Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween.  Well, I guess a day late...  I think that Halloween is my favorite holiday.  And I have made a Jack-O-Lantern every year since I can't remember when.  I love coming up with a face and then doing the carving.  My Jack-O-Lanterns are never creative, they are definitely "old school."  I have seen some amazing faces by creative folks but I just do my traditional face.  Last year I was tired of buying a box of parafin wax from I think it was Gulf Oil or something and making a candle that would last for days because it was 3" by 3" made by putting the slabs together with heat.  So Kathy suggested we put a regular night light inside the pumpkin and run an electrical cord out the back and plug it in!  Genius!  It saves remembering to put the candle out so it wouldn't burn all night long and then be gone.  Tonight before writing this, I walked down the driveway to the street and looked back up at the porch where this sits and I realized how unusual it is that we have a "real" Jack-O-Lantern, made from a pumpkin on display with a light inside it.  This smiling guy is actually real and hand carved.  I don't think there is another like this in all of Sea Cliff.  All the others are made of plastic.  So I realized that this is something special in town and it made me feel good.

 

Caumsett, One

I drove out to Caumsett State Park which is about 40 minutes to the east of Sea Cliff.  Every year about this time I spend the afternoon looking for fall color.  I have done this almost every year for perhaps the last five years. I take the same route - the same roads and trails, and photograph the same places each year.  Of course inevitably the trees with color may be different each year.  The surprise was I was instantly fascinated by the grasses in the park!  Why had I not really "seen" these before.  So I was looking for trees and scenery but always looking for grasses.  So here is a selection of wonderful images that I found in my grasses quest!

I like that this photograph has a foreground, at the right, a middleground, in the center and a background, the tiny tuft on the upper left.

I saved this one for near the last because I think it is the most subtle of all the photographs and this is my favorite.  I think.  Unless I decide that the first one is my favorite!

I thought a close up might be interesting so that you can see the nature of different kinds of grasses close enough together to do some comparison. 

And lastly, a completely different kind of grass, growing in a different part of the park.  I love the delicacy of these grasses.  You should know that I was thrilled with the results of my quest.  Stay tuned for more Caumsett photographs in the days ahead.

 

I Am Tired of Skeletons...

I don't mean to be a grinch but I am getting tired of skulls and skeletons for Haloween!  I sound like a grouch.  I do love Jack-O-Lanterns and I will carve our pumpkin tomorrow!  I have ridden by this boy and girl scarecrows for a few days now, and today the light was perfect, so I stopped my bike and used my iPhone to take a photograph of this lovely fall display and these pair of smiling faces.  There, I have posted it and feel better already!

 

A Little More Fall Color

So when we got back from the beach I happened to notice this tree with red leaves in our neighbor's yard and that is more color than I have seen so far.  It is partially blocked by the Japanese maple tree's green branches, but some of the color shows up.  and I love seeing the two white Adirondack chairs in the foreground to complete a pretty photograph.

 

Fall Color

This was Dunkin' at the beach day.  So we parked facing this tree and bushes because we could get nice views of the harbor to the left and the right, so actually this was a good place to park.  I didn't think much about this view while we were sitting there taking in the day.  Then I realized that maybe this was a photograph in a way.  Because there were yellow leaves in the picture!  So I decided to call it Fall color.  We noticed that across the harbor were hundreds of trees on that side that were bare.  And I don't recall seeing any color on that side of the harbor.  I seem to remember if there is a lot of rain when the leaves change, their color is not as brilliant as it would be if it is more dry.  This Friday I am headed out to Caumsett State Park on Friday to hike and photograph for the afternoon.  I am wondering if I will see much color at all out there.  Stay tuned!

 

Stark, High Contrast Houses

I am posting three photographs here.  This one which is a wide angle shot of a brand new house that was just built after a long time ranch house which was here for years was demolished.  I have posted about this before.  I wondered what would replace the original home, below.

The photograph below is a cropped version of the first photo so you could see the house that was built.  Over the last 5 years or so, in this one neighborhood I have seen 8 or 9 "teardowns" of nice looking family homes, and what was strange was most of them have been replaced with these stark black and white homes.  There is no warmth to them at all!  So I just asked a question about this style of home which is black and white and has no trim at all, and learned this:  "Yes, you are describing a major, highly visible trend in residential architecture.  Over the last several years, neighborhoods across the country have seen a massive rise in these stark, high-contrast houses."

"Design experts note that the trend is currently hitting its peak and experiencing a significant backlash, with residential architecture rapidly shifting toward warmer, more textured, and more organic aesthetics. Designers and homeowners are beginning to experience "monochrome fatigue". On architectural forums and design platforms users frequently complain that these homes look sterile, institutional, and entirely devoid of neighborhood character."  Wow, I could not have said it better myself!  They all seem completely out of character to the neighborhood and have no warmth at all.  I think I will photograph some of the first ones that I saw built on my bike ride and share them with you at some point.

 

Beautiful Dancing Ghosts!

How beautiful is this!  It looks completely homemade and is so creative!  We went driving around the village looking for interesting decorations.  Most were commercial ghosts or skeletons or dinosaurs or gravestones.  But this one stopped us in our tracks.  We happened by when the light was absolutely perfect!  There is something about the beauty of this wonderful creation.  Perfect!