Day 15 – Nubble Light

NubbleLight_BuzSim

The Lighthouse Keeper Wonders

 

The light I’ve tended for forty years
is now to be run by a set of gears,
the keeper said, and it isn’t nice
to be put ashore by a mere device.
Now, fair or foul the winds that blow
or smooth or rough the sea below,
It is all the same. The ships at night
will run to an automatic light.
 
The clock and gear which truly turn
Are timed and set so the light shall burn.
But, did ever an automatic thing
set plants about in early spring?
And did ever a bit of wire and gear
A cry for help in the darkness hear?
Or welcome callers, and show them through
The lighthouse rooms, as I used to do?
 
“Tis not malice these things I say,
All men must bow to the newer way.
But it’s strange for a lighthouse man like me
After forty years on shore to be.
And I wonder now–will the grass stay green?
Will the brass stay bright and the windows clean?
And will ever that automatic thing
Plant marigolds in early spring?

 

-Edgar Guest

 

I was asking myself today if I should post the most autumnal image I shot today or the one I liked the best. I opted for the one I liked the best. Still plenty of time for autumn leaves and such. We made our way into Maine today and there is a little more sign of color though we may have to wait until we get into the mountains of New Hampshire for the real deal. Meanwhile, variety is the spice of life and who doesn’t love a lighthouse? I ran this one through a simplify filter to soften some of the rust and peeling paint.

Day 14 – Paul Revere

PaulRevere

from The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Listen my children and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
He said to his friend, “If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,–
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm.”

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

On my last day in Boston you can see that the leaves are only just starting to turn behind this statue of Paul Revere on his midnight ride. We visited the old North Church and really the take home message for the day was that it didn’t happen quite like that. I hate it when it turns out everything I learned in grade school was wrong. But Paul Revere did ride out to warn the patriots that the British were coming and they did (briefly) hang two lanterns in the old North Church when the Brits took off over the Charles River. What else really matters, I ask you? All these subtle nuances are… well, just subtle nuances. What’s sad is that Henry seems to have been actually writing propaganda to get men to enlist to fight in the Civil War.  “Don’t you want to be a hero like Paul Revere?” was apparently the point of the poem. Who learned that in grade school? The older I get the more I miss math where the answers were just right or wrong.

 

Pumpkins

Pumpkins

All Around the pumpkin patch

Summer yawns at rest,

Autumn kaleidoscopes in

Ominous beauty.

                     – Robert Dufresne

After another hard day of touristing I have come the the conclusion that if anything happened in Boston between the revolutionary war and the birth of JFK they don’t want you to know about it. I was delighted to accidentally stumble across the Boston Public Market which is not on any of the tourist maps I have seen. And there, at last I finally found something suitably autumnal to photograph.

Supercharged

Super_charged

 

Orange

Sour.
Bitter.
Bright. 
The sky before the night.
The leaves in the fall.
The rhythmically bouncing basketball
The poet’s nightmare.
The fire’s glare
The bottle of prescription pills
The pumpkins on our porch, still.

– Anshika

According to Fitbit I walked over six miles today. The only spot of orange in my travels was this supercharged classic car which I stumbled across at a high end car show on Boston Common. I was disappointed to find only green leaves on the trees. It didn’t even feel like autumn today. In fact I was wishing I had brought some shorts. Truth be told this was far and away my favorite photograph from the days wandering. I’m sure things will be more autumnal once we get out of the city.

Day 11 – Bright Lights Big City

Paramountw

Bright Lights, Big City

Bright lights
Big City
She’s wearing hope around her neck tonight
In golden letters on a string
To make up for the darkness
To make up for the void within

Bright lights 
Big City
This girl could always sing you the blues
This girl is always passing through

Bright lights 
Big City
Don’t stay up
Don’t go waiting for her

Bright lights
Big City
This girl 
She’s always going somewhere

Bright lights
Big City
And when she goes away
She’s leaving you here

– Natascha Kracheel

Not exactly an autumn theme but it was this or the airplanes on the tarmac at SFO and I like this so much better. And this is my life on this day. And I love the poem, just a little edgy and something I can relate to. I love that I live in a small town where life is quiet and peaceful but I do like having a big city experience now and then. More often than I do now really…but I’m working on that. So, I am really stoked that I have two days to explore Boston on my own and one more with the tour group. This scene was about a block from my hotel. I had this vision that when I arrived at 8 pm on a Saturday everything would be dead and dark. So wrong, vibrant neighborhood, people everywhere. I even had trouble finding a restaurant where I didn’t have to wait for an hour to get some food.

