This must be what Tolkien had in mind.
A Picture Called “Fate”
I’ve been sorting old pictures. This is one from long ago. The bride — yes I have numerous pictures of her and the groom, eating cake, being toasted, smiling into each other’s eyes. I have no idea how it all came out, but here’s a little reminder, left on one of the tables at the reception…
In the next few weeks, I’ll be trying to get back to this. A look at this semi-distant past seemed appropriate.
More Welcomes
Some houses just look welcoming.
On a recent trip to another state, I got to thinking about this and took a little walk to see what welcomes I could spy.
In the suburbs, doorways seem to be a specialty. But other thing attract too.
Maybe I wasn’t welcome to use this equipment, but it certainly looked inviting. As did this:
And some places are just attractive.
Others let you know if you’re somebody they would welcome:
But others are more oblique. This was my favorite. I don’t know what it means, but it sure feels welcoming. 
Welcomes
The welcome mat above resembles one I used to have outside my door, but this post is not about welcome mats. Rather it’s about some other ways that people make other people feel free to knock on their doors, or at least, look at them.
The rest of the photos in this post were all taken in my neighborhood, on a sultry summer day. 
I like this one, because it seems so inviting. I’ve always been a fan of Victorian photography, especially those pictures everybody rushed out to take because, well, they could (which I suppose is what we still do). They have a way of looking quaint, sometimes exotic, but really, they were just what was all around.
The emblems of everyday living.
I especially liked the gnome, lurking in the far left corner.
And I very much admire both the topiary and the planters here.
But this is my favorite. What is more welcoming than happiness? May all our days be filled with grand announcements!
One September
It’s National Chicken Boy Day today! Never mind. You can look it up. Also National No Rhyme (Nor Reason) Day. Seriously? The words which are claimed to be not able to be rhymed are: orange (everybody knows that one, right?), month, silver, spirit, chimney, purple, and woman. Woman? Immediately I found myself wanting to rhyme with yeoman, but, sigh. That’s how I am. When I see those words I want to make up rhymes for them. You know: sporrage, somth, cliver, chitteny, slurple and oh, well. Yes, kidding. Sort of.
Monday, the day I was supposed to update this (too tired from traveling, too busy catching up) was National Toasted Marshmallow Day. Which for some reason, these clouds make me think of. You know …
the really burnt kind. These are late August clouds and not at all the harbingers of storm they might look like.
Especially this one, which was what made me grab my camera.
I was ready to say “Saw it coming!” But it was going somewhere else.
There’s a moral in there someplace, like, “Don’t always think it’s going to rain,” but never mind. There’s always rain coming somewhere. 
And these guys like it. Happy National First Day of September.
On August Twenty-second
a lot of terrible things happened and some good ones too, depending on your viewpoint. For example, in 1485, King Richard III of England lost the War of the Roses, perhaps for the want of a shoe. That was good news for the other side, of course. In 1567, the Duke of Alba, who, I guess, everybody would agree was a pretty terrible person, established the “Council of Blood” in order to facilitate a reign of
terror in the Netherlands. August 22 was quiet again for a few years until the English claimed Australia when Captain James Cook landed there in 1770. That was a just five years before King George had to proclaim, on August 22, 1777, that the American colonies were in open rebellion. Well, claim some, lose some.
In 1762, Ann Franklin became the editor of the Mercury, a
newspaper in Newport, Rhode Island. Striking a blow for women everywhere, as it were, she was the first female editor of an American newspaper. She didn’t exactly come up through the ranks though. Rather, she inherited the job from her husband — but perhaps she had been doing it all along. Yes, she was related to Ben Franklin.
In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt took note of technological progress and campaigned in a motor car, the first time ever. That must have been something to see and it did get photographed..
In 1906, the Victor Talking Machine Company of Camden, N. J. began manufacturing the hand-cranked Victrola with horn. The one-room school I went to as a child had one of those, probably not one of the earlier models — but you never know. I wish I had a picture of it. It was always a great honor to be the child selected to turn the crank. Meanwhile, the rest of the U.S. already had electrical phonograph machines. We were not to know that. Or maybe we did.
The U. S. annexed New Mexico on August 22 in 1846. We have to think of that as good news. On this same day in 1910, the Japanese annexed Korea, but with less future luck. Somebody stole the Mona Lisa in 1911, but it reappeared two years later.
What a day! In 1932 the BBC began broadcasting. On this day in 1942, Hitler invaded Leningrad. In 1950 Althea Gibson became the first black tennis player to be accepted into national competition. 1950? she said. Oh yeah. In 1972 Rhodesia was asked to withdraw from the 20th Olympic Games because of racism not steroids. Henry Kissinger, who won the Nobel peace Prize (though not on August 22 ) was named Secretary of State by Richard Nixon. The last Volkswagen Rabbit was produced in 1984. I had a used Volkswagen Rabbit from 1973 to about 1976, a wonderful car that rusted all around me till I had to give up on it, but that was not in August. No picture either, alas.
Karen Silkwood won her case in 1986. Howard Stern began broadcasting on CBS in 1998 and in 2004 somebody stole “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. How busy the world is! Meanwhile, some of us are still on vacation.
But summer is winding down.
Hope it’s still blooming for you.
Close Study
Every so often, Jean Sampson, painter and teacher (& poet too) sets up a still-life for her class at the McGuffey Art Center. And every so often, I get to photograph it.
They intrigue me, these set-ups, designed to give every student in the room something to focus on. I walk around and take them from different angles.
How I wish I could draw or paint these wonderful confections. They have a still and calm demeanor, which tells me they must be sure of their attraction.
How could they not be? They have been designed to be loved by the eye.
