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The seemingly impenetrable beech forests of the Radika river valley are actually recognized by the UNESCO as the natural patrimony of humanity.
Кажущиеся непроходимыми буковые леса в долине реки Радика включены ЮНЕСКО в перечень природного наследия человечества.
A pair of white pelicans seemingly watching over a bunch of American avocets and a lone gull. The size difference between the pelicans and avocets is really striking!
Taken at the Bolivar Flats Shorebird Sanctuary, Texas.
My sincere thanks to all who spend the time to view, like or comment on my photos. It is much appreciated!
© 2024 Craig Goettsch - All rights reserved. Any unauthorized use without permission is prohibited.
I've been staring at this for over an hour as it seemingly has encapsulated the crossroads our state and this country has found itself. This was taken on a gloomy day that was so bright it hurt the eyes and yet I couldn't have told you where the sun was to save my life. These gentlemen were erecting a wonderfully vibrant sign in the rain between this jaunty fountain and the once magnificent State Capital which now stands in need of some attention. Sporadic park goers came and went, no one stayed long. There was some laughter, but nothing loud, the Cherry trees were in bloom, but drooped with heavy droplets and showed dully in the diffused light while being photographed by people wearing coats in the Spring. Lying on the wet pavement one can see discarded flowers of vibrant yellow near the gray distorted reflection of the Capitol Rotunda. Inspiration, hope? Not until this line in the sand mentality is gone, the 'you are either with me or against me' attitude that our politicians seemed to have morphed into. It's We the People, I can disagree with you and you with me, it's the moving forward together part that's missing, let's get back to that. Don't get me started on the assault on the thin blue line where we can't even arrest thieves.....
Anyway....
This shot threw me down a rabbit hole that I knew existed but have striven to ignore for several years and now I find myself screaming from the bottom.
PS If you are into sado masochisme (sp?) try photographing a randomly shooting water feature with traffic passing through the shot, good luck. :)
Seemingly defying gravity beneath the towering cliffs of Mount Stephen, Tier-4 ET44AC 7433 powers skyward toward Cathedral on CPKC's Laggan Subdivision, hauling a lengthy Vancouver-to-Montreal train no. 112 up the arduous 2.4% grade out of Field, British Columbia. A heavy overnight snowfall has blanketed the massive pines, creating a picturesque scene while simultaneously challenging maintenance crews, who would later contend with three slides closer to Field.
I'm in an elevated position again. But this time, instead of looking at snow-covered mountains, I'm looking at the city center of Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg (from the Stuttgart TV Tower).
For those who aren't familiar with the area, here are a few landmarks.
In the lower third of the image, on the left, you can see the Old Castle, and to its right (with the Ferris wheel in the courtyard) is the New Castle.
Further to the right, in the upper third, you can also see the seemingly endless construction site of Stuttgart's main train station.
And if you're already familiar with the area, you'll surely find many more interesting sights.
Ich befinde mich wieder in einer erhöhten Position. Doch dieses Mal blicke ich nicht auf verschneite Berge sondern auf das Stadtzentrum von Stuttgart in Baden-Württemberg (vom Stuttgarter Fernsehturm aus).
Für alle die, die sich hier nicht auskennen, noch ein paar Orientierungspunkte.
Im unteren Drittel auf der linken Seite seht Ihr das alte Schloss und rechts daneben (mit dem Riesenrad im Innenhof) das neue.
Und noch weiter rechts im oberen Drittel könnt Ihr auch noch die ewige Baustelle des Stuttgarter Hauptbahnhofes sehen.
Und falls Ihr Euch doch hier aus kennt, werdet Ihr bestimmt noch viele weitere interessante Punkte finden.
We are in a seemingly endless stretch of cloudy and WINDY weather........back to the archives.
The cardinals are singing their morning serenade right now though.........sweet.
A funny thing to see is how the hummer migration came to a screeching halt up here on March 22.
A seemingly, but not really, ominous sky. Post-sunset, post-rain clouds in a darkening, late-twilight sky. McKinely School rear entrance and parking lot overlooking the Back Bay skyline. South End, Boston.
