June 30th 2013

59 YEARS AGO

My father bought his first property on the Chesapeake Bay around 1954.  This is where I spent summers until I was old enough and wise enough to move there myself.  This 1989 image can be read from left to right, top to bottom as,

The bay
Swan Point
Tavern Creek
Swan Creek
Rock Hall on the right and
The bay on the left.

He ended up owning three properties over the years on the entrance to Swan Creek in a little community called Gratitude.  A lot of my early professional, photographic activity was centered around this locale and my love for the bay area is never ending despite all my travels along the east coast.  And a lot of the really good memories were formed in the places in that picture.  I had a little 14 foot runabout boat with a 15 horse power Mercury engine that took my friends and I all over that bay.  Many's the time we saw green water come over the bow of that boat in rough seas.  It's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves in that boat, but God protects little kids a drunks for some reason.  I for one am very glad he does.  Happy Sunday all!

JUNE 28 2013

About four miles west of Rock Hall, MD on Rt. 20 is a little community called Edesville.  Not a town really but more of a damp spot in the road.  After all Rock Hall itself only has a couple of thousand souls.  Mostly watermen or commercial fishermen over the years, but more and more the place for summer homes for those from the bigger cities from New York to Washington.  The sailing crowd has taken over as the day of the waterman has steadily declined over the last hundred years.  I guess I qualify as one of those outlanders as my father bought his first place in the mid fifties in another section of the town called "Gratitude".  Not a town either, but rather a street, the name of which is Lawton Avenue, but known far and wide as "Gratitude".  This link will give you an idea as to the genesis of the name of that community.

 http://rockhallwave.com/2010/09/21/world-gratitude-day-celebrated-at-gratitude-landing/

But other than the churches in Edesville, the center of activity, on the dark side as it were, was "Belle's Place".  A simple one room type of bar.  Always a few locals standing outside when one would pass by.  A black bar known to the white roughnecks of the area as a place which was probably a pretty good idea to avoid.  Oh, some would try and find the welcome mat was located at the back door out of which they would be thrown.  Don't know much about the history of the place, but I was always enchanted by the look as I passed through town.

JUNE 27 2013

I am working with the first 2,000 slides for later posting.  Scanning, which is going along rapidly and editing each photo along the way.  I mean it takes a lot to look this pretty!  Anyway, in a former life we lived in a little town in New Jersey called Flemington.  Flemington is smack dab in the middle of the state and is a destination city for country shoppers and goers.....actually pretty rural by New Jersey standards.  The state is really not just what you see from the Turnpike.  Despite all the rumors of bodies buried in the marshes of Secacaus.

Flemington is the town where the killer of the Lindbergh baby was tried, way before my time.  Long story short the courthouse is a tourist destination after they get tired of shopping.  This shot is one from the alley across from the court.  Just an interesting take on that historic place.

I include a wikepedia link, for those of you not alive in Jan. and Feb. of 1935 when the trial was held.  I remember it well!

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindbergh_kidnapping

JUNE 26, 2013

I have not been writing for the last month because of a major change in computers.  Now with more power, less glitches, less swearing at the ether, some new ideas......I'M BACK!  Some would say full of vim, vigor, and copious amounts of BS.

In the coming weeks there will be some major additions to the website and a few additions to the blog site which will include offering some new product like my photos on Elvis rugs, mugs, drinking bottles, pencils, coasters, billboards and the like.  As you can see my sarcasm has not been disturbed by my lack of postulating drivel and drab.

The previous header used here has been replaced by a digital concoction consisting of a lighthouse at night placed upon a scene, also a night, from Assateague Island in Virginia.  Frankly, I just liked the sky and had to used it somehow.  At any rate the lighthouse branding efforts will continue, so spread the word!

I am in the process of scanning around 5,000 slides to be used to fill out the website and I am truly amazed at the amount and quality of stuff I found in the archives.  I hope that you all will have the chance to enjoy the work in the weeks ahead.  So much for the desk work.

I have had no new adventures or flights of fantasy other than walks on the Riverwalk and a few shots which I found mildly interesting.  Next week I will have some images of a new section of the walk to be opened on Friday at 9:00 am.  I am sure you all will want to accompany me in staggering along this new section.  Even if vicariously!  I am not sure how long the entire Riverwalk will be now, but I would bet that five miles of boardwalk and concrete would be pretty close.  I will have to pack my knapsack with sustenance and water and try to do the entire length.  Sort of like preparing to walk the Appalachian trail.  A fantasy of mine that will never get fulfilled.

One can see one of the two railroad bridges across the Congaree River through the summer explosion of jungle growth. Walkers can take all kinds of flights of fantasy in the ninety degree heat and seven hundred percent humidity that makes this stuff grow right before your eyes.  Reminds me that I have some work in the back yard.  The tomato plants are now seven feet high.  Great stalks but not much fruit!

                                             Good night Paula Dean wherever you are!

5 11 13

Ketchup!

