Dumb Me!

When I walked down the street to photograph the house under construction, I passed by this garden, two doors down.  The woman has all kinds of interesting things growing out front.  This is a variegated fern, which is green with a purple color running down the center of the length of the stem.  A week or two ago, I remember looking at it when I was on my walk, and thinking how beautiful it was.  I was carrying two cameras - the infrared one, and the normal, color camera.  I *thought* that I photographed this group of ferns with both cameras, but I can't find the color version, so I guess I only shot it in infrared.  Bummer!  I looked at it yesterday, and the plant was starting to fade - the leaves were a bit more beat up.  I will keep my eye on it, and photograph it in color when I get a chance, if it starts looking better.  Meanwhile, here is the IR version.

Fixer Upper

Last December I posted a black & white photograph of this house, just down the street from us. I took it at dusk, because I loved the spooky feeling of it.  It has been empty for months, after it was sold.  They started working on the inside first, and stripped out all the lathe and plaster in the rooms.  Then nothing for a while.  Recently they started some serious work, first starting to replace the windows, and then they demolished the front porch.  So I thought I would bring you an update of the work so far.  Stay tuned.

A Surprise View

This is a new flag that I bought to hang on the front porch for Memorial Day and Veteran's Day and Flag day.  The flag that I have displayed for every year since we bought the house in 1971 was smaller and hung on a short flagpole on the porch railing,  It was stained and faded, and should have been replaced years ago.  So on Memorial day I hung the new flag in the new place.  I was surprised later in the day to walk toward the front door and see the view out the door was all flag.

Antique Stuff

When I walked up into town to see the parade, I walked by this antique shop.  I have been by here before but this window had the perfect light on it - to accentuate the delicacy of the lace curtains and also to throw enough light inside so you can get a sense of what is inside.  This photograph is really about the curtain, though.

Memorial Day

I went to the Sea Cliff Memorial Day Parade today.  I have been going to this parade each year since 1985.  Before 1985 I knew about the parade but I never bothered to go to it.  Then a colleague of mine from work wrote a piece for the newspaper called "A Memorial for Memorial Days Past."  It was about how, growing up in Maine, Leslie would go to all the Memorial Day parades in his town.  Years later he went back, the the parade no longer existed, and he mourned that no one cared anymore.  That year I attended the parade in Sea Cliff for the first time, and I have never missed one since.  This is Scott, a Green Beret who served in Vietnam, and who has been at these Memorial Day remembrances much longer than I have been.

Here the parade, headed by two Boy Scouts carrying flags, and followed by the honor guard marches down Sea Cliff Avenue, the main street in town.

The wonderful thing about this parade is that various groups in town march in the parade - in this case, the Sea Cliff Civic Association, including a baby stroller and a tyke on a bike!

Here a young boy, on the shoulders of his dad, waves the small American flag given to him.

And this is a different view of the parade, where you can see the rest of the parade stretching out into the distance, behind the leaders.

After the parade, I went to a memorial in a park right next to where we first lived when we came to Sea Cliff.  Way back then, the flag was not painted, and this monument was known as "The Headless Statue," which is funny because it is a column, not a statue.  It was finally painted 30 years ago.  It is a monument to a young man of 21, from Sea Cliff,  who died in 1898 "in the war for the freedom of Cuba."

The Fern Bank

I have done some closeups of the ferns before, so I thought I would take a photograph of the whole fern bank.  When we bought our house, it was late September.  There was faded brown vegetation on the front bank but we didn't pay any attention to it.  But in the Spring we were thrilled when all these ferns emerged from the dead vegetation that we saw in the Fall. The ferns are just beautiful, and are my second most favorite thing in the yard after the Japanese maple tree.

The Astronomy Lecture

I have been so busy the last few days, I have taken more pictures than you can shake a stick at!  At last Wednesday's astronomy meeting we had a speaker who has been my friend for over 30 years.  He was also my mentor in astronomy.  He moved to Florida about 10 years ago, and I don't get to see him that often, although we talk by phone a fair amount.  He came to talk about the discovery of the planet Pluto.  Here he is with a photograph of Percival Lowell, who built the observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, sitting at the large telescope there.  This was not the telescope that discovered Pluto, however.  Lowell had died by the time Pluto was discovered.  Sam has a love for that observatory, and he had a chance to spend a night looking through this telescope at the planet Mars, and said that it was one of the most amazing experiences of his life.  He really wowed everyone, and his talk was so well received.  It was so great to see him again!