Super nice district of Busan, on the coast, Haeundae had some of the tallest buildings we'd seen, seemingly reaching up to the moon above.
More wabi-sabi, and yet another tulip; there appears to be no end to these tulips, as there's a seemingly endless supply at the grocer's, and since I almost never throw them away, the supply just keeps growing. Indeed, I strongly suspect that at least one of these beauties has already appeared in another image in my photostream.
I think what I like most here is the way the image pulls my eyes back and forth from one blossom to the other, and then down to the dancing stems. And, of course, I'm always smitten by the texture and color of these withered flower parts.
The result of a multi-image focus stack, this image should reward pretty close examination. Maximum viewing size on your computer can be found by opening the image in a separate window, making that window maximum size, typing the letter "L" on the keyboard, and then clicking the cursor as long as a '+' appears in it, typically twice.
If you find this image to your liking, you can find more wabi-sabi - and an account of my understanding of the meaning of that term - in my wabi-sabi album, more tulips in my Tulips album, and more dancing flowers in my Tiny Dancers album.
BTW, I've taken to putting a white rim around these images on black because, on my iPhone flickr app, it is otherwise difficult to discern the image's edges. I made it tiny because, while large mats look lovely on my desktop monitor, they make it hard for my tired old eyes to view an image on my iPhone's small screen.
The seemingly neverending flight of stairs leading up the south wall of Wendelstein mountain, part of the panorama circular route.
Bavaria, Germany.
18/365 … there are, seemingly, some benefits to going to the gym first thing … it’s quite difficult to get out in the cold, but it’s a good feeling … and then, on leaving, if it’s not raining, there’s some magical light about too??
This just the car park with the full moon (obs. blown out) above … despite the cold, not that I was by then, it was nice just standing there and taking this in … then quickly into the car for a warm coffee!! :-)
Have a nice day all … xx
A tiny bird seemingly overflowing with energy, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet forages almost frantically through lower branches of shrubs and trees. Its habit of constantly flicking its wings is a key identification clue. Smaller than a warbler or chickadee, this plain green-gray bird has a white eyeing and a white bar on the wing. The male's brilliant ruby crown patch usually stays hidden, only to be exposed if excited.
They are tiny songbirds with relatively large heads, almost no neck, and this tails. They have very small, thin, straight bills.
Both sexes :
length : 3.5 - 4.3 in (9 - 11 cm)
weight: 0.2 - 0.3 oz (5 - 10 g)
wingspan : 6.3 - 7.1 in (16 - 18cm)
--- allaboutbirds.org
Seemingly out of place, this small clump of trees stand alone and stark against the rugged landscape of the Isle of Skye, seen here on the B8083 Broadford to Torrin and Elgol road.
A long and winding road in the Valley of Fire - a seemingly untouched place of strange, surreal, and colorful natural wonder and beauty ~
(Wish I was here during the golden hour though and not at midday!)
Seemingly makeshift concertina gates to the Harbour Town southern entrance, with a yellow M in the background.
ENGLISH
The sculpture L'Estel Ferit (The Wounded Shooting Star) consists of four twisted cubes, stacked seemingly at random. Most people refer to this popular landmark as "the cubes", and it is a clear reflection of Barcelona's penchant for ground-breaking art during the Olympic period. However, its symbolism is inextricably linked to the past of the Barceloneta district.
The sculpture L'Estel Ferit pays tribute to Barcelona's fishing district, the Barceloneta, and has become one of its iconic landmarks. The German artist Rebecca Horn heralded a new phase in the decoration of the city's streets and squares. It was 1992, and the city's most neglected neighbourhoods were in need of a clean up, while they opened up to the sea and adorned themselves with sculptures that were often innovative. In this case, Horn sought to immortalise the legendary seafront bars and restaurants, or xiringuitos, which just a few years before had dotted the Barceloneta coastline. The xiringuitos were shacks that had fallen into disrepair but still retained their essential charm. However, by the time the pre-Olympic city was being refurbished they had seen better days and were removed. Some people say that the cubes represent the 30m2 apartments, known locally as quarts de pis, which were built at the end of the 19th century.