Day 10 – Asters

Asterw

from  Celebrating the Seasons of Life: Beltane to Mabon

The Wheel rolls more, and Autumn returns.
Cooler the rain; the Sun lower burns.
The coloring leaves presage the Year:
All things move into harvest’s sphere.
I vow to savor fruits first picked;
nor into grief shall I be tricked.
I vow to offer what once I spurned,
and face the Turning reassured.

– Asleen O’Gaea

And now the Autumnal Equinox is upon us. I’m busy trying to get ready for my trip to New England which starts tomorrow so I decided to make a quick tour of my neighbors flower beds. I got some nice sunflower shots but what speaks of September more than Asters? I’m not sure what is going to happen tomorrow as I am boarding a plane before sunrise and don’t get to my destination until after sunset. Hoping to find something autumnal on display at one of the three airports I get to visit, otherwise I’ll be reaching into the archives of the past 10 days. In any case don’t look for an update until evening.

Day 9 – Oak Leaf

Oak_Leafw

Autumn

Earthy scented mornings
Thinly trailing mist
Acorns drop from weary trees
Yellow, red and russet frees
Leaves from branches, gently falling
Earth by coloured carpet kissed
Frosty, starlit evening
Palely shining moon

                   – Ann Shaw Griffiths

The current love of my life is this oak tree that stands near the Bear Creek Greenway off Suncrest Road in Talent. I walk by it nearly every day and occasionally I visit it with my camera. The acorns are still green as are most of it’s leaves but a few are beginning to drop, helped along by the wind we had the other day. I expect I will be visiting it regularly in the next 91 days.

Day 8 – Still Life with Pumpkin

StillLifewPumpkinw

Sunflowers

Good morning world.
After the deluge of yesterday I am sun-kissed once again.
Look out of the window.
Two gardens up stand sunflowers.
Heads the size of dinner plates.
Seems rather late this summer.
Late in coming.
For their gifts to be pasted to the sky.
They stand in a sort of floppy gestures.
Trying to support their heavy heads.
They remind me on this autumn morn with blazing sun.
That summer’s almost gone!

– Olivia Kent

With a forecast of 90% chance of rain I thought it wise to plan to work in the studio today. Though as it turns out I haven’t seen more than a few raindrops this morning. But I have been quietly gathering props for a day such as this including some small pumpkins and a bouquet garnered from the growers market yesterday. I also had some new textures to try out so had some fun with this one anyway.

Day 7 – Apples

Apples

After Apple-Picking

My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree 
Toward heaven still, 
And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill 
Beside it, and there may be two or three 
Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough. 
But I am done with apple-picking now. 
Essence of winter sleep is on the night, 
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off. 
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight 
I got from looking through a pane of glass 
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough 
And held against the world of hoary grass. 
It melted, and I let it fall and break. 
But I was well 
Upon my way to sleep before it fell, 
And I could tell 
What form my dreaming was about to take. 
Magnified apples appear and disappear, 
Stem end and blossom end, 
And every fleck of russet showing clear. 
My instep arch not only keeps the ache, 
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round. 
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. 
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin 
The rumbling sound 
Of load on load of apples coming in. 
For I have had too much 
Of apple-picking: I am overtired 
Of the great harvest I myself desired. 
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, 
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall. 
For all 
That struck the earth, 
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, 
Went surely to the cider-apple heap 
As of no worth. 
One can see what will trouble 
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is. 
Were he not gone, 
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his 
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, 
Or just some human sleep.
                     – Robert Frost 

 

Today’s destination was the grower’s market which, as always, offered up a colorful array of compelling subjects. But the box of apples spoke to me most of fall so they got the nod for picture of the day.  And Robert Frost’s poem was a perfect fit. You can almost see him nodding off as he is writing. And feel the ladder’s rungs on your feet. And I was reminded of when I worked at the library when I was in college and we had a period when we would recall all the books checked out by faculty… and I would dream of books, carts and carts of books. Just as Frost would dream of apples after a day of picking.

Day 6 – Japanese Maple

JMapleLeafw

 

Japanese maple
       she sits paused in morning’s light
                       a breathless… haiku

                                  – Malabu

Today I took a camera walk in Lithia Park. It tried to rain on me but I persisted. I actually found more color than I expected though I think we are a few weeks away from the raging glory that can be seen in the Park toward mid to late October. This Japanese Maple in the Japanese garden had more color than most of the trees.