Pretty Pictures...

from the past day or so.

The sunset from Niles Beach

Massachusetts had some really bad weather yesterday.  Three tornadoes that caused severe damage and several deaths in the middle south of the state. Fortunately not near us.  The storms did provide a brilliant sunset that changed from vivid yellow to orange and then to a multitude of reds and pinks before fading to dull purple then night.

Late night we were surprised with heat lightning.  Veins of lightning intermingling from cloud to cloud.  Sorry...no pictures of that.

Today the weather was sunny with gusty winds.  We headed up to one of my favorite spots...the Moseley Estate...to wander and take photographs.

Another nice spot at the estate.

I found out that the visitor center has several rooms displaying photos depicting 'the' days at the estate including many shots of the original home.

The Main House - demolished in the mid 1900s (estate photo)

Today I took this photo of the 'Main Gate' to the house above.

Also at the center are some photographs of Moulton's Castle which once occupied the eastern end of the estate...Castle Hill.

Moulton's Castle  (estate photo)

The 'Castle' was constructed from wood and painted to look like stone!  It was demolished when the Moseley family acquired the eastern property.  It once sat high overlooking the Merrimack River.

Castle Hill (estate photo)

So we had an evening and then nearly an entire day of out and about with our cameras.  Tomorrow it's back to work.

Memorial Day

Poppies in a  Main Street garden

Busy?

Uhhhhh.  Yep.

After seven weeks of piles of key work, this afternoon I could finally say that there are no keys in the shop.  And that's for the duration of a holiday weekend!  We shipped off a set late today and there are no more expected until mid-week.  It does seem a bit odd.  The new sets coming next week include a rebushing, a keytop job and a major key wood rebuilding/tops and fronts/ bushings/re-leading. 

So I just had to keep busy with something!

Here you see the test assembly for the vacation Bible school 'mini' float. 

The blue canvas will be the backdrop for a jungle scene surround.  The second shot shows the interior (back panel not installed).  I'll take more pictures as the scenery is completed.  And of course a photo of the finished product.

(Oh...and we've got the neighbor's barking dog problem again.  Nice weather, windows open, dog has been barking since before 7 p.m. and it's now almost 9:30 p.m.  I've called the dog officer 3 times in the last couple of weeks.  I'm going to call again tonight...or in the morning.  The neighbors aren't home.  Whenever they aren't home the dog barks.  Last Friday it didn't quit until they arrived home at 10:15 p.m. - from 4 in the afternoon!)

I've Avoided This for Years

Today was the 17th annual Cruise Night at Skip's.

Skip's sign at night

This is Skip's 64th year in business, same owners, nearly same location (they started directly across the street).

End of line to the left and order window is nearly the same distance away once inside!

Anyway, we have always avoided Cruise Nights assuming that the parking would be impossible and the lines tremendously long.  Well, parking wasn't bad getting there a bit early as we did and the line was manageable with a slightly early dinner. By the time we were leaving at 6 p.m. or so the line was longer than I would have stood in for a cheeseburger special.

Just some of the cars

There were about 200 cars on display with more expected to be arriving.  I enjoyed walking the lot and taking lots of photos.  I even picked out a couple cars that I wouldn't mind owning...ahemmmmm...with a frivolous pocketbook.

My 1956 Thunderbird!

All in all a fun afternoon and we are talking about cruising on up to Skip's for some future cruise nights.  (Not to mention the trips just to eat - about every other week).  Only an hour drive each way for a burger and fries!

Expect some more photos in another post.

In the Aura of Black Gold

The un-pink flamingo

We hauled four loads of heavy, smelly dirt from the transfer station to our new veggie garden.  The dirt is called black gold deservedly.  It's darn rich stuff, obviously, well, naturally fertilized.  I was challenged to take a photo of that dark stuff before planting in the morning.  A couple problems arose.  First being that it's dark out...dark soil, dark night...must use the flash...except it's foggy out, too, and that doesn't mix right with flash photography.  So I decided to use the 'good' camera.  The one that manages to shoot decent night scenes with no flash.  Problem number three...this tired laptop won't read the images from the new decent camera.

On to the bitty, tired, old camera and some not so hot shots.  Except for the one on this post.  I wonder what is emanating from that black gold that resulted in that shot!

Because 'R' Just Asked a Question...

I now know that someone else is writing a post about today's trip to Home Depot...so I'll write a bit here...the first and last post (this year) from my old laptop where I have stored NO photos to use.