Whatever the interpretation, there's no denying that the artist created an impressive 10-metre-high sculpture, comprising four steel blocks that rise up from a concrete base. Each block, with its glass windows, comprises an individual module. Stacked one on top of another, these cubes look like they're performing a fragile dance and are held up by chance. Locals and visitors alike don't seem to fear the apparent instability of the structure, which is silhouetted against the background of the sea.
VISIT BARCELONA
CATALÀ (traducció de l'anglès)
L'escultura L'Estel Ferit consta de quatre cubs retorçats, apilats aparentment a l'atzar. La majoria de la gent es refereix a aquesta fita popular com "els cubs", i és un clar reflex de l'afició de Barcelona per l'art innovador durant el període olímpic. Tanmateix, el seu simbolisme està indissociablement lligat al passat del barri de la Barceloneta.
L'escultura L'Estel Ferit ret homenatge al barri pesquer de Barcelona, la Barceloneta, i s'ha convertit en un dels seus punts emblemàtics. L'artista alemanya Rebecca Horn va anunciar una nova etapa en la decoració dels carrers i places de la ciutat. Era l'any 1992, i els barris més abandonats de la ciutat necessitaven una neteja, mentre s'obrien al mar i s'adornaven amb escultures sovint innovadores. En aquest cas, Horn pretenia immortalitzar els mítics bars i restaurants de primera línia de mar, o xiringuitos, que només uns anys abans havien esquitxat el litoral de la Barceloneta. Els xiringuitos eren barraques que havien caigut en mal estat però que encara conservaven el seu encant essencial. Tanmateix, quan la ciutat preolímpica s'estava reformant, havien vist dies millors i van ser eliminades. Hi ha qui diu que els cubs representen els apartaments de 30 m2, coneguts localment com a quarts de pis, que es van construir a finals del segle XIX.
Sigui quina sigui la interpretació, no es pot negar que l'artista va crear una impressionant escultura de 10 metres d'alçada, formada per quatre blocs d'acer que s'aixequen d'una base de formigó. Cada bloc, amb les seves finestres de vidre, comprèn un mòdul individual. Apilats un sobre l'altre, aquests cubs semblen estar fent una dansa fràgil i s'aguanten per casualitat. Tant els locals com els visitants no semblen témer l'aparent inestabilitat de l'estructura, que es perfila sobre el fons del mar.
VISITA BARCELONA
(Regulus calendula) -- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
A tiny bird seemingly overflowing with energy, the Ruby-crowned Kinglet forages almost frantically through lower branches of shrubs and trees. Its habit of constantly flicking its wings is a key identification clue. Smaller than a warbler or chickadee, this plain green-gray bird has a white eyering and a white bar on the wing. Alas, the male’s brilliant ruby crown patch usually stays hidden—your best chance to see it is to find an excited male singing in spring or summer.
Read more at: www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ruby-crowned_Kinglet/overview
Seemingly greeting all the travelers on this path is this beautiful hanging vine. I believe that it is a Bougainvillea. It certainly caught my attention, as I was driving past.
35 days. Thirty five long, interminable, seemingly endless days. That's how long I was without internet thanks to the Australian goverment and it's forced upgrades. Away from SL and my friends and boy howdy did I miss you all. But I also missed myself.
I watched too much TV, read books, finally played Bioshock Infinite as I'd been promising myself I would do for years - and loved it so much played it and the DLC all the way through twice - and just generally moped my way around like a lost soul. What was the first thing my beloved sister Grazia said to me when I told her I was back?
"Get your boney arse in SL and grace flickr with your beauty!"
I didn't have a boney arse to put on display, but I did have this boney spine which was a gacha by Antinatural, as well as the Oron ear deco by BTTB at Cake Day. Gloves by Noche, forearms by Amias - these two items can't really be worn together because of poke through, but I did it anyway. Pants are Riot, hair is Doux.
