Day 25 – Pink Striped Umbrella

Pink Umbrellaw

Wind

Not a remarkable wind. 
So when the bistro’s patio umbrella 
blew suddenly free and pitched 
into the middle of the road, 
it put a stop to the afternoon. 

Something white and amazing 
was blocking the way. 

A waiter in a clean apron 
appeared, not quite 
certain, shielding his eyes, wary 
of our rumbling engines. 

He knelt in the hot road, 
making two figures in white, one 
leaning over the sprawled, 
broken shape of the other, 
creaturely, great-winged, 
and now so carefully gathered in.

– Mike Whte

I took a walk over to the Talent Harvest Festival but didn’t find anything too earth shaking. On the way home I encountered this sidewalk umbrella dancing in the wind with the trees. Not white, not yet in the road but still in harmony with the poem. I am now 1/4 of the way into the 100 days project and starting to wonder what I have done to myself. I felt a little silly going out to photograph when I still have hundreds of images to sift through from New England. But then, if I hadn’t gone out, I would not have encountered the pink striped umbrella.

Day 24 – Fenway Park

RedSox2w

Along Came Ruth

You step up to the platter
And you gaze with flaming hate
At the poor benighted pitcher
As you dig in at the plate.
You watch him cut his fast ball loose,
Then swing your trusty bat
And you park one in the bleachers-
Nothing’s simpler than that!

– Ford Frick

I made it home last night about 1:30 eastern time and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30 Pacific time. Now jet lag is starting to set in in earnest so I thought a newly created image from the New England files would fit the bill. And of course Baseball is also an important part of Autumn.

Day 23 Stone Wall

StoneWall

Mending Wall

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”

-Robert Frost

It is another travel day today so I decided to grab an image from yesterday mainly because I wanted to use this poem. We learned all about making stone walls at the Stone Trust yesterday so it seemed fitting. This image was taken in the beautiful village of Grafton where we have been staying.

Day 22 – Weathervane

WeatherVane

“You who travel with the wind, what weather vane shall direct your course?”

-Khalil Gibran, The Prophet

This is probably not the best image I made today but my New England adventure is winding down and one of the things I have enjoyed photographing is weather vanes. This one has some character and some fall color so I thought it would be a good one to share.

Day 21 – Church Steeple

Church_Steeple

Vermont

Twisting roads through green speckled hills
Red barns that dot a summer long gone
Skiers seeking perennial winter thrills
In woodlands deep and silently strong

From here to Newhart and Frost they go
To a spirit of Yankee grace and solitude
Where people in tone pleasantly speak
And show God their eternal gratitude

It is a long road that I’ve often taken
When my mind must gain peace from want
And leave my troubles behind forsaken
As I cross that brook into green Vermont 

-C.A. Morrow

Today we drove south from Burlington to the small town of Grafton via route 100. I vowed to come back to Vermont on my own to photograph the barns and the covered bridges and the church steeples. Maybe I will start spending my summers in Vermont.

Day 20 – Round Barn

RoundBarn

Autumn dream of a Country Road

Autumn’s dream of a country road
Where houses are few and moving slowed.
Leaves are turning gold_ red_ burgundy.
Inside a warm home apples are candy.
In a barn or cellar cold winter foods quickly stowed
Against winter’s coming and inches snowed.
Autumn dreams of snuggling nights when windy
Breeze carries tune;close by snacks_ hot chocolate handy.

                          -Sara Kendrick

This round red barn is just one of the many buildings preserved at the Shelburne Museum. Another good reason to return to Vermont. All manner of art, folk art, crafts, quilts, and yes, buildings were collected by an heiress in the early 20th century and are now available for viewing at this 45 acre museum.

Day 19 – Waterfall

LowerFallsBW

Waterfall

The magical sound,
of the cascading water,
natural beauty,

-Alice Morris

I haven’t completely given up on finding fall color in New England but it is starting to look doubtful. There was actually a little yellow in this scene but I could not get the rocks to look the right color so I finally gave up and tried it in black and white and I like it much better.

Day 18 – Maple Leaf

Maple_Leafw

Tenacity

A tiny mottled maple leaf

appeared outside my window pane.

Its superficial veiny face

Clung wet glass precariously.

Its nemesis, the wind, blew strong

But yet the tiny thing held on.

Its struggle onset reverie

I saw self-similarities:

bygone years of bold contentions

underdog I need to mention;

but like this leaf I gave my all

I cared not where the chips might fall.

As this enlightenment gave way

The wind had whisked the leaf away.

– Albert Ahearn

As you can see, the leaves are still in the process of turning but we hope that cooler weather will help the process along. Reports of good color in southern Vermont are promising and we still have three days to get there. Tomorrow its the Kangcamagus Highway, one of New Hampshire’s great fall color routes.

Day 17 – Lobster Boats

Lobster_Boats_Cezannew

from The Old Lobsterman

He makes for the floats that mark the spots, 
And rises and falls on the sweeping swells, 
Ships oars, and pulls his lobster-pots, 
And tumbles the tangled claws and shells 
In the leaky bottom; and bails his skiff; 
While the slow waves thunder along the cliff, 
And foam far away where sun and mist 
Edge all the region with amethyst. 

-John Townsend Trowbridge

Leaving Maine today we stopped and spent some time in Portland (the other Portland). I really liked these lobster boats but thought they might look better with a painterly treatment.

Day 16 – Sailboat

Sailboat

“To reach a port we must set sail –
Sail, not tie at anchor
Sail, not drift.” 

― Franklin D. Roosevelt

We’ve been enjoying “wicked good” weather here on the coast of Maine. This put me in mind of a conclusion I came to while working as a weather forecaster. There really is no such thing as fall or spring weather. It’s just winter and summer duking it out. Summer has certainly been winning but it looks like winter may get in a few good licks soon, at least in terms of cooler temperatures.