end of August -- flowers, 4H, and the Tobacco Festival!

post #205
       Dilemma!!  I've made photos on three occasions in the last four days!  Which set do I want to present today??  Finally came up with a possible solution - I will show 4 or 5 photos from each!!  Of course, in the pained world we live in and hear about, this is obviously not a real dilemma, but instead more of an embarrassment of riches.

1) a walk to the mailbox on our quarter mile driveway:
         August 28, morning.  I noticed one flower along the way, than another.  I begain making a quick photo of each and ended up with quite a collection.  The light was good, which always helps.  I had the polaroid lens on my camera, which also helps, though I don't usually use it.  There was not much wind, the best help of all.  The diversity of the plants warmed my heart.  We so need diversity in all areas of our world.

a praying mantis, on a fern

Queen Anne's Lace

Joe Pye

butterfly plant

Even the smallest is important.

2. That evening I went to Sandy Hook for the last 4H event, with the ribbons and the sales.  I was there in between and was able to take some photos of the animals and some of the 4Hers as well.  Congrats to them all for their hard work!!

3) Yesterday was the annual Tobacco Festival in Sandy Hook.  It was HOT but even so I lasted about an hour.  We parked our car and walked the rest of the way to town since the short parade was just then coming over the bridge at the foot of this hill, and so no traffic was moving.

These kind folks had parked their motorcycles (see above) and, on a whim as I walked by, I asked them if it was all right to take their photo.  They said sure, and this is EXACTLY how they placed themselves in the short time I needed to get my camera ready.  They are all pros!!  Now I wish I knew who they were in order to give them a copy of this photo.  If anyone recognizes them PLEASE leave me a comment at the end of this post.  I have a feeling they are not from my county since so far no one I've asked has recognized them. 

ELLIOTT COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS BASKETBALL TEAM!

In the old High School gym, entries in the produce judging.  They look LARGE to me!!

That's it for now. So much to see in the world. My eyes have enjoyed a good week. I hope yours have as well.  Thanks for looking at this post, really.

August review, Kentucky to Maine

post #204
         In my very first blog post, almost 4 years ago, I wrote that I hoped this weekly blog would let friends, family, and future fans know that I was at least kicking, even if they didn't get a letter or email from me in a timely fashion.  After the busy summer I have had, I feel especially negligent, so today I am trying to use a few photos to begin sorting through this summer and its comings and goings.  
        I am starting with these finishing days of summer.  While I look forward to the upcoming sustained days of working on my phototgraphy, I also celebrate and appreciate the variety of life and the change of pace I experienced in spades this summer.  So, for now, here is a sampling of words and photos from August, 2014.

1.  TAKING CARE OF THE PLACE, and getting ready for winter (thanks, Frank!):

gathering wood for the wood cook stove, keeping it in the barn until needed

visiting granddaughter's breakfast on the deck, with our barn in the background

cosmos in the garden

 2. FLOWERS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:

at Sandy's, a red sunflower!

more potos from Bonnie's garden, when I delivered to her prints of the photos I took in July

3. DRIVING TO NEW ENGLAND, with a major delay soon after leaving home:

Redoing a section of route 7 - looking ahead

looking behind - stopped traffic can be a good opportunity to take a photo

4. FIRST STOP: WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS, seeing our granddaughter again:

the lake near their home, but no one was swimming that chilly morning

5. All of us ON TO MAINE for a cousin reunion:
 

the view from the house where we all gather

deck central, a brief moment of only two talking

older generation, in a renewing energy mode

youngest generation using up energy: two photos of three cousins

early morning in Maine

      Here's to all the teachers and students getting ready to be back at work, and to family we'd drive many miles to be with for a weekend. 

Moving on ... to more trains, mostly in France,

post #203
       Still on track for trains: I just added a photo to last week's post, another view on the way to London.  Today's  post will be mostly France -- I took the fast TGV from Paris to Rennes, spent three nights there, took a somewhat slower train back to Paris where I spent a night with members of the French family I lived with when I was a junior in high school, and the next day I went fast but not too fast from Paris to Mulhouse, in Alsace, in eastern France, the part of the country that kept changing its nationality, from French to German to French again, etc.  Wars can do that to a place.  In Mulhouse I stayed with the youngest of my French siblings, close to where the family lived during that year of my exchange.  (In the meantime, one of their daughters was living with my family and going to my school for that year.)
    
      My trip between Paris and Mulhouse was comparatively leisurely.  Each of the two stops gave the train an excuse to slow down for a bit.  Here are a series of views from that afternoon:

      

getting closer to Alsace, where many houses look like this one

Issue de Secours just means the window can be pushed out should there be an emergency...       

   I took a few other photos during that time, with my iPhone, when I was trying to be discreet.  It may be possible to notice what each camera brings to the moving train photo experience.  The first photo shows how, since I had a French railpass, I sometimes ended up in the first class car.  Very nice.  

that look of blowing in the wind....

I am standing in the exit section, looking out the door we will eventually be using to get off the train.

     I finally found some passengers who didn't mind having their photo taken.  I had gone to the upper story of the train to see if photos from there would be more interesting.  They were not.  But I did have a nice conversation with the guy who had these cats.

          Someday soon I will share my unpublished manuscript of a picture book for children which features photos from a moving train.  Didn't I already say that I love, love, love riding on a train and looking at the world go by?  I hope these photos from this week and last week have allowed me to share something of that pleasure.