Goats / Tulip
I have always liked goats, and my friend Tania Werbizky really likes goats. I was driving through Hadley this afternoon and I passed these guys. I stopped, took a few photos and then just as I was about to leave, a trailer pulled up with MORE GOATS! That is why most of these ones are looking to the right. The new arrivals were let into the field and all these guys ran over to greet them. Some head-butting was noted.
About 10 years ago I planted a bunch of daffodil and tulip bulbs. At the time I remember reading that the daffs would keep coming up annually, but that the tulips had a life of around five years. This is the last of them to flower; a lone red tulip in the middle of daffs and baby’s breath. I’ll be surprised if it comes back next year, but this one showed some resilience.
National Museum of Natural History / DC
Peter and I had a great visit to the Museum of Natural History this afternoon. I wanted to show him the Hope Diamond and some of the other gems.
The big diamond was ok, but we were drawn more to the emeralds and rubies. This necklace was pretty cool.
These two pieces of chalcedony (quartz) were so cool; especially the green one. Amazing that this stuff appears in nature only to be found, polished, and put on display.
Cool elephant in the main foyer.
Not being much in the way of scientists, we didn’t understand a lot of what was going on in the genome exhibit.
When we told Cris we were going to the Natural History Museum, she said “Ooooh, dioramas!”
The guy here looks like he is hailing a cab in New York City. I have actually seen guys who look pretty much like him doing just that. When I was taking this photograph, a dad beside me was photographing his two kids and one of them said, “Daddy, I want to be a caveman.”
We kept coming back to the elephant.
We had an early dinner reservation at Mon Ami Gabi to celebrate Peter’s birthday. It was great. The escalator at the Bethesda station is enormous.
Back home tomorrow.
Wing
There is a group (collective noun?….any help here?) of bobcats that live next to my brother’s house here in South Carolina. As I was out for my morning walk I saw this wing lying next to the road. I looked around and it seemed to be all that was left of the bird, which appears to me to have been a seagull. / Even though we are surrounded by nature all the time and so close to it in many ways, it is unusual to be so close to the cycle of predators and prey. It made me feel connected in a way that doesn’t often happen.
Recently
Sometimes I get a bit frustrated when I don’t post here as soon as I have some interesting (to me) photographs. / We were up in Maine for Thanksgiving at my brother and sister-in-law’s house. They live near to Higgins Beach in Scarborough, ME and on Thursday the ocean was really kickin’. I went for three separate walks to the beach the next day and each one was interesting in its own way. The surf was up (especially by East Coast standards) and at one point there were at least 40 surfers out.
On the morning walk I noticed that tons of sea creatures were washed way up on the beach, including this guy. Very alive and, I hope, happy to be put back into the ocean. Would have made a nice little lunch though.
On our way home on Saturday, I finally stopped to take a shot of this structure on Route 1 in Scarborough. I liked the light, and it is nice to see how helpful the owners are in identifying just what this thing is.
Further (farther?) down Route 1 is Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery and since Peter was with us it seemed a nice time to stop in for a bite. As usual, amazing fried clams.
Next stop was in Boston for our annual walk around the outside of Fenway Park. So sweet to have the 2013 World Series banner hanging.
And I have always liked this statue, especially Dom DiMaggio’s specs. / We ended the Boston leg of the trip with a stop at the Blue Ribbon. For Peter, this day was a triple play; clams, Fenway, and Blue Ribbon. He was a very happy boy.
And finally, there is this. Image-wise it is kind of an orphan here, but I love the floating cone in the middle. I spotted this on a walk with Pete yesterday afternoon. / I take him to the train in New Haven tomorrow, and as usual, it will be difficult to say goodbye. Cris and I have had so much fun being with him for the past few weeks.
Pearl 1 July, 2001 – 2 August, 2013
Pearly died here at the house this past Friday morning just after 8.00.
There are no words to express how sad we are.
Penguin Books
I’ve been thinking of my late parents quite a bit recently. The photograph is of my father’s family. They moved from Cornwall in the UK to Central City, Colorado where I believe this shot was taken. Dad turned me on to the Scottish writer John Buchan, and I have a large collection of his books; mostly hardbacks, but a few in these lovely old Penguin editions. These beautiful art deco bookends are marked “Genuine Rocky Mountain Alabaster” and come from Kohlberg’s / Denver, which I assume is or was some sort of a shop.
