A rare gem!

 

The title alone suggests a number of things.  A of course meaning one.  Rare meaning something

you don't see it that often.  And gem meaning anything from a rock to a relationship. 

 

  

 

In this case the A is a one of a kind sunrise.  They are all different you know.  No two alike.  Of course the foreground can remain the same, but the sky is always changing as are the tones of the light that old sol brings with him/her.  And then the time that the camera goes click, click assures a different color with each click.

 

Rare in this case relates to just that ever changing view as the sun rises at what seems to be an extraordinary rate of incline.  One can almost see it move when it is at the horizon.  During the day it doesn't seem to move at all.  Equally rare in my case also relates to "Seldom" in that I seem to be catching more sunsets than rises as I advance with age.  Seems like sleeping in is now just as cherished as when I was in college.  Although back then if I was going hunting or fishing, daybreak was an excitement not to be missed.

 

Finally, the gem part.  I so seldom make sunrise that the mere fact of being there is a gem.  Oh, and there is the quality of the image which results from "being there".  That's construed by some as a gem.

1 7 13

Day of rest

 

Yesterday, I did rest, vegetate, watched my belly grow, relaxed and saw a pretty good football game.

 

 

 

I have a friend in Connecticut is so much of a rabid Seahawks fan, he may need shots.  I don't follow the pros that much...much prefer college ball but it was a pretty good game and now I seem to be becoming a Seattle fan.  At least for the moment.  They have to play Atlanta next week, which takes my interest quotient to another new low.  Another left coast, left wing city playing a left wing city in a right wing state.  At least it will be two predator birds will be facing off....Seahawks Vs. Falcons.

 

I did take that image from the Internet and so claim no ownership whatsoever.  I would also guess that a number of my own images have made the rounds of image theft, but there is nothing I can do about that.  You know, god grant me the wisdom to change the things I can and all the rest just just settle up with my 38 cal. 

 

Speaking of a 38, I am watching all the posturing by our overpaid, self centereds in Washington taking advantage of a bad situation to further their own agendas.  Tell me again why we vote for these vultures any way.  New gun laws, Huh?  Yeah, that'll work.  Just look at Chicago for the proof. 

 

Toughest gun laws in the Country = highest violent crimes in the Country.

 

Boy, our lawmakers sure do get it right.  I did take Statistics 101 in college.  Twice!

 

But what do I know, I am just a lowly photographer.  If I were ever robbed by some bottom feeder, I would probably go for the camera first [because I am a photographer] and my [legal] concealed carry weapon second.  Lot of good that would do me but does bring up an idea for those of us who have a misplaced sense of self defense.

 

Maybe Nikon could merge with Smith and Wesson, thus becoming a new entity called  "Itakeupicture & blowyourgbuttoff, Inc.  Make sense to you Senator?  Probably qualify for the anti-trust laws.

 

An interesting new gun could be mounted under your Nikon, Smith, and Wesson cameras.  Perhaps with a laser sight just to make the picture more dramatic. 

 

 I can see the scene now....criminal demanding my money during a home invasion....camera goes click first, then an orange dot appears on his face....series of click, click,clicks.....Bang....a big ugly hole appears in his forehead.  Double exposure [tap] just to make sure.

 

Ahhhh, but I am just a foolish dreamer!

 

 

1 6 13

Sunday

 

And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.

 

I hope the he feels that working on the puter, creating new artwork to list, and finding other ways to market are not work.  I do feel blessed that all that stuff seems to me to be play and so hence is "Rest".

 

 

Yesterday, as noted in yesterday's blog, we denuded the house and grounds of Christmas 2012.  These are the light cords from the outside tree.  Neat huh?  This year I was determined to put them away in such a fashion that next year they would be in order and easy to untangle. 

 

My battle with the underworld of electric cords and hoses continues....I think I have won this one.

  

 

Starting with a piece of a box from Christmas deliveries with a cut at each mark left and right. 

 

 

 

Said cords were carefully wrapped.  There is an [X] placed at the end which must come off first.

Is that anal or what?  Victory is so sweet!

 

The branches of the tree itself endured my rendition of the chain saw massacre and are now drying on the wood pile along with the main section cut in firewood lengths.  And all this only took me some sixty years to learn.

 

On to the back yard.  If anyone of my nearest friends on this blog are thinking of going southern in their backyards by adding a Catawba tree............give it serious second thoughts.  Yes, the worms or caterpillars or whatever they are that come off the thing make great bait for fishing.  but the leaves and seed pods will drive you absolutely nuts.  This only took seven years for me to learn.  See you can teach an old dog new tricks .... especially if he's real old.

 

 

That really isn't a muskrat den piled up in the middle, although for those of you with a public education...it does look like one.  No that's a pile of pine needles and Catawba stuff.   I did use it as mulch but don't tell Sheri.  She thinks that the only much in the world comes from Lowes at $10.95 a bag.  But we x farm boys know different.  The Apocalypse garden and pots are waiting the first robins coming north from Florida as a sign to begin planting.  But all the browns and greys tell you that we are looking at South Carolina winter....kinda dreary right now.

