Simple/minimalism

The simplicity of the the design of this chairs is echoed by the starkness of their surroundings.

Ordinary

The waters at Paper Goods Pond have receded to their normal level. They are no longer roiling and churning. The pond has recovered its ordinary serenity.
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Exhibit

Effects of Irene, Exhibit A: even the library, where I'd hoped to charge my iPhone, is out of power And I spoke too soon...power went off at 10:30 last night. Even my office is out. Like everyone else we just have to wait. Unfortunately, it could be days.
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Unforgettable

At the right of the photo is the dam that forms Paper Goods Pond. In the 31years we've lived here, we've never seen this small river look like this. Irene dumped about 7 inches of rain on our town, swelling Paper Goods and turning this normally placid stream into a treacherous torrent. That old brick mill building is usually a good distance away from the water.
John & I seem to have lucked out: we still have power & nothing big down in the neighborhood. Half our town is out, though, including all of the central commercial area.

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Comfort foods

So here we are, waiting for this storm to nail us some time in the middle of the night. Nothing more to do...except have a hurricane party with our friends down the block while we still have power. I made a mondo pot of chili, a favorite food to comfort us in uncertain times.
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Heartwarming

We took granddude Aidan for his first overnight camping trip last night. Here he and John explore a nearby shallow river.
The river was shallow at the time, but with the hurricane bearing down on us, the campground was evacuated this morning. I fully expect we'll lose power, so I may be offline for a while.
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Camping with the granddude

...for the first time. Will catch up when we get back. Timetable may depend on hurricane. At least we got the camping trip in--we're having a great time. Grandkids rock.



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Ten

Our friends have this bike for sale for $10.
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Domestic

My 19 year old daughter actually asked me to go to the movies with her to see "The Help." It turned out to be a priceless experience. SO well acted...and it opened up conversations. As for the theme...the "help" were the domestics who kept that society operating.
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Sorry...

Had a bit of a stutter with a back issue, but I'm on board again.

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Tools

This man has a number of tools--the ones on his belt as well as his ladder & paintbrush.
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Macro Shot

This is about as macro as I can get with an iPhone. It's a monarch butterfly in the butterfly room at the Desert of Maine. What do butterflies have to do with the Desert of Maine? Nothing. But for the price of your ticket, you get a tram tour of the 90 acre desert, access to a mile of hiking trails, and admission to the butterfly room where you can see about six living butterflies and a few dead ones. And, if you are under 12 years of age, you can dig for gemstones planted by the staff in the desert. Honest, I love places like this!

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Stuffed animals

Technically, these camels aren't stuffed, but they are fake. The Desert of Maine is an ancient glacial lake bed exposed by poor farming practices about a hundred years ago. Now there is a small area of sand dunes in the middle of a northern forest. For a short time, they had a live camel here; but it bit and spat. The fake ones are more tourist friendly.
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Rural

Rural Maine, late summer
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Fuzzy

We're camping in southern Maine, not far from the coast at one of our favorite places: Blueberry Pond Campground. These peaches bowed down a small tree not far from our site.
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Precious

Summer evenings are precious in New England--we have so few of them. Even more precious are the ones on Wednesdays spent at the Trinity College carillon concerts. Tonight was the last. This photo was taken as we were reluctantly leaving in the advancing dark.
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Garbage

Purple loosestrife may seem like a beautiful plant, but it is actually a very nasty invasive species...essentially botanical garbage.
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Freeze frame

He's freezing the steam vented off the engine as I'm freezing him.
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Noisy

Aidan is a very sensitive child. We were sitting in the open front car of the Essex steam train on Friday, and he found the whistle--blown enthusiastically at every road crossing--to be rather painful. He liked it better on the return trip which put us in the rear car, away from the noisy engine.
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Children

Birthday party for my honorary granddude, Isaac, the cute little guy in the stripes on the right.
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Seeds

This is where the seeds of lifelong interest get sown: grown-ups encouraging kids. The engineer of the Essex Steam Train waves back to my granddude, Aidan. Now, Steven might want to call the Theme Police on me...except that we might have a future foamer here. (Though, truth be told, it was Aidan's younger brother, Craig, who was lathering over the "choo train.")


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N

I came upon this plastic cut out letter lying on the pavement. I suppose it could be a Z; but it looked like an N when I first saw it, so that's how I called it.
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Gold

Trinity College chapel on an evening in high summer, golden lights glowing in the bell tower as darkness settles.
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Primary colors

This is what has replaced the venerable card catalog. I understand why, but there is a certain loss.
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Vehicle II

A different version of yesterday's photo. I had to make a choice--it was tough. This was this alternative.
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Vehicle

A motorcyclist takes the time to rest on this blissful evening at Paper Goods Pond with her bike parked behind her.
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Chimney

I gave Aidan a Pocket Vocano that has a chamber for baking soda; one pours vinegar into it--instant lava. It was fun, but at about 2", produced a rather wussy explosion. So I conceived the brilliant idea of building a bigger one in the sandbox. We used a toilet paper tube for the volcanic chimney, packing it with baking soda. Then--so the "lava" would have some hint of fire, I added red food coloring to the vinegar, producing "volcano juice." John played volcano god. As you can see, the result was a delight to the six year old's heart. His three year old brother was pretty impressed, too. Alas, we only had enough volcano juice for three eruptions, but I promised him next time he comes, I'll have a full bottle, and we'll build a whole range of volcanoes & set them off at once.

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Negative space

A seabird soars over the Connecticut River against a cloud-shaded sun.
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Pleasure

This young boy took such great pleasure in fishing at Paper Goods Pond. He kept devising excuses for one more cast.
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In shadow

Late summer evening, when the air is blue.
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Gates

Gates at Trinity College chapel, Hartford
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Ultimate thrill

As we were checking into our campground on Friday evening, I spied an announcement that Peter Noone & Herman's Hermits were playing a free concert at the nearby Mohegan Sun casino. OMG! If that phrase had existed when I was a young teen, I'd have use it. They were HUGE back then, part of the British Invasion with No. 1 hit after No. 1 hit. I still know all the words to all of them. So we jumped into the truck & headed out to hear him sing. He still puts on quite a show, full of energy & fun. It was the ultimate thrill for that young teen full of dreams back on Staten Island, listening to those tunes on a red transistor radio.
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Slowly

The Rocky Hill ferry slowly pulls into the slip, as it has done since 1655. It is the oldest continually operated ferry in the US--but this may be one of its last runs, as the idiot governor has decided to shut it down as part of budget cuts. Funny how the Governor's Mansion doesn't seem to be an unnecessary frill like this historic ferry.
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