 

Sorry I have not been posting but been a wild and woolly two weeks.  Drove 1600 miles for two funerals and am currently planning a third for my computer.  The first two were real and in both cases a shock, but we weren't put on this planet in perpetuity.  I have to try and remember that when I do my next annual marketing plan.  Part of the trip was to western Virginia which is an area of the state to which I have never visited in the past.  Really great country east of the blue ridge and west of Richmond.  Wish I had more time and energy to really shoot the place up.

 

And example

 

 

 

 

4 30 13

CHAPTER 4

 

The birds along the River Walk have certain human people whom they trust and actually liked more than others.  The human brain, as wonderful as it is, is just not adapt at understanding the activities, let alone the thoughts, of the little creatures in the woods.  Mostly we think of them as cute little critters that God put on earth for our own amusement.  Forgetting that they actually have a purpose, not to mention personalities and rarely do we think of them as we do our domestic pets.  To our pets we assign human traits because they become "Part of the family".  Rarely do we do the same for the wild inhabitants of nature.  Shame really because they are so observant of us.

 

  Saint Louis is gradually learning his environment, is a keen observant of the live styles around him, and more than willing to teach the young birds and animals anything that he has learned. 

 

While Charles, the chickadee, is a curious critic of human behavior, he nonetheless willing to accommodate said behavior.  Raucous, the blue jay is the purveyor of woodland food sources, danger and conspiracy theory.  Lil Bits is the little Screech Owl shadow of Uncle Julius the Barred Owl Barrister of the Owl Woods at the south end of the River Walk.  But there are others who comprise the wild community that we humans all too often take for granted.  Often and smartly not so the other way around.

 

"PEEaweee, peeyoooo, peee-didip!"

 

"St. Louis, the water in the river has risen overnight.  How is that?"

 

The young fly catcher, not long out of the nest looks at the rising waters thinking that only world he has ever known is coming to an end.

 

"I can't even find some of my favorite perches...!

 

"What's happening Louis?  Peee-didip!"

 

If birds could smile, and I contend that they do, Louis would be doing just that.  Having survived many high water periods that the humans called floods, he was undisturbed by the natural ebb and flow of the river.

 

"My little friend, Zipper, you will find that this is normal and we simply have to adjust to the water.  It is the source of all the life around us.  It gives us new growth and takes away the old.  It provides cover in which to hide and food for our bellies.  Up and down is normal.  All you have to do is literally go with the flow."

 

  Chuckling at his own joke he flits from branch to branch keeping a protective eye on his young student as would all good teachers.  He notes that his favorite human has quietly passed with his camera and walking stick.  This reinforces the calm that Louis projects to the younger bird.  Perhaps all is right on the River Walk today despite the rising waters!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 28 13

 

RAINY DAYS AND SUNDAY.

 

Or is that rainy days and Monday.  As a friend of mine once said about momentary confusion...."Its all in-venereal to me"! But it is Sunday and God is crying!  We are finally getting some much needed rain which drives the city managers nuts as it reduces the need for us victims to use city water and that reduces their daily income.  Politicians are all of the same stripe I am beginning to think, but I am glad we're getting some moisture on the tender new plants trying to become mature weeds in my garden.  No photos today as the good Dr. of Blogology over at Google seems to think that Sunday is a day of rest or something and the uploader is down.  Of course if you are in real need to look at photos, go to the website and spend a few hours with your credit card in front of you.

 http://skip-willits.artistwebsites.com/

 

When I have climbed my personal mountain to find that bearded guy sitting cross legged in front of an open cave and he tells me I have one question I can ask...Well I've been thinking of that question.

 

I think that all I can hope for is that the old guy is not "Uncle Si".  You know you've seen him on TV or in the corner of the room at family reunions, quietly babbling to himself.  Or maybe he's the weird uncle with too much happy water at the last wedding you attended.  You find he's full of wisdom, but only when you finally peel all the layers of onion away and can understand what it is he's saying.  And you better be happy that it is "Uncle Si"...Jack!

  I so want to be that guy when I grow up.

  Maybe the good Lord has just such a cave where I can sit and answer all the questions of the newly uninformed.  If so, just don't ask me to tell you where to get the best deal on used tires, or used cars, or the best bait shop, or how to raise your kids.

Kind of a blue weekend.  We lost a country and western singing legend, which I am counting in my personal bad things of three.  George Jones.  I actually met him once at a concert we were giving up in Flemington, NJ.  He was actually more drunk that was I at the time.  And that was going a country mile.  I guess we both cleaned that act up to a degree.  At least I did.  He barely made the concert.

We lost a young man some thirty to fifty years too early, and it's just plain sad.  RIP RJ, you will be missed.  We have another friend in critical condition who needs all the prayers one can muster....Give it hell John!  And for the rest of you who just need praying for in general, please accept my humble concerns and prayers for you and your family.

And for those who claim they don't need praying over....well, we'll just wait and see and you better hope that it ain't me at your cave door.

I'll continue to work on that question.