Voice

The painter, photographer, artist...all struggle to find their voice, either consciously or unconsciously. I thought people were nuts when I first heard the question - "what is your voice?" - in relationship to my photography. For all I know, we are nuts!
But - walking down the dike out at the wildlife refuge today, I was surrounded by so much beauty that it was hard to bear at times.  The birds are only a part of the story as you'll see from the pictures. What I find that I am trying to express with my photography is the beauty that I experience - and there are such a multitude of opportunities that I'll get to practice for the rest of my life.
Here's some of the beauty that I saw today.

A rose is a rose.....

Roses are so beautiful and the varying light angles show the beauty in almost infinite ways.  Here's one way to look at the beauty.

Murphy Time!

Murphy was getting tired of Fuzzy getting all the press, so we went for a hike this morning and he requested that his picture only get posted!  So here he is, even more beautiful than before!
The leaves are changing up the canyons, and I love the yellow aspen and shadows combination.

Time for Fuzzy (a.k.a. Frankie)

Today was a good day for Fuzzy pictures.  First a nap with Diana and Murphy, then up on the garden entryway, where he was alternately attacking me and loving me!  He has grown up considerably and goes in tomorrow for his 4 month deal - snip, snip, as Diana says!!!! The vet says he will never miss anything. We'll see.

This is a kitten with no fear!

Return to the Refuge

Murph and I drove up to the Farmington Bay Wildlife refuge Monday afternoon.  We had not visited in over a month, and were anxious to see what was there to see.
The bird count was way down (other than seagulls), but as usual, we had some great moments. snowy egret, white-faced ibis, Great Blue Heron, dragon fly and pelicans - we captured on disk, and enjoyed red-winged blackbirds, terns, and Northern Harrier sightings. The road to the end of the dike is not yet open, I think it opens the end of September.

The pelicans appeared to be performing in a synchronized swimming exhibition.  They would all put their beaks in the water at essentially the same time, then tip their butts up in the air, and then all would pull their beaks out!  Fascinating to watch and done in a slow, rythmic fashion.

Maine - last day

We are back in Utah, wonderful to be home and yet missing the water and wind and the cry of the gulls. Murphy and Fuzzy and Leo all greeted us, and Murph got to sleep on the bed! Fuzzy returned quickly to his nocturnal habits of nuzzling Diana at all times of the night.  Murph has leg spasms and I got kicked quite a bit - small prices to pay for the love we get from them.

Our last day was wonderful - and rather adrenalin-producing.  After a wonderful time spent at the Olson's house in Cushing (Christina was the model for Andrew Wyeth and some of his most famous paintings), we had lunch in a wonderful Irish pub in Damariscotta again, King Eider's pub.  Our last taste of lobster rolls (yummmmmm) and a great discussion with the bartender - turns out one of his sons is attending Westminster College, just down the way from our place.  He also told us that it would take at least 3 hours to get to Boston, maybe more, and that put us at 5pm with a 5:45 pm flight time!!!!
So off we went, and by golly, we made it - had no map of Boston so just had to guess and hope and it worked.  Last call and I walked up to the gate where Diana was waiting!
The wood is from the Olson house, and of course, the taps are in the King Eider pub! Can you find the face in the pub picture??

Maine sunrise

A clear and beautiful day this morning, jumped up and went down to the shore to see the sunrise.  We leave after breakfast today, to catch a later afternoon flight in Boston.

Southwest Harbor

A very relaxing day, started off with a bit of a wind and cool but now is blue sky and only a couple of clouds.  Here's some photos from the day and walking around.

The Claremont holds annual croquet meets, and I got to thinking about what it might be like to look at the world from a croquet ball's perspective (other than getting hit with the hammer).  So this is what it looks like at the beginning of the course:

Here's the Claremont...

Seargent is the Claremont dog, as far as I can tell.  With 3 legs, he gets around amazingly well, and exhibits pure lab behavior - runs to get a ball with new people in case they want to play with him!  (Or whatever - we make it all up anyway!!!!).

Stainless steel sculpture reflecting the world around it.

Faierie Castles

We're at the Claremont Hotel in Southwest Harbor now, but on Thursday, before leaving Monhegan Island, we visited the faierie castles in Cathedral Woods.  Here there are castles almost every where and of every kind imaginable!  Diana provided improved decorations for one of them!  Here's a couple of neat ones.

Then on the walk back we saw this wonderful gargoyle/troll followed by a butterfly that sat still long enough for me to take a photo.

Back in Boothbay Harbor

We're back on the mainland, sitting at Topside Inn and enjoying figs, cheddar cheese and crackers.  We look up and there is a rainbow to welcome us!!  More later.

Maine - Monhegan Island Day 3

Today began with a light rain and then morphed into another beautiful day in paradise! We enjoyed breakfast, took a long hike, had a great fresh lunch, a short nap, wine on the adirondacks in front of the Inn, and played a little with a small kitty that reminded us of our own fuzzy kitten at home, just a little older. Dinner at the Inn was again superb - Diana had haddock tonight (again, 3 nights out of 4 so far), and I had scallops - along with beets and Israeli couscous.  Words do not do it justice.
Today's photo's include a number of landscapes, because the light is so fantastic here!

Early morning, soft light after the rain.

Evening light is awesome.

Another evening light scene.

And from the hike!

Small things and light catch me.

Pebble beach - so it is named.  I guess these can pass for pebbles???

The weathering of wood here is so distinct and shiny, yet hard to capture on houses.  This chunk in the weeds along the trail gives a bit of a hint of the beauty contained there.

Maine - Monhegan Island Day 2

The longer you spend away from clocks and TV and stuff like that the less important they are.  Moments run together into hours and time and nothingness and soon you are so relaxed that you cannot remember what day it is.  Awesome.
This morning we walked down to Lobster cove, where Jamie Wyeth has a house and there is a tugboat wreck.  What is also has are rocks so intense that the energy from them permeates the area.  Hard to capture but what the heck - gotta try.  First a funny.

The Wyeth house - sitting on a point in a quiet area.  No one appeared home.

Walking back to the Inn, there was much beauty to behold and try to capture.  Here's a few that we got, color, shapes, etc. that struck us.

Yes, that is the butt end of a spider just disappearing over the edge of the rose.

Another try at capturing lobster traps!!!

Diana and I were sitting out here this afternoon, and a couple came up behind talking and said "It doesn't get any better than this!", to which we responded "Yes, we'll drink to that!"  Very few people, lots of surf and bird sounds.  Shut your eyes and you can be transported to wherever!

Diana wants a record of where we have been, and in this case, the dining room at the Island Inn and the evening light make a great match.
Speaking of evening light, here is what our goodbye to the day was heralded with:

It really doesn't get any better than this!