Yes, we made the trip to one of my favorite stores to get more stuff for 'R's office. Other than flooring, which we priced, enough was purchased to complete the construction phase. It's coming along nicely.

However, since this is MY blog, I'll give some of MY news...work.  I'm swamped with it.  Such a change from the first few months of this year and the last few years!  I don't think that there has been more than a day in the last month or so without at least one set of keys in the shop.  Lately it seems as if there are more than two or three sets going at once.  Currently there are four sets and I've got another arriving tomorrow.  Then there is a HUGE key job that is in the works with a big rebuild shop from the southern part of the US.  It'll be fun to work on it although I think I have majorly under-bid the job.  Well...fun counts for something, doesn't it?Even when it is officially work?

Nearly Nonstop

That time of year never came this year.  Surely a good thing.  That is that there has been no springtime work slow down.  Thankfully 'R' is a big help around the shop.  I can't say as I would be able to keep up with things as well if he weren't here.  I'm not having to put in any of those 12 - 14 hour work days!  So not only has the shop work continued to build in quantity, so has the tuning work.  I'm it 'on-island'.  Seems that tech #1 has disappeared, tech #2 has retired and tech # 3 has a bit to be desired...that leaves me (and some that travel from the Boston surrounds).  I'm liking having the work.  I just need to better arrange my schedule.

Schedule...a tough one.  Juggling 'A' back and forth to work and my tuning schedule and Mom's stuff and errands and time for play.

'R' and I did go to the Fisk Open House on Saturday.  It was my third visit and his first.  I always enjoy taking in all the workshop sights.  A couple typical decorative displays are pictured below.

                                                                                       
Then there are the organ parts and the tools and fixtures.

Lots to see.

Tomorrow brings 'that time of year' around for my computer regardless of the not that time of year work-wise.  Tomorrow my computer will head to it's omniscient doctor for it's annual check up.  I'll be struggling with my slowwwwwwwww laptop for a few days.  I'll still be around...checking in and checking up on all of you.

Just Because...

see the previous post first if you haven't been there.

Cool Stuff to Share

Under the Keystone Bridge

Flat Ledge Quarry

Tuesday 'R' and I took a late afternoon walk to explore Flat Ledge Quarry.  The quarry is part of the water supply and is posted No Trespassing.  And there is a rather large gate...with a well-trodden path around the side of it.  Didn't seem to matter to the other folks wandering around in there!

Looking back under the keystone bridge

Flat Ledge has always been a spot that I wanted to explore and 'R' and I did quite a tour on the beaten paths...and off, which was not a particularly smart thing to do as I managed to pick up a hitchhiking tick.  Yuck.

Some pretty quarry color

Anyway, we took lots of photos and decided that a revisit in morning sunshine might be good.  Well, that is until I found that tick...I'm not sure I'll be venturing back in there very soon!  Still, I'm really glad we did the walk.  The bridge and the old quarry are impressive.  The smaller 'motions' (little quarried areas done as kind of moonlight jobs by some quarrymen) were fascinating with cool green pools and trickling water down glistening rock cliffs.

A 'motion' pool with water cascading down the cliff

Another local adventure!

The B-Day

The sun shone...that I find amazing in and of itself!  Yeah, weather forecasters had warned of showers for today.  But it didn't...not much...a brief sprinkle or two is all.  It was a beautiful day for some photo taking and this post shows a few from our afternoon adventure.

Bionic toad

But let's start the day off near it's beginning. First thing the b-day girl wanted to do?  Hit the grocery store for some needed items!  After that we went for a walk to feed the ducks...except there was only one.  And he wasn't interested in the bread we had to offer.  Oh well, home to relax in the sunshine for a bit.  "A' did too much of that and got some sunburn on face and arms.  She's not too comfortable with it tonight.

The Guinea Fowl

After the entire family checked out 'A's birthday e-card (thanks dickie and b!), we got our Easter dining under way at Mom's end of the house.  Tradition makes our meal simple.  Ham sandwiches and fixings...chips, macaroni salad (this year)...easy stuff.

A bridge-load of dragonflies

After lunch the group decided to drive first to Essex to browse a junk shop and then to Ipswich to Corliss Bros. nursery so Mom could buy some plants with her birthday gift certificates.

The horse frames the rhinoceros (click on it to enlarge)

Neither were open.  Easter after all.

Just add water!

