The 21st day of the 9th month of the year of Emergence

A hidden window in a hidden garden.

We go to the top of the mountain just to see what is on the other side.  Same here?

The 20th day of the ninth month of the year of Emergence

Maybe it's just me, but these guys are just as beautiful as the tigers I have photographed.  Maybe it's the color orange or the brown.  This guy is a yearling at the Riverbanks Zoo.

If you can only imagine the work it takes to get that face onto the ground to pull up a plant by the roots.  They have to spread their front legs as wide as they can just to get their face in the dirt. 

THE 19TH OF THE NINE

Storm clouds seem to be all the rage now.  I took this one in Maryland a year ago at my son's place in Warwick, MD.  We were standing in his drive with the grandkids watching this thing approach.  I remember his comment well.  "Maybe we should head for the basement Dad!"  Man it was tough leaving that thing to head for saftey.  We had no problems, but I can now identify with those folks in tornado alley!  Once again, I should have been a storm chaser!  Next life!

Remember to double click for full screen.

The 17th of the 9th of the year of Emergence

A lovely spot, too much glare, and a little photoshopping of the bright spots.

I just listed this great wall accent on FAA, see the link to the upper left of this page and remember to double click for full screen.

I found this little pond at the Riverbanks Zoo gardens the other day.  It's hidden in a new area they are developing for kids.  Only place that I have been able to find a common frog at the zoo.  But, I thought the water lily had charm particularly with the background darkened to offer a metallic impression.  The frog will have to wait for his ten seconds of fame.

The sixteenth day of the ninth month of the year of Emergence

Sixty four degrees this morning for the first time since early spring.  A chance to turn the AC off and open the windows.  A nice breeze blowing in some rain a little later.  Almost wants me to go out and split some wood and kindling for the winter.  Almost!  That was a different time, but it would be nice to spend a morning outdoors.

September always reminds me that fall is coming.  The faint blush of color in the woods not unlike these trees at Valley Forge. 

It used to be the first day of school.  Always used to seem that Sept. 1 instantly got cooler.  The first chilly morning like this morning.  It was always still too warm to wear gloves to school, but one had to put one's hands in pockets while riding the bike.  Just enough chill to make a young teenager too cold too early.  Look Ma no hands! 

The realization that the Ospreys have flown south, always on the fifteenth, like clockwork.

 We'll be back to ninety degrees later next week, but this morning is pure nostalgia.

  I expect to hear a flock of geese fly over or a frost warning from the weather channel.  Of course they might not be able to find time to actually give the weather, but that is another of my pet peeves.

  Perhaps tomorrow morning there will be some rhime ice around the big lake in New Hampshire, but probably too early even there.  God, I remember the other end of winter up there when we went fishing for the landlocks.  Some mornings so cold that we had to knock the frost off the seats of the boat and the guides on the fishing rods froze with water from the lines.  But that too is another story.  For today, I will just enjoy an atmospheric change that makes the mind drift.

The 15th day of the 9th month of the year of Emergence

I remember well, a hundred years ago, that this day marked the second week of the new school year.  Woke up to 68 degrees this morning for the first time since the spring and was well aware that the seasons are a changin. 

Yesterday, instead of school and I really do wish I were that age again but knowing what I know now, I spent two hours at the Riverbank Zoo and Gardens.  Specifically the garden.  This time of year also brings about migrating butterflies and of course some resident stuff.  It was kinda cool.  No one was there and I had the place almost to my own self, as they say.  The zoo is nationally renowned and the gardens are outstanding.  Surpassed only by the Victorian gardens at the Hereford Inlet lighthouse in Anglesea, New Jersey.  Remember to double click for full screen.

I loved the way the light played through the elephant ear!

A pair of Kimodo Dragons (actually a couple of lizards) running around an oriental display.

The water feature runs the length of the gardens.

A pair of grasshoppers.

A hidden window.

A place to rest.

And I found a swallow tail.  Who knew, this was the reason to go in the first place!

The 14th day of the 9th month of the year of Emergence

Talk about small business being vulnerable!

This man is a Chesapeake Bay Waterman, or commercial fisherman.  Seen here he is readying crab pots for distribution  in the bay.  The boat in the foreground is actually a Tangier Island boat from Virginia while the background is Smith Island in Maryland.  Both islands are accessible only by boat from the mainland.

While the rest of we small business must worry about product, creativity, employees, taxes, and government intrusion  (control) these people must also worry about the acts of God things called Nature.  They are constantly battling weather, long hours, and a production that is limited by not only their own energy but natural propagation of the species for which they fish.  Throw on top of that about $100,000 worth of equipment and a gas cost that would choke a sheik----so it's no wonder crab prices at retail could reach $200 a bushel.   So a tough job.