The beauty and grace are debatable but not the happiness at finally being back home.
I wasn’t completely sure whether the three young German speaking men to the left of me were discussing the scene in front of us, or the seemingly erratic middle aged photographer that had only moments before been to the left of them. And then to the right of them again, before rapidly returning to their left hand side once more. As the tufts of high cirrus changed from white to gold, and finally to a satisfying pink, perhaps they were wondering why that lone tog appeared to be so confused.
I studied German to A level standard, albeit forty years ago, and only just scraping through. In the intervening four decades, I’ve been able to practice what I learned just twice. Once on a day trip to Vienna from where we were staying on the shores of Lake Balaton in Hungary, and then again during a two hour layover at Dusseldorf airport on the way to Majorca. On the latter occasion the lady who was offering us a free tasting session from the Bailey’s range she was promoting said she'd thought we were just shy before discovering that we weren’t German. Sadly I’d remembered so little that I’d failed to understand a single word she’d said.
But some odd stray remnants of vocab did manage to stay with me – and I knew that the happy trio of German photographers had just declared that something was “unglaublich.” Which means unbelievable if you haven’t got the babel fish implant in your ear. I hoped they were referring to the epic vista in front of us, rather than my very apparent indecision as to which composition I was going with. “Funf minuten” also came across the airwaves during the golden hour. It seemed that one of them was going for a five minute exposure. Either that or he was giving his mates a deadline before setting off for the pub. They reminded me of those halcyon days when Lee, Dave and I would gather together at the exact same patch of ground and more or less take the same image – the days before we began to develop our own styles and stand at least ten yards apart from one another, quite often pointing our cameras in different directions.
Ali and I had spent most of the day gradually making our way south through the mountain roads of Fuerteventura. We’d fueled up on toasted ciabatta sandwiches at the brilliant Alberta’s in Lajares, before taking a wrong turn at Tindaya, and then heading towards the FV30, which took us onto higher ground where we stopped a while to watch the Barbary Squirrels, that have for reasons unknown (to me at least) have made their home on Fuerteventura alone, whilst pointedly ignoring its neighbours. Another brief stop at the old capital of Betancuria, where someone attempted to relieve us of three euros to park, was followed by a longer break at the oasis of Pajara and ice creams from the local Spar.
By now, the afternoon had advanced to a surprisingly late hour, but the timing seemed to have worked out well as I’d wanted to arrive at the observatory of Sicasumbre, a place I was completely unaware of until I’d done some research before our holiday here. The term “observatory” is a bit of a stretch I must confess. More of a patch of high ground with some binoculars mounted on poles for anyone passing by to stop and gaze at the stars. Don’t go expecting a state of the art white dome with sliding doors, a café and restrooms – just saying. But while the use of the word “observatory” required a slight stretch of the imagination, the three hundred and sixty degree views were enough to send me into a spin.
I started by taking a few snaps of compositions on the phone, checking the focal length and making notes for later. Firstly I’d visited a hefty hillock on the opposite side of the road from the more lofty observatory that overlooked a valley of folds and forms towards the west. Then I made my way up to the rocky outcrop, I mean the observatory from where views to the other three compass points opened up. To the south lay the mysterious coastline and mountains of Cofete, a place only accessible by four wheel drive unless you wanted to risk your excess on the hire car and a little bit more. This was the view that enticed yet ultimately frustrated me, the foreground mountain filling too much of the frame and encroaching more closely on the stunning cloud capped hinterland than I’d have liked it to. Heading further to the left found me losing altitude, and ultimately I decided it wasn’t quite going to work. But a couple of draft compositions taken on the phone earlier had looked quite promising, so back across the road I went to the grassless knoll to join those young Germans, who were having an unglaublich time in a heavenly landscape of diagonals and V shapes.