We were so close to a favorite spot that we decided it would be a good day to show it off to 'R'.  We headed to NE Biolabs.  Mom and 'A' sat in the car and watched as 'R' and I wandered around taking photos.  'R' has been much better than I have about photo taking and blogging and I am taking the time tonight to get my Biolab photos posted first.  I've a few different versions than before and they have been interspersed in this post.  'A' thinks the octopus is kind of cool and Mom likes the plant-like sculpture.

Mom's plant

Personally, I think the entire place is just marvelous!

Easter

...is late this year and I can hardly remember what has happened to the month of April!  All of us have been extremely busy.  'A' has had more hours at work, I've been swamped with work, Mom has started her springtime gardening and 'R' is getting settled in to residency in Massachusetts.  'R' has also been an enormous help with my piano work and is fun to travel around with or just hang out with when we are not slaving away over piano keys.
This is also birthday week.  Mom's last Sunday and 'A's tomorrow, Easter Sunday.  With all the stuff going on and work to finish it would be easy to keep on working throughout it all.  However...I have made a conscious decision that I WILL NOT WORK TOMORROW.   (mostly)

And while life has been rather hectic, we have taken time to have some fun touring around...up to Newburyport, Skip's for birthdays lunch, and several walks about town.  The photograph at the top of this post was taken in Union Cemetery and I thought it fine for my Easter post.

Not Forgotten

you guess

Yes, this spot hasn't had much happening in it lately.  Life has been a bit hectic.  Lots of work, lots of changes, lots of well...stuff.  It's also 'birthday week' for Mom and 'A' so I've been busy trying to coordinate those two events into one celebration because yes, it's been hectic.

I will be back to post something more interesting.  Hopefully within a few days.  Definitely before I drown in it all.

In Fairness to ALL Pianists

and vocalists...

In Case Anyone's Wondering

I don't imagine that this has been a pressing question interrupting the flow of any of your days....
but...
Here's little gouache painting number two:

It's just 5 X 7  (8 X 10 with matte and frame). It looks better in person...really.  Actually it's just occurred to me, since the gouache paintings are small and on paper, I could scan them into the computer rather than photograph them.  Might  turn out better. Dumb me.

I haven't titled it yet.  Any suggestions?

Solo

News Flash!  Deb has been asked to have a one person exhibit of her artwork!

Yippeeeee!  Until suddenly she realizes that she may not have enough stuff.

It's not a big show.  It's not even a formal gallery show.  But nevertheless it will be being seen in Rockport and at a location that seems to have made a 'thing' of their small 'gallery'.  More on all that when the month...September...gets closer.

Right now Deb is trying to put together enough to fill the walls.  She has gone through her oil paintings, large and small, and her photographs.  Currently she is working on a small selection of sell-able-sized paintings in gouache.  Gouache is an opaque watercolor.  (It sort of feels like working with liquid chalk!) These might sell well as the size (6 X 9 plus matte and frame should bring it to 9 X 12) and pricing will be good.

Here's the first (huh, it lost some of the blue-gray sky and clouds) of probably a half dozen or so:

The Estate

Super Sized

That's what the full moon was supposed to be on Saturday night.  So...I picked 'A' up from work, we grabbed a snack, and headed to...

Land's End with a view of Thacher Island.

I correctly assumed that it would be THE spot to view the moonrise.  So did many other people.  The usually vacant area of rocky coastline was crawling with moon-gazers.  It was rather difficult to find a spot to park in the little, muddy cul-de-sac but I managed to scoot the truck up a hump along the edge and 'A' and I hiked out on the rocks to wait.

And wait.

I was glad we had arrived early considering the crowded parking situation.

There were several 'pros' out there with their very cool camera set ups.  Long lenses for getting those 'squished' shots that would really accentuate the size of the moon as it made it's ascent in the sky next to the lighthouses.  They had tripods, too.  I own two tripods and forgot to bring either of them.  Should have remembered.

Thankfully the moon cooperated and peeked over the island, rather than further north or south which would have caused a massive, crazy exodus, and it was super-sized.  A funky red-orange colored globe rising between the two lighthouses of Thacher Island.

So I took a slew of photographs and cursed myself for no tripod...oh well.  And my moon doesn't look as spectacularly large as the ones that those with the long lenses will see. We had fun anyway.

It Just Goes to Show Ya...

You can't believe everything you read.

The new issue of Cape Ann Magazine is out and, yes, they put in some photographs of the Opening Reception of the Contributing Members Show at the RAA.
This kind of thing evidently gets put in their Party People section.

