train geometry

when I was a child my brother's erector set was off limits.

the power grid of trains is off limits to me, too.

but i am drawn to these structures just as i was once drawn to my brother's skeletal constructions.

back side

this is what our town looks like from behind:

crotchety buildings hovering over railroad tracks

a drowsy river, and power line perches for pigeons.

live long and prosper

this lawn art goes where no lawn art has gone before

thank you all for your wonderful anniversary wishes!

thirty-eight years ago we tied the knot...

and he still hasn't figured out how to untie it

giving thanks

one of the things i am most thankful for on this fourth thursday in november

is the cdpb community.

you have enriched this beautiful blue planet with your images and your words.

can you guess

where i've been?

it would be so fine to see your face at my door

brattcat's brattcat waiting

now, look...

someone has gone and let the horse out of the barn.

i'll be back tomorrow.

school dance

gourds on one side,

squash on the other

i'm still away.

hope you danced this weekend.

the view from my attic

was glazed with rain

i'll be out of town for a few days but thanks to the patient instructions from Julie of Sydney Eye

i've been able to schedule posts.

have a great weekend everyone.

the sky was casting cloud seeds

I watched as they took root

shadow and light

bony fingered tree shadows

tickle clapboard ribs

never the same from moment to moment

and always rushing toward the sea

indian summer

like the breath of a baby on its mother's cheek

things that are orange...

traffic cones, tiger lillies, life preservers,

cantaloupe, marmalade, candy corn

ummm...what else?

tree stump

rotten to the core and yet still a thing of beauty

stone

what a beautiful building material the land provides

thank you all for your cloud comments yesterday.

what fun to hear the clouds speaking such wisdom with so many different accents.

if clouds could speak

what do you suppose they would say?

organ street

the rest of the town has forgotten this neighborhood.

houses await families long since gone.

the stillness on organ street belongs to another century.

was cave art an ancient form of graffiti?

animal paintings adorn the brick walls of arch street

november ditty

november leans against the barn and hums a tuneless little ditty.

monochrome monday: the loading dock

often we perfect the front view

but fail to attend to the rear.

S.I.T. for greensboro daily photo

took a walk up black mountain road yesterday so i could bring you this view.

has it changed since you were last here?

p.s. i loved your silhouetted halloween cats

the ledges

when my daughters were small

they loved sitting on these rocks

with the water pounding against their skinny backs

skywatch: the view from butternut hill

esther listens

as the wind rolls up to her door and calls her out to witness

the revelation of leaves

the empty white chair

crimson dreams fade

under the gaze of gaunt november.

two beauties

Two beauties:

89 year old Esther and her butternut tree.

you can find her working in her garden at 5 a.m.

she bakes perfect oatmeal cookies with bits of butternuts folded in.

Because MCCasey asked

She is the largest documented paper birch in the state of Vermont.

It's hard to tell from this photograph but the forester who led the walk re-measured her as we watched and her circumference is 9 feet, 11 inches, she's 77 feet high, and she has an 85 foot crown.

the door beside Mother Birch

Yesterday I went on a Big Tree Tour.

In the dooryard of this house stood a massive paper birch.

This house, I think, is older than the birch.

And yet it's hard to imagine one without the other.