Three compositions caught my eye, and this is what caused my endless shuffling around the contented triumvirate who collectively seemed far more certain of their shots. To the right, a patch of low cloud danced across the mountain crests, while in the middle, a series of interlocking repeating forms lay where the bases of the connecting ranges overlapped one another. And on the left I could see a patchwork of tessellating lines and stunning conical peaks rose and then fell away again. You can’t beat a lot of diagonal lines really.
The light began to fail and the last patches of pink cloud started to turn black. The German party were still having enormous fun. The word “aufwiedersehen” came to me rather more easily, although I had to refrain from adding “pet” in a Geordie accent. What a location. It took us two hours to drive back to our apartment in the darkness, but I was glad we’d made the effort. I’m not sure whether Ali felt the same, but I promised her we’d only come this far south in Fuerteventura on another holiday – one with a four wheel drive included so I can drag her to Cofete at the ends of the earth. Now that’ll be unglaublich for sure.
Otherworldly - Looking down a seemingly endless tree lined track, immersed into the otherworldly view of the glowing foliage of early summer gently swaying in the light breeze. A surreal, blissful, view into a dreamlike world; another place far away from the stresses of the present day.
Thanks to a number of inspirational images by Glenn D Reay, I was motivated to get one of my rarely used bodies recently converted to infrared. The converted camera arrived back on Saturday and this is the result of my very first effort with the digital IR medium and post processing. Having had a go with infrared film in the distant past, including colour Ektachrome EIR transparency film and remembering the enjoyment of the creativity then, I reckoned it was time I revisited IR and to try something new. Thanks Glenn for the inspiration for this and to the folks at Protech who did a wonderful conversion job for me.
False colour infrared
North Yorkshire
Seemingly I felt a need for some drama when looking for a capture to convert it from colour to monochrome. I decided to work on this photo of Eloise (the Osprey) enduring a fierce attack by a Whistling Kite.
Seemingly shy, but actually very tolerant of entranced human admirers, an Atlantic Puffin (Fratercula arctica) peers out toward the setting sun, contemplating fish, eels, and egg tending. Their short strong wings work well for both flight and swimming. During the breeding season puffin beaks become more brightly colored. Puffins spend only a short time on land during the two month breeding season, mostly confined to rocky cliffs such as here on the Látrabjarg cliffs in northwestern Iceland. The rest of the time they live on the open ocean.
I will be away for a week in the wilds of Utah (visiting the Maze for the first time), so please forgive my absence from Flickr.
Coindre Hall....
Seemingly plucked from the south of France, this 80,000 square-foot medieval-style mansion provides a setting that is both timeless and historic. A majestic foyer greets guests upon arrival at this 40-room chateau; a stately circular stairway provides the perfect backdrop for photos, the grand ballroom and piazza offer two distinct settings. Your guests will appreciate being able to explore this 1912 mansion that is a point of pride for Huntington residents and a National Historic landmark.
This seemingly idyllic scene is a deceptive punch to the senses. A luxurious bedroom opens up to an impossibly perfect garden, with lush greenery and vibrant flowers bathed in soft sunlight. It looks like a dream, but it's too good to be true. This setup screams of an illusion, a trap designed to lure you into a false sense of security. The pristine beauty of the garden contrasts sharply with the underlying sense of unease, as if the paradise outside is just a facade hiding something dark and sinister. This piece reflects the bitter truth that what looks like heaven can often be a carefully constructed lie, masking the harsh realities of life. It's a clever reminder of how easily we can be seduced by appearances, only to find ourselves trapped in a nightmare we never saw coming.
AI creation
A seemingly rare daylight South Shore Freight runs on a beautiful code blue sky Sunday, as Engineer Nice Guy Mike takes a trio of CSS GP38-2s (2005/2001/2004) on train PF9 enroute to Belt Railway of Chicago’s Commercial Avenue Yard. Seen here heading west through the S Curve in Hammond, IN while approaching the Illinois State Line. Taken: 11-12-23
This whole area of downtown Hammond will look drastically different in the coming months as next to me is the track realignment for the main and the connection for their new passenger service to Dyer, IN. This S curve is one of my favorite hidden shots on the line, time will tell what the track alignment will look like when the track project is all said and done.