 

 

 

The place does clean up right well tho!

 

That was right tiring, maybe God is right and I should rest today.  I think that Seattle plays a football game against someone and maybe I'll take that in.  Just sit back and watch my belly grow!

 

 

SATURDAY

 

Saturday

 

Five days a week, my body is a temple but on the other two it's an amusement park!

 

 

 

Still a day of work, different kind perhaps but still work.

Time for the Christmas stuff to go hide for another 350 days.  Both inside and out must be put away.  And that brings to mind, how do you wrap up strings of lights so that in another year they are not in a multi warped square not created at the bar scene in Star Wars?

Guaranteed, the neater they are this year the more tangled they will be next!

  Some of you may know my ongoing argument with hoses and electric cords.  Before God created us all on day one in Genesis, the devil created the electric cord and hose two days before.  True!  Look it up!  A hose coiled very neatly can crease, bend, kink and tie itself into a knot every single time you use it.  Real evil lurks within those coils.  See there are already two kinks in that hose just waiting to ambush you're efforts.

And an electric cord is just as nasty.  It will catch under a car tire when you use the leaf blower faster than you can get halfway down the driveway.  Stop!  Walk back!  Bend over [That's key].  Pull it loose and continue on.

 Wham!

  Its found the flower pot next to the garage door, wrapped itself around same, dumping soil over that which you just blew clean.  Now, not only do you have to clean it again, but also pack the soil back into the pot holding the wife's favorite petunia that probably won't live.  God, getting even!
 

 

 

The Fourth Day

The Fourth Day

 

And God made two great lights; the greater to rule the day,

 

 

 

and the lesser to rule the night.

The Third Day

"And the evening and the morning were the third day!"

 

 

"And God said, Let there be light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

 

Darkness to light at the Old Cape Henry lighthouse in Virginia.

 

Capes Henry and Charles in Virginia at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay were named after the two sons of King James of England.  The first lighthouse on the Chesapeake Bay was erected on Cape Henry in 1792 at a cost of $15,200, most likely an outrageous sum for that time.  The sandstone tower is 90 feet tall and a local man, Laban Gossigan, became the first keeper. 

 

The Virginia Governor offered President Washington assistance in erecting a tower at the current site.  It seems that a certain amount of materials were placed at that location by the state and they would be available for the construction by the Federal government.  Blowing and shifting sands had buried the building materials and they had to be replaced.  The contract to build the tower was signed by Alexander Hamilton and awarded to an New York brick layer, John McComb, Jr.During the Civil War the Confederates destroyed the lantern, only to be replaced in 1863.  A military guard was placed at the light until the end of the war.

 

 By 1872 cracks appeared in the walls and the Lighthouse Board recommended it be replaced. By 1879 construction on the new tower had begun.The Lighthouse Board ordered the replacement of the tower and the new one was completed in 1881 at a cost of $125,000.  Like the Cape Charles light, this southern beacon was fitted with a huge first order Fresnel lens.  Not just a bay light, but an offshore sentinel for all shipping entering the bay and as such required the largest of lights.  In 1929, this beacon became the first radio-distance-finding station.  The light flashes the dot-dot-dash pattern of the letter “U” at 80,000 candlepower.

 

This was an early morning after a much earlier ride from Chestertown, Maryland south to the entrance of the Chesapeake Bay at Virginia Beach, Virginia.  The three hour ride was totally worth it, for the ensuing sunrise was spectacular.  Such trips are planned, but when one arrives at the shot site....the result is in God's hands and one takes what one is given.  In this case I got lucky!

 

 

 

 

The second of the first

GOOD MORNING

 

The Pikes Place is simmering in the cup, dogs fed and asleep, and the garbage men are outside picking up the hangovers from Christmas and New Years.  Feet hit the floor this morning and that's a good thing. 

 

And so another (thankfully) new year starts.  Business wise I hope it will be a better year, but have no clue what our hapless govt. will do to us regarding business growth.  I can only control what I do.  And therefore feel like the tail of the dog.

 

At the moment, I have no grand photo plans this year.  But I do intend to expand the number of websites as well as the marketing side.  It all amounts to a great deal of computer work, scanning of slides and tweaking photos to sales quality and other stuff that is not anywhere as intersting as going "Click,click".

 

I want to see the kids more often and of course the grands as well, but I think a lot of that will depend upon the markets and how well we all do with regard to incomes.  Unlike the half of the country that depends upon govt. largess, I have to earn the extra money needed for all trips including photo adventures.

 

I want to take the opportunity to thank all of my customers in 12 and hope that your interested in some of the new stuff in 13.   My following has grown and I am eternally grateful for that interest.  And with that I will leave you today with the best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year for you and yours.

 

  But true to my true colors, I leave you with this little nugget I stole from the net.