Pearl had some pretty heavy duty surgery on Tuesday. She had a large mast cell tumor on her side and it really needed to come off. Our wonderful vet Deb Lichtenberg thought it was a good thing to do, and we are glad we went through with it. The recovery has been going well so far. Off to get the temporary drain removed this afternoon and then another ten days before the stitches come out. I took this shot a few days before the operation. We never let her up on the furniture until about a year ago, but hey, she’s 12 and we want her happy.
Artists (and dogs) at the Exploratorium
I have never given much thought to whether or not I am an artist. And the whole idea of whether or not photography is an art is a whole ball of wax that I try to avoid. So when Pam Winfrey (whose idea it was to have the Exploratorium host the “Normal” exhibit) invited me to be part of an artist’s night, I said yes without giving it much thought. So it was a bit weird for me to be introduced to people as one of the artists whose work was on display. I’ll accept it for the time being but I doubt it will go to my head. The event was pretty cool. Since I was basically alone, I wandered around looking lost for a while before I ran into my refound friend Katie Hahren and her daughter Annie. That loosened things up a bit. Eventually Karen Miller and I ended up signing catalogues and chatting with guests. / One thing about San Francisco that I really like is that dogs seem to be accepted in most public places. When I was at the Exploratorium in February I met a 4 month old black lab who was on his way to work for only the second day. I can not imagine bringing the Pearl to an office job even now when she is 12 and mostly calm.
This is the new Exploratorium on the Embarcadero at Pier 15. It is amazing. Go check it out if you ever get the chance.
California Coast
This will be a picture heavy post without too many words.
We stopped in Pismo Beach, which is a sweet little town with a nice pier. I like being able to shoot from above, which is a great angle to document guys with metal detectors.
Morro Bay is another pleasant town. We were blown away to see these sea otters rafting at the end of the day so near to the town. The wide angle lens doesn’t make them seem so close, but they were right there.
Next stop was the amazing elephant seal beach just near to San Simeon. These seals have been coming to this location since the early ’90s. Noisy and smelly (but in a very nice way). Remarkable to be so close to these creatures.
They are molting at this time of the year and aren’t particularly active.
Next up, Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park near Big Sur. Well worth a visit.
It is Spring out here and wild flowers are everywhere. This looks to be some sort of iris.
This spectacular field is just off Highway 1. We came around a corner and this scene took our breath away.
California poppys. Cris says they are the state flower.
Point Lobos State Park is a wonderful place to hike and get close to the ocean. The trails are extensive; it would be easy to spend a whole day here.
I had never been in the redwoods before. This same photo has probably been taken a million times, but who could resist. Big Basin State Park is just north of Santa Cruz.
Since I’m in California, I can get away with the word awesome. Truly amazing.
Had a nice walk yesterday from the Exploratorium up to the Golden Gate Bridge. Finally saw “The Changing Face of What is Normal” exhibit and will post some shots and my reaction soon.
Lemons and Tortoises
I was all set to do a final post about last weekend’s trip to to DC when the news of events at the Marathon started trickling in. I just felt so bad for most of the week that anything I could say here seemed trivial. Last night I flew out to Southern California to meet up with Cris who has been staying with her sister in Orange County. Since things in Boston appear to be mostly resolved, and it is so nice to be here with family, my mood has lightened considerably. And who wouldn’t be cheered by the sight of these lemons growing in Lynne and John’s front garden. I will never cease to be amazed by this tree.
And Lynne’s desert tortoises have recently come out of hibernation. She suggested I grab a hibiscus flower and as I walked toward George here, he came to me and got right to it.
Stinky
Cris made it back from Bangladesh safely in spite of some bad weather in the UK which could have slowed her down. Before she left Dhaka, she told me about this headline in “The Daily Star”. I asked her to bring it home and here it is. Something about the word stinky in a daily paper that struck me as funny. The photo of the monkeys huddled together was to illustrate a recent cold snap in South Asia.
Jon Crispin's Notebook 
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