Sunset From the Terrace

Imagine that you have this view from your home!  Not a bad way to relax at the end of the day.  If your name was William K. Vanderbilt, then you would have this view from the golf course next to your mansion, in Centerport, New York.  His home is now the Vanderbilt Museum and Planetarium, and the home is absolutely stunning, along with the grounds, and the view.

Columbine

This is the blossom of the Columbine flower, which I photographed in the Walled Garden at Old Westbury Gardens.  It may be that I like this flower for the strangest of reasons.  There are drawings of comets in the night sky that have been done down through history.  The drawings don't look exactly like this, but they feel like this photograph looks.  Anyhow, this is an amazing blossom, isn't it?  The reason I remember this flower's name is also weird.  "Columbine" was the name of Dwight Eisenhower's presidential aircraft, a Lockheed Constellation.   Wait, how did I just get from flowers to airplanes?

The Garden in Bloom

This is funny - I went to Old Westbury Garden to see and photograph the sculptures which led to some interesting photographs.  But I also photographed the gardens themselves, as I have done for years for the newspaper.  It is such a joy for me to wander in gardens and look for photographs.  I took a lot of photographs, and had a hard time trying to edit the images down to a few.  So that's why I am posting seven.  I won't even begin to try and tell you what plants these are, other than the Foxglove, below!  Be sure and click on each of the photos to see all the wonderful detail.

"A Moment of Farewell"

Today was the day we said "farewell" to Father Jason.  He is shown celebrating one of his last Masses, before leaving, with other priests and deacons on the altar with him,   He came to St. Brigid's four years ago, as a new priest right out of the seminary.  He is a wonderful priest and is loved by the whole community.  He came to the priesthood in an interesting way - he graduated from Carnegie-Mellon University with a masters in computer science.  Then he dramatically changed course and went to the seminary to become a priest.  Now that he is leaving us, he is headed to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. for five years for his second masters and a doctorate!  It is expected that he will be teaching at a seminary eventually.  During the  party in the parish hall, parishioners could have their pictures taken with him, and three daughters from one family are shown posing for the photographer.

Portrait Session

Most everyone who comes to Old Westbury Gardens carries some kind of camera with them.  Some take a photograph or two as they walk around.  But some people use their camera like a machine gun and can't take two steps without taking another photograph.  I fall into this category!   :-)   And so does this fellow.  He was with two women, and was taking photographs of them constantly.  I thought that his intensity with his photography was worth a photo.

"Experiencing Art in the Landscape"

I promised that I would show you some more of the Seward Johnson sculptures at Old Westbury Gardens.  I think there are 39 sculptures in all, but they had not all been installed when we were there.  I will have to go back and see all of them, and take some more photographs.   One interesting thing that is not obvious is that these sculptures are not just sitting on the grass.  The individual pieces are bolted to steel I-Beams, and then those are buried in the ground!  If you go back and look at my post a few days ago, of the man lying on the cart, you can see the support sticking out of his feet!  the last photograph below, is of four women, waiting in the wings to be installed.  I spotted them just outside the walled garden.

A Picture Within a Picture

You are not going to believe this story.  My friend, and astronomy mentor, Sam,  sent me a blurry image of this picture.  I wondered where he got it.  He implied that I might already know about it.  I thought about it for a while and then realized that maybe I did know where it came from.  Go back two posts to "Have a Seat..."  On the left hand side of that photo, you can see this food cart!  I am astounded that my friend Sam saw this other picture in my picture!  This is a very cool shot, isn't it?