I hope yours has liked seeing them too. Here by the way, is a little snapshot of the painter herself.
August Dark
Today is Narional Frozen Custard Day. Never mind. Frozen custard has gone out of my life. I miss it, but I don’t. There’s a brief synopsis of what maturity means. Or resignation. Oh well.
This post is about August, its resignations and its wonders — and about the fact that it’s starting to get dark earlier. Have you noticed that? Not a big dark, not the dark of winter, nor even the dark of October. Just darker, sooner.
There’s still time to be outdoors, picnics to go to, friends to see in the bright light of summer. If it doesn’t rain. Having grown up in the Catskills, I was amazed when I found out the rest of the Northern Hemisphere tends to vacation in August. In the Catskills it tends to rain a lot in August. Here in Virginia, it’s wetter too, but maybe not so much.
The picture above represents somebody’s fun from this past Sunday in a park near Charlottesville. There were some wonderful trees as well.
All in fine fettle. A landscape rich in the dark and vibrant greens that August provides for us.
A time to enjoy, not yet to mourn. And oh yes, don’t forget your hat.
August One is National Girlfriends Day
Also, Narional Raspberry Day, also an attractive subject. Oh well. The girls have it. I’ll not subject any of my human friends. The lovely photo above is courtesy Google Image. and thank you. They do remind me of high school or something. Here are some other girls.
I’m not sure these are all girls. With geese, who can tell.They certainly are friends.
Ditto these two, spotted on a cold and lonely December evening, keeping each other warm with best regards…
These girls may be headless, but they stand together (sorry)
And these two were real. Not my friends, but I enjoyed seeing them.
This is an old girlfriend, looking cute — as was her wont.
And this friend (Calliope, I think) who graces the lobby of a hospital I’ve been to many times.Well, that’s how friendship is some times. Some people just grow on you. Also, there’s her smile…
Finally:
Yeah. That too.
What I’m Doing Part Two
Lately I’ve been telling some people they should take a look at this much-neglected blog (heh, heh, you know who you are). That amounts to being a not too subtle prod to myself. If you want people to look at a blog, you’d better produce a blog.I couldn’t agree more — so what I’m doing today is making a resolution to add something here, say, every Monday. How good a promise that is, I can’t foresee, but if you enjoy what you see here, please become a subscriber. I’m tryin’…
The blog will go on being mostly photographs I have taken (well, I have all these photographs…) with the occasional notice of what happened on this day in history, and, if I get really ambitious, stories of one sort or another. Who knows that might come of this? I expect to continue this blog to be non-political, non-religious. Yes, I have religious and political viewpoints, but I expect they are pretty boring (to other people at least), so, for now at least, I’m skipping that. Of course, there’s that 
gentleman at left. He seems, oops, a bit political. Never mind.
In the meantime, today, I’m celebrating another visit to Circa, my favorite place for wonderful memorabilia. These pictures were all taken on a bright and sunny day in July. I used a reckless point and shoot procedure with my nice little Canon point and shoot camera, the sun too bright to see anything on the window, so I couldn’t see what might happen. That, of course, is part of the fun.
As often happens, the motif that day was circles, lots of them, which I’m fond of for so many reasons. Doesn’t the circle represent all we’re about? The beginning and end of time, the completeness of the womb, the beauty of logic? Oh, I could go on and on. Obviously.
Not all the circles were complete, and not all of them 
were beautiful, exactly — although they mostly seemed so to me. 
And then, after the outside shining, there’s what you see, last shot in this sequence, when you peer in the doorway. Thank you, Circa.
Who I Am and What I’m Doing
Who I am today — not just for today, but with any luck, for the next couple weeks — is somebody who is doing Blogging 101, a challenge for the new year. Who I am — today and for the recent past and the desirable future (isn’t a future always desirable?) is an old dog learning some new tricks. Who I have been — for a long time — is an aspiring, but very amateur photographer. What I hope to do — for the next couple weeks, and maybe the next year — is get back in the habit of posting here, mostly photographs…
At top, a picture from Lake Worth in Florida. At bottom, the Amtrak Station in Yonkers, New York.
Almost Comic
June 26, in 1794, was fought the Battle of Fleurus, which today is a municipality in Belgium, which has known many bloody battles.. Fighting this particular and not insignificant battle were on one side, a coalition army representing Great Britain, Hanover, the Dutch Republic and the Hapsburg Monarchy and on the other the army of the First French Republic. The French won.Although not without great losses and disruption.
In 1794, the French Revolution was still going on, or at least some part of it. The Republic had been established and so on, but the tumbrels were still running. Heads were still falling and perfection had not yet been attained. There are some who claim this battle, which 
effectively ended the Dutch Republic (for then anyway) and effectively changed many boundaries of the European landscape, also led to the deposition and death of Maximilian Robespierre on the very guillotine he had done so much to promote — but that’s another story.
The other significance of the Battle of Fleurus — and the one that instigates this particular notice of it — is that it marked the first time hot air balloons were used in warfare. Used to good effect, one might add. Not as attacking modi, but as reconnaissance apparatus. Imagine — or 
see pictures here attached, the bloody carnage going on below while floating overhead (no anti-aircraft firepower in those days!), a gaily colored balloon full of fierce men in uniforms, equipped with field glasses and — one supposes — some sort of communicating devices. No cell phones in those days either.
Apparently the balloon served to good effect and presumably was the precursor to some parts
of air warfare as we now know them. But you can see the limitations. How industrious we are. How we make use of all available materials. And here’s a little picture of what Fleurus looks like today. The Internet will be happy to assist you in making hotel reservations if you should want to go there.
Whaddya Mean Rosebuds? 