The famous Aescher Guesthouse is cuddling the cliff, seemingly seeking shelter form the vastness of the universe.
When I see a great spot, I tend to immediately ask myself, if it could be used for nightscapes. Even though I have seen but one decent nightscape from the Aescher, the answer here is a definitive yes, but you need some careful planning:
Milky Way needs to be positioned almost vertically in the sky, but not yet hidden by the cliff. As the shot has to be taken from a narrow mountain trail, there is no possibility to move laterally and lighting the scene artificially is difficult and only possible from another trail that passes below the house.
The best time to take a nightscape from Aescher is therefore in August, about a week after full moon when you have time to capture the night sky and a bit later the foreground in the light of the rising moon.
That's what I did here: The night sky was photographed between astronomical dusk and moonrise and combined with the foreground that was photographed about an hour later during moonrise at a lower ISO setting.
- Canon EOS 7D mk2
- Samyang 10mm f/2.8
Sky:
- 12 x 25s @ ISO3200
- stacked with fitswork
Foreground:
3 panel panorama each consisting of:
- 5 x 60s @ ISO1600
- dark frame corrected and stacked in PS
- Stiched with PTGui
Some of the seemingly ever-increasing number of large, bland lumps of architecture that have been shoved into the Fountainbridge area in recent years as student blocks (don't mind some in the neighbourhood mix, but we just keep getting more added instead of building new blocks for permanent residents, which is a bit shortsighted in terms of the local community wellbeing). As with a number of other insipidly bland buildings, they look better at night, shot in monochrome!
Staircases seemingly to nowhere
Lasipalatsi (designed by Viljo Revell, Heimo Riihimäki and Niilo Kokko in 1936), Helsinki
[and seemingly just like that, the brilliant greens of the swamp give way to soft winter pastels]
However you celebrate, I wish for each of you all of the magic the season has to offer :)
These colorful birds live seemingly quite happily in a caged area at Nashville Zoo where the kids can go in and feed them "nectar". It is a species of parrot found native in Australia. Naturally, I can't vouch for the birds, but the kids loved it. The birds would occasionally land on a hand, or head, or nearby branch.
We do love a bargain, Ali and I. Only recently, we discovered that certain chain pubs, mostly those strategically positioned next to well known budget hotels on the edges of our towns, offer a weekday afternoon menu at seemingly impossible prices. Did you know you can get two mains between noon and six at a price you’d normally expect to pay for one meal alone? We’ve started visiting some of the nearby ones - keep tuning in and we’ll keep you updated on our progress. This time we were dining at the May Tree on the outskirts of Helston, ten miles south from home at the gateway to the Lizard peninsula and mainland Britain’s most southerly point. For a penny under twelve quid, we were each treated to a plate of perfectly acceptable fish and chips with mushy peas no less. Tartare sauce at no extra cost too. Followed up with a couple of triple chocolate brownies and a scoop of ice cream and we were feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.
It was tempting to go back to the bar and ask to see the cheese menu next, but we had come this way for a reason. And in truth I should have been here a week earlier, when the weather had been pretty much perfect for what I had in mind, but I’d been overtaken by an attack of sloth that had confined me to my garden chair for much of the afternoon. This time it felt like a case of now or next year. Who knew how much longer the heather would be in bloom? Now, with burbling stomachs happily silenced, we were heading just a few miles further to one of Cornwall’s lesser known beauty spots - a place that I only discovered three years ago when a sudden itch to photograph a bit of heathland needed scratching. The one previous visit had been in the middle of September, long after the heather had finished flowering, and I made a mental note to return one summer, a month earlier. And after a colourful visit to Land’s End the previous week (more of that to come soon), it was clear that this particularly fickle summer had been a good one for the purple season in Cornwall.
