New Curtains

Kathy got some new curtains for the window on the landing between the first and second floor.  What she forgot to get were the tiebacks.  So she is going to make her own.  Meanwhile the curtains completely cover the window.  I saw this and really liked the play of light and shadow on the curtains themselves.  Perhaps a bit mysterious in feeling.

Done! And It's beautiful!

Well, it was a lot of work, I have to admit.  But to have it done makes it all worthwhile.  I think it looks beautiful.  The ceiling was gray, and I really love this baltic blue color.  It would not have been nearly as much fun if, after all the scraping and priming, I ended up with another gray ceiling.

After I took the first photograph, I backed up and included the pot of Geraniums that hangs at the entrance of the porch.  I love the contrast of the red against the blue.

I am not sure that this gives a sense of how much paint I chipped off the ceiling.  This is a fairly large pile of paint chips.  But there is no scale to the image, except the fact that the porch floorboards are two inches wide, which gives you some sense of the scale.  Guess what else this photo tells us.  It tells us that my next project is to use paint stripper on most of the front porch floor.  There are probably six coats of paint on the floor as well.

Morning at Dunkin'

Tuesday mornings are Dunkin' mornings.  Coffee, tea, and a donut for each.  I was standing in line when I happened to notice this tattoo on the back of this man's neck.  I decided to take a photograph, discreetly, of course.  I also decided not to ask him about it!  Can you guess why?  I am really curious, of course, why this tattoo, and why in this place.  Just another morning at Dunkin'.

Long Island National Cemetery

I went to a funeral today, of someone I knew from work.  He was a partner of a colleague who is my friend.  The newspaper is on the other side of the highway from this cemetery and I always knew this cemetery as "Pinelawn Cemetery."  So I drove here for the graveside service, only to discover I was at the wrong cemetery!  This is the veteran's cemetery, known as "Long Island National Cemetery."  Duh!  So then I went to the correct place.  But after the service, I came back here, because I had seen scenes like this!  Long Island National Cemetery consists of 365 acres, and was established in 1936.  As of 2014 there were about 346,000 interments.  It is an astounding sight to see, with gravestones that go out of sight into the distance.

More Tedious Than I Expected...

I decided it was time to paint the front porch ceiling.  It's been a while.  Apparently before I replaced the entire roof of the house, there must have been a few small leaks above this ceiling.  The water worked its way down and caused some of the paint to peel.  That's not what you are looking at here - this is a half day's tedious scraping of the old paint.  After scraping, I spray the ceiling with a mildew removal solution, then wash the whole ceiling with a garden hose.  After it dries, then it's ready for primer, and then a final coat.  Stay tuned...

I Didn't Do This Well...

The village called a couple of months ago and said that the last thing they needed was a survey of the property with the new addition on it.  So I called a guy and he recommended a guy.  So these two men showed up this morning to do the work.  I was curious how it all worked, and they were really nice and took time to explain the computerized theodolite and how the process worked.  I asked if I could take their picture with their equipment.  Man, I did not do a good job of this.  I was rushing so they wouldn't think the photo was a big deal, and I forgot to do my thing to get people to smile.  I should have had the equipment closer to me and them further away, and the composition would have been more interesting.  I really was not paying attention!

Some Kind of Plant...

"Some kind of plant..."  This is sad, that after photographing gardens as part of my work, for more than fifteen years, that I have no idea at all of what these plants are!  I do love the lighting here, as well as the different textures of the three different kinds of plants.  Perhaps all that matters, is that I can take interesting photographs of plants, without knowing what they are.