Hardly.  While I do enjoy getting together with friends, small social gatherings, or even meeting up with colleagues at a 'convention', I would not consider myself a party person.  Mom definitely isn't.

(Photo credit: Brianna Moore)

So...there I am on the left, next to my painting.  That's mom on the right.  'A' didn't want to be in the photograph.  Of course and as you may recall, Mom and I weren't too keen on participating, either. 

Free publicity wins over hating to be photographed.

Expired

So I suppose I haven't written and complained about much in some time.  I'm not going back to see how long it was but I would assume it most likely had something to do with snow.

This is different.

For some time now I have been noticing an increase in the amount of beyond expiration date food items on grocery store shelves.  I first noticed it at the now itself expired I.G.A. at the Whistlestop Mall in Rockport.  The I.G.A. was quite convenient to run to when, at the last minute, it became obvious that the teeny bit of milk left in the jug would not be enough for morning cereal, or that peanut butter sandwich that earlier sounded okay enough for lunch no longer held any appeal come noon.  Convenience lost it's appeal when we were traipsing back to return items long out of date.  Come on, a Stouffer's Mac & Cheese that expired in 2009?

So, I.G.A. is now closed and the majority of our shopping is done at the Stop & Shop on Bass Avenue.  Has this helped?  Not a chance.  I think they have decided to take over where I.G.A. left off!  Will I buy milk on the day that is the same as the buy by date?  Nope.  I checked a few days later and it was all still on the shelf!  Is Stop & Shop alone in this apparent negligence to remove expired items from it's shelves?

Oh no.  We stopped at Shaw's on Eastern Avenue to buy some breakfast items.  The next morning, when opening the box, lo and behold, the box read sell by Dec. 4, 2010.  Later that day we returned the item and went to yet another store, Market Basket.

Market Basket, at the Gloucester Crossing shopping center, is the 'new' competition on the island.  Maybe they would be more alert to quality.  You would think, huh?  Not so.  Although we replaced the Shaw's returned item with one that had a sell by date some 4 months in the future, we did a random check and found several different items, still on shelves, past their sell by date.

Add another half hour to your regular grocery shopping outing and start checking all the packaging!  I certainly will be doing that.  Especially after a news report last night (and this morning).

Boston Public Schools have been serving up meals made with items that are months (possibly years?) past their 'use by' date!  They claim they are abiding by all government guidelines (which allow the use of out dated frozen food items)!

Longer Days

More day time is really appreciated.  It gives me that extra being awake feeling so that I can get more done...like the income taxes...oh joy.  As usual, Mom gets a little check back from the government, Amanda gets a large check back, and yours truly did a poor job of estimating earnings and now must cough up more than I really want.

But daylight hours have been used for more enjoyable endeavors, as well.  Some warmer temperatures have helped in that regard, too.  'A' and I have started walking explorations once again.  The Mill Pond is a favorite spot.  Particularly when we have plenty of stale bread crusts.  The ducks are very happy to have us back and have demonstrated that by their dog-begging stances.  Yep, quit paying attention for just a moment and they will tramp all over your feet.  I looked down after a momentary delay in feeding to find several ducks standing directly in front of me, beaks up, with pleading eyes...one guy was planted firmly on my right shoe.  Nice to be appreciated!

Shortly we'll be springing ahead the clocks, warm temperatures will return, and then the warmth of summer.
The sooner the better I say.

Slow Days

This is the time of year when work slows down.  I've just enough to keep afloat, but not so much that there isn't time for other things.

One thing I have done is to sort through one of my bookcases.  I've pulled out some volumes that are not 'keepers' and fit in some others that had been stored in wrong places such as under my TV in my bedroom.  I also store some of my piano music in this bookcase and I pulled out my copy of Carolina Moon.  It has inspired me to start practicing again...another thing to do during work slow-down.  I was amazed that I could play this piece with little hesitation after so many years away from it.

Anyway, as you can see there is not much organization to the bookshelves.  I tried at the beginning to keep things classified, but in just more than eight years, well, it's suffered.  I don't intend on getting overly zealous about sorting it all out.  As you can see, there is a large Statue of Liberty 'preserved' puzzle (it has NY scenes all over it) that stands in the corner overlapping the bookcase.  On the bottom shelf, in with the piano music, I found a book I had purchased at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, FL.  It's a book of black and white photographs of behind the scenes at the circus.  That's where my name jumped off the page at me.  I had never noticed it before.  I scanned it and then played with it for a while.  Then put it at the top of this post.

