Jon Crispin's Notebook

Flowers

Posted in Flowers, Transportation by joncrispin on 14/07/2014

I was addressing Kickstarter reward envelopes at Amherst Coffee this afternoon.  When I came out to ride home, some sweet soul had put these flowers on the Vespa.  They are now in a vase next to me as I write this.

It has been a hectic few weeks and I haven’t posted much.  I’ll try to get something up in the next day or two.

Iris / Bleeding Hearts

Posted in Flowers, Nature, Plants, Travel, Weather by joncrispin on 31/05/2014

When I left Short Hills, NJ this morning it was clear and breezy with very low humidity.  The drive home was uneventful, but as I got into Massachusetts it had become mostly cloudy.  I didn’t hit any rain until about 5 minutes from home.  The light was beautiful and many of the flowers that Cristine has planted over the  years are in full bloom.

I especially like these bleeding hearts.

Goats / Tulip

Posted in Animals, Flowers, Landscape, Nature, Plants by joncrispin on 12/05/2014

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.

Pingry and Travel

Posted in Flowers, Friends, Landscape, Nature, Plants, Seasons, Travel, Trees, Weather by joncrispin on 10/05/2014

I just spent the past four days shooting a project at the Pingry School in New Jersey.  The days were very full, the work was great and since it was with my friends at the Herson Group, we enjoyed ourselves tremendously. /  I have been photographing Peter Carroll jumping almost as long as I have known him (which is a very long time).  And while I was living in Ithaca, I spent a lot of time photographing portable toilets, and had a very one sided postcard correspondence with The Portable Sanitation Association.  These toilets were on the high end of comfort and I believe they were even air conditioned.

The spring is much further (farther?) along in New Jersey than it is in Massachusetts, and these dogwood blossoms were at their peak.  Ours don’t even have leaves yet.

As I was driving through Springfield, the sky got really interesting and I pulled into a scenic area on the 91 to check out this beautiful rainbow.  Not a great shot, but a lot of cars had stopped to watch it and there was a nice little collection of people taking in the scene. /  Enjoy the weekend everyone.

Tiny Daffodils

Posted in Flowers, Nature, Newspapers, Willard Suitcases, Writers by joncrispin on 27/04/2014

Good morning everyone.  The New York Times doesn’t come until after 9.00 on Sundays so I wander around waiting for it to show up.  These daffs are just outside the back door so after my third time checking for the paper, I realized I should take a picture and post it here. /  I am at the beginning of a week where I plan to spend maximum time in my studio cleaning, organizing, and generally getting rid of stuff I haven’t used in years.  I started yesterday and it feels great.  Back to shooting suitcases tomorrow and am very excited to be going with Ilan Stavans, as he has an interest in a particular case.  Wishing you all a great week, and early delivery of your Sunday paper.

Wrong

Posted in Flowers, Nature, Plants, Seasons, Weather by joncrispin on 16/04/2014
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Paperwhite Update #5

Posted in Flowers, Plants by joncrispin on 16/02/2014

This will be the last of paperwhite posts for a while as this batch of bulbs is nearing the end of their cycle.  They are finally looking a bit tired, and the living room is no longer smelling quite so pleasant.

You can just begin to see the flowers starting to lose their shape.  /  This has been a great batch of bulbs though, and we never had any drooping or sagging.  I have to run some errands later today, and I think I’ll pick up some new ones.

Paperwhite? update #4 / Suitcases

Posted in Flowers, Plants, Willard Suitcases by joncrispin on 06/02/2014

I was looking at the paperwhites today and, well…..something seemed a bit odd.  It took me a second to realize that, HEY, those aren’t paperwhites!  These daffodils snuck in somehow (hangin’ with their paperwhite friends and makin’ mischief; sure we’ll come along.  Sounds like fun).  Totally unexpected and somewhat of a shock.  I am so clueless about bulbs, but I now presume you can force just about anything indoors.  Does anyone know if you can do this with tulips as well?  Seeing these guys was a very pleasant surprise.

Welcome to all of you have been following the Kickstarter suitcase project.  It might seem confusing to see “non suitcase” posts here, but I like to mix things up a bit on this site.  Thanks to all of you backers.  Cheers.

Paperwhite Update #3 / Groundhog Day Edition

Posted in Flowers, Plants by joncrispin on 02/02/2014

Paperwhite Update #2 / And They’re Off!

Posted in Family, Flowers, Plants by joncrispin on 29/01/2014

This is the tallest of the paperwhite stalks that I posted in Update #1.  At about 4.30 I looked at the bulbs, and they were almost completely dry and there were no flowers.  I added some water to the bowl, and at about 6.00 Cris noticed that two of the bulbs had started to open.  And they smell amazing.