It’s really not all that remarkable that I can remember Fall in Central Park, since it was just yesterday that I was there. However, Cental Park is pretty remarkable in the fall. Even late as it was in the foliage season, there was some striking color to be seen.
And in case you don’t recognize the title I used for this post, it’s a line from the song Danke Schoen. (Where “schoen” rhymes with “rain.”) I remember this song primarily for having been in the movie Ferris Bueller’s day off.
Eleven years ago today, I put up my first post on this blog. Here we are over a thousand posts later, and I am still more-or-less here.
It appears that I am quite partial to the number 11. Not the least because I regularly post at the eleventh hour. (It might not surprise you that it is now after 11 as I write this post.)
The number 11 has featured prominently in quite a few posts over the years, in particular on 11/11. In anticipation of the exciting (at least to me) date of 11/11/11, I encouraged others to post things that go up to 11. I’ve posted about the word for the number 11 in Spanish. I’ve posted lists of elevens. I’ve posted photos of elevens (or at least photos of patterns that look to me like 11s). And I posted a ThThTh list of 11 things, which, given that I posted it in 2007, did not include one now very well known Eleven.
This is all really just a very roundabout way to say happy birthday to my blog. Thanks to any and all of you who have dropped in over the years.
When it gets late, and it gets tired, I typically find I don’t have the energy to do actual writing. All too often, this is what motivates me to post photos. Not to say that I don’t often have photos that I want to share, but posting photos over text has been my default when I’m tired.
And then I try to come up with a catchy title. But sometimes, a catchy title catches me. And makes me laugh a little inside. And makes me hunt down (or in this case, go fishing for) appropriate content to go with it. When in doubt, post a trout.
And so it was that I remembered that I have quite a few fish photos. Even more specifically, I have a bunch of photos of fish statues and sculptures, taken over quite a long period of time, and in quite a few different locations. (I was sorry to not find any fish sculptures in my photos from Asia, so it looks like I have only 2 continents represented. Unless you want to consider this startlingly shiny gold fish furniture from my hotel in Shanghai.
But I have a terrible confession to make: while I may have lots of photos of fish, I really don’t know whether there is a trout among them.
So, what say you? Can you find a trout among today’s catch?
I enjoyed the way these ornamental grass seeds caught the light this morning when I was out on my walk. (I didn’t take a lot of photos this morning, because it was cold.) (And I’m not writing a lot of words tonight, because I’m tired.)
It’s apparently hard for me to get back into the swing of posting daily.
But I won’t let a day of failure keep be from my goals. I’ll climb back up on that swing, and start kicking my legs again.
Even if it means posting a bunch of photos that I took years ago (and may well have posted here years ago).
Before you know it, I’ll get into the rhythm of it, and feel the breeze in my hair. (Blog posts cause a bit of wind, don’t they? Sometimes they may, at least, be full of hot air.)
Here it is, November 1st, and I haven’t posted since April. Some have wondered if the blog (at least this one) is good and dead. However, I’m willing to declare that this blog is not dead yet.
Since I started this blog over 10 years ago, I have participated in some sort of daily posting every November. Here’s to (at least) one more go. (Expect a high percentage of leaf photos, musings about the rapid passage of time, and filler text.)
This was a tough month. I started off with high hopes and lofty goals, but my motivation and my optimism have suffered a major hit. I did manage to post to my blog every day this month, as planned, but my idea to share a daily bit of gratitude was less successful.
Even though I posted *something* every day this month, I mostly haven’t written the posts I’ve wanted to. The unexpected election results and their aftermath have continued to have a big impact on my thoughts and to some extent on my actions. I would still like to write more about this. I hope to keep posting here regularly. I think in order to keep the momentum, I will continue to post assorted photos and lightweight things as I work to unpack my weightier thoughts.
These two photos were among some I took back in 2010, when I was doing the daily photography project. I remembered the one of the “hope” train derailed, and went hunting for it. Funny as it was, it wasn’t actually a great photo, so I mucked with it a bit in a clumsy way.
For the record, I considered calling this post “hope derailed,” but my decision not to perhaps reflects that my hope has not entirely derailed. I am planning to get it back on track (as it were) in the coming months.
I took quite a lot of photos on my excursion into Boston yesterday. While many of them were to document historic monuments for my son’s scrapbook project, I naturally took a bunch of things that caught my eye. Something that definitely caught my attention was the flocking behavior of some pigeons. It was fascinating to watch them swoop and turn as a mass. The first flock we saw, I barely managed to get a couple of shots with my phone before the pigeons decided to perch on a rooftop.
A couple of hours later, a flock caught my eye when my real camera was at the ready.
At the end of the day, I was amused to see this one little guy on the underground platform at Back Bay Station, apparently waiting for the same train we were. I can only assume that the flock was getting on his nerves, and he decided to fly solo for a bit (as it were).
Tonight I am grateful both for having a flock to be a part of (my friends and family), but also be able to have some time alone to do my own thing.
I went on an excursion into Boston today with my mother (visiting from California) and my son. My son has a school project this year for which he is encouraged to visit various historic and culturally significant sites in Massachusetts. We went to the State House (just the outside), hit a few more landmarks on the Freedom Trail, and then headed to the Boston Public Library. Getting out of the T station at Copley, we were greeted by banners at the beautiful Old South Church proclaiming: “Love thy (Muslim) neighbor as thyself.” I was very heartened by this message of love and inclusion, what I see as an overt and beautiful response to the islamophobia that is running rampant among many in this country. (And which is sickeningly encouraged by the President-elect.)
I have been running behind in my enumeration of gratitude, which I had intended to post here daily this month. However, tonight, it is easy for me to say that I am immensely grateful to live in Massachusetts: a state not only rich in history, but which has frequently shown itself to be on the right side of history. While not everyone in the state feels the same way I do, Massachusetts voters by and large choose social progress. And there are many, many people in Massachusetts speaking out loudly for these ideals.
collecting tokens 