Extra time on my hands.

I Surprise Myself (sometimes)

My afternoon tuning called to reschedule.  The family is all sick.  That left me with an afternoon open to possibilities.

So, what did I fill it with?

Wellllllllll...I vacuumed, dusted, tidied, organized, shredded old paperwork, went to the bank, paid bills, returned a couple phone calls, AND....

I worked on my Manning presentation.  Yes, I, the non-public speaker, will be giving a presentation for the historical society (and anyone else around that may be interested) on William N. Manning, organ builder of Rockport.  Originally planned as an article (still not completed) for the Reed Organ Society Quarterly, I goofed and agreed (in an obviously weak moment) to give a 'talk'.  It's scheduled, I think, for November.  Plenty of planning time as I'm hoping to make it a multi-media presentation - PowerPoint presentation, lecture, and recorded music written by Manning and the majority performed on a Manning organ.

Today I started organizing the visuals.  All got scanned into my computer that weren't already there.  Then I successfully copied them to a CD.  Really, this is an accomplishment as I don't do that kind of thing often enough to remember how it's done.  Then..........I took the CD and found the DVD reader on my second hand (third hand in reality) laptop that I nearly never use.  The laptop has PowerPoint installed on it, my desktop doesn't.  I popped that CD in there and much to my amazement the thing worked! Now I'll be able to create my program, copy it to a Flash drive and use the library's projection equipment.

I feel so brilliant!   (no laughing out there)

Valentine's Day

A very brief explanation...

Back in the 1950's my mom and dad invited their best friend couple to come and live with them while the best friends were looking for an apartment.  My dad and Earle worked together at Western Electric.  Mom and Priscilla had been friends since high school.

While living together at my parent's house, Valentine's Day rolled around and Mom and Pris baked a heart shaped cake while Dad and Earle were at work.  They were thrilled with it and could hardly wait for their husbands to get home.

This poem was written [by Mom (and me)] as a remembrance for Priscilla and Earle's 50th wedding anniversary book.

(Please excuse the punctuation errors and various other glitches...our typist at the time was volunteered for the job and kind of messed up a bit.)    

The Exhibitionist

Not what you think.

This morning a friend emailed and a part of her email exclaimed, "FRONT PAGE!"  Well of course I had to check it out.  Sure enough, there on the front page of our local, weekly, free newspaper was a photo as part of a story about the elementary school's new science center.  And in that photo...
It soars again!

The photo above is copyrighted material (Beacon) and is shown here for personal use only

And that was just the start of a pretty swell day. 

Mid day was consumed with tuning jobs and late day demanded my attendance at the Rockport Art Association Contributing Members opening.  Once again I'm showing an oil painting.

Beyond the Oaks

And a photograph.

American Spirit

The three gals showed up just after five o'clock to check out the exhibit and to nibble on finger food.  While standing around chatting, we were approached by a photographer who inquired about being photographed for Cape Ann Magazine.  We hesitated and then a thought came to me.  "Sure, we'd be glad to as long as the photo is taken in front of my painting."  'A' didn't want to, but mom and I did the photo thing and the photographer jotted down our names AND the title of the painting. 

Just maybe a bit of publicity, huh?

It's Not Political

It's just that one thing led to another...

First, if you remember, there was Dexter the snowman.  Dexter began to suffer mightily when wind and snow changed to wind and rain.  So much so that poor Dexter lost his head.  Then he took a hit to his midsection.

Dexter looking a bit doggy

After being emailed some clever Calvin and Hobbes snowmen cartoons (thanks with a big smile), my thoughts turned to salvaging what I could of Dexter.

"I'm sinking"

Then I thought a bit more and gave up real work for the morning to create this...

As Lady Liberty

I'm sure some will read all sorts of stuff into my current snow display.

(Before y'all jump on what you think is an error on my part...there ARE seven points on the crown.  Ya just can't see the one all the way around to the left side.)

Three Words

 No More Snow.

partially dug out back drive

                                                                            

Just some pictures from the past week or so...

the deck - fence is 6 feet tall

Oh, have I mentioned ice?  We've got that, too.  This is my back drive.  At least what I shoveled of it.  Today it is a cascade of thick ice.  Two and a half inches thick in some places.  Yes, I measured it while I was out chopping some of it up.

this morning's icy mess

I sure hope that groundhog wasn't just snow blind when he didn't see his shadow.  I'm ready for some seriously warm weather!

Some things do make for pretty pictures though.