Neon Gone By

Downtown Newburyport, MA

No use waiting for nightfall to get a shot of this old neon sign, because it's not working, so it's never lit anyway.  When I inquired about it inside the car parts shop, the owner told me he was thinking of getting it fixed, and of course I encouraged him.
This is a unique sign.
Not only is it rare to see original neon, some people don't even know what a carburetor is anymore.

Time-travelling with neon

I saw this unique clock in Rowley, MA, at a Sunoco station on Route 1-A, where they still pump your gas and wash your windshield. 

Garnished with a slice of moon

I've been appreciating original neon lately, and last night, while riding as a passenger in a friend's car, I saw this sign. With some urgency, I asked my friend to "please pull over at the liquor store up ahead!"

Now, there was a time when I would have been in such a hurry to get inside, I would have missed this beautiful sign completely.

Things are different today.

Screensaver

Wouldn't this make a nice wallpaper...

...or endpapers for a leather bound book, or fabric for a fabulous silk  jacket , or a lovely scarf, or dinner napkins, or wrapping paper?

But I left it where it was, where it works pretty well:

Maudslay State Park, Newburyport, MA

finding my wooden paddle

Canaan, NH

Because shipping would have cost about the same as making the round-trip drive to pick up the kayak paddle I had bought online, I let the weather decide.   It was a nice day, so I got directions to Mitchell Paddles in Canaan, NH and set off in the morning, thinking I was heading for a small kayak shop.

The drive would be worth it if I could also find a nice place to take a little hike in the lakes region of NH.

When I found the address, (on a dirt road!) Mitchell Paddles turned out to be one young guy - Peter Mitchell-  and his shop, where he makes wooden, carbon fiber and Fiberglas paddles for all kinds of boats. I had come to the SOURCE!

Peter handed me my beautiful cedar Greenland-style paddle, which he had made himself, and then gave me a tour of the entire operation, which had been established by his parents who live next door, 40 years ago.

Oh, and on the way home, I took a nice little hike partway up the Mt Kearsarge Road in Warner, NH.

Scared the Daylights Out of Me!

I thought I'd take myself for a nice autumn walk in the woods this morning.
(Prospect Hill, Rowley, MA)

Making my way up a steep hill with my eyes on the uneven ground, I  looked up and gulped when I saw this scary water tower looming.  I was really frightened for a moment, right there in broad daylight.

Then I went to find a nicer place to hike. (Old Town Hill, Newbury, MA)

That's Plum Island and the Atlantic Ocean peeking up to the left of the tree, which was the only one left standing afer a winter windstorm ( February 2010 ) blew down all the trees at the top of Old Town Hill.

Some people would look at this nice clearing with a spectacular view and think: "New construction!" 

Not me.   I look at it and think, "Thank you to all the do-gooders (Trustees of the Reservations) who have saved this land for EVERYONE to enjoy."

Beach Day in February

The beach is not the first place I think of going on an average February day.  But this day was in no way average: temerature 51 degrees, sunny, no wind.  The walkway down TO the beach was a bit icy, but worth the risk.

Someone with tiny feet left their bare footprints.

Baby terns hurried by with their heads down, pretending not to notice the humans.

A Splash of Color on a Winter Day

I took these pictures one morning recently after a big snowstorm.

I liked the way the whitewash of the fresh snow highlighted the pretty pastel colors of some of the houses.  I found all of these houses along three blocks of a single street- the one I live on- between the library downtown and my house.

The tree wins!

I have a crush on my neighborhood

Away From It All

I am fortunate to have a part-time job in a very humane company.  Once in a while I am asked to work 9-5 though, and on these days, being indoors, sitting all day, becomes a challenge for me. 

What gets me through these long days is my lunch break, when I can go outside and walk for a full hour. The building where I work is at the top of a big hill, so I can always get a challenging walk. 

One day, I discovered a "nature trail" just off the sidewalk, so I explored it.  It was a lovely little world, and I was having so much fun in it that I promptly got lost!  Within ten minutes, I could not see a building or hear a car. It took me several nervous minutes to find my way back to the corporate world,   but part of me definitely wanted to stay lost.

Being Otis Redding

One of the great things about living next to a big river (The Merrimack) that empties into a big ocean (the Atlantic) is being able to watch the tides.
 I get glimpses of the changing tides as I go about my day, and I always try to see how closely I can predict the time of the next high (or low) tide by watching the water and the boats. 
Here's what I saw as I  walked by my favorite kayak put-in this morning around 11:00.

Not "full" yet.  See the high-water mark?

The boats were kind of wishy-washy on their moorings, but still being pulled mostly upstream with the bows (attached to the moorings) pointed out to the ocean. (The current, which of course runs constantly out to the ocean, wants to pull the boats downstream all the time.  When the tide is coming in, it is even stronger than the current going out, so it swings the boats around on their moorings.)

The water looked pretty slack (not in a hurry going either way,) and I know that the water runs the fastest when it is about halfway (3 hours ) between low and high tides.

So I guessed it was about an hour this side of high tide.  When I got home I checked the tide table and saw that I was pretty close.  The next high tide today is at 12:30.



Nature Imitating Art

Yesterday I went to see an outdoor sculpture exhibit at the state park in my town.  It was all about nature-inspired art (I think.)  This was among the pieces.....

Today outside the building where I work, I saw this:

Naure imitating art?

Urban Fossils

I noticed these "urban fossils" in the parking garage where I work.  The day the cement was poured, a few leaves must have fluttered down and become embedded.  Now their delicate images are there for  weirdos like me to enjoy.

It IS the heat!

Humidity or not, it's been entirely too HOT here (for me) this whole month .....
Here is one cool spot I found this morning- standing on the Chain Bridge over the Merrimac, soaking up a streaming river of cool air. So what if it's only an onshore breeze? It was at least 10 degrees cooler than the air hanging over the town.

Plus, the bridge provided a little history lesson:

I like this older plaque better, though, because it includes the part about the oxen:

The island you can drive to....

This is the Plum Island River, without which Plum Island wouldn't even be an island!   There's a two-lane road from Newburyport to the island, with a small bridge over the river.  Nice place to get off your bike and watch the outgoing tide.

Not a nice place to be in the event of an "event" at the Seabrook nuclear plant up the road, though.