Quite why it had taken three summers to return is a good question, but here I was again at last. We tottered along the heavily rutted track from the road towards the heath and a space that feels quite apart from much of Cornwall’s celebrated coastal landscape. It’s as if a section of the New Forest has been stolen while the residents of Hampshire were all asleep one night and transported down to the Lizard on the back of a big lorry. A central avenue of tall pines, flanked by open spaces studded with smaller firs and spruces on either side. It’s by no means an expansive location, but one that deserves a tog’s love and attention - a place to be learned and visited throughout the seasons. In two hours I’d be struggling to find something convincing as we trod silently through this intimate landscape, but if you don’t try, it won’t ever happen. I had a tree in mind that I’d remembered from last time, but when we arrived at it, a branch was broken and the foreground heather I’d hoped to find was both sparser than expected and in the wrong place. We carried on exploring.
As the sunset approached and we began to retrace our steps, a small tree in front of a swathe of purple caught my eye. But with a competing sapling in the background that no amount of airbrushing would convincingly remove, the otherwise perfect composition was doomed to failure. I carried on, just a few yards to the left behind a thicket and emerged to find the tree again, now free of all distractions, and with an even purpler host of blooming heather to fill the space between us. Purpler - did you know that was a word? I didn’t until I typed it and wasn't told off by the spellchecker. All I had to do was frame the scene and hope the sun was going to reappear from behind that low cloud. Eventually it did, only very briefly, but with just enough golden light to set the scene ablaze. And because we’d already eaten, there was no particular rush to get home. I could dabble with a couple more compositions in the disappearing light. All thanks to the reasonably priced menus of the great British chain pub.
There’s another food related beano due soon. Ali’s niece takes a rather different view on the subject of money than we do, and in recognition of our contribution to family childminding services during the school holidays, has bestowed a gift voucher upon us which will lead to somewhere that absolutely definitely isn’t part of a chain. You know - one of those places with classically Cornish tourist prices screaming from the menu; where the front of house team fawn over you without invitation before adding a twelve and a half percent service charge to your already terrifying bill for the pleasure. It’s not the first time she’s invited us to a disappointing upmarket gastronomic experience. She’s would happily shed fifty pounds a head to eat in the right places rather than pay comfortably less than twenty for (count them) two plates of proper grub followed by calorie chomping desserts. Even with thirty quid in hand before we have to start using our own money, it seems as if we might need to sell a body part or two to settle the rest of the bill. We do our best to look grateful, and I keep trying to tell her we prefer Smokey Joe’s but she’s just not getting the hint. Do wish us luck!
Seemingly out of place on a warm day in springtime, but there was snow and ice present in the morning hours.
For seemingly the first time in several weeks, Florida East Coast Railway's 204 had an SD40-2 lead the way instead of the recently standard pair of GPs. Albeit without stripes and logo, FEC SD40-2 714 wearing the champion scheme and GP40-2 421 wearing the new Grupo Mexico colors lead train 204 North across the San Sebastian River bridge in Saint Augustine, FL. An SD40-2 and GP40/38-2 used to be the standard power for the most part for this train, until about roughly two months ago since when it has been almost entirely a pair of GPs, presumably because the SD40-2s have been needed more as trailing power on other road freights as some of the Gevos have left the property for Mexico.
Seemingly plucked from the south of France, this 80,000 square-foot medieval-style mansion provides a setting that is both timeless and historic. A majestic foyer greets guests upon arrival at this 40-room chateau; a stately circular stairway provides the perfect backdrop for photos, the grand ballroom and piazza offer two distinct settings. Your guests will appreciate being able to explore this 1912 mansion that is a point of pride for Huntington residents and a National Historic landmark.
For the first time in seemingly weeks Friday was predicted to be perfect bluebird weather. Coupled with the news just released the day prior that the Pan Am Railways acquisition by CSXT had been approved I figured I should skip my beloved ex Boston and Albany for once and go to the old Boston and Maine before the changes come. While it won't happen overnight, it will be quicker than we expect before blue dip or ugly patched GEs are rare and intermodal trains on District 3 are but a memory.
With that in mind a look at the turnover revealed that a 22K was tied down at Fitchburg scheduled for an early recrew to bring into Ayer and that an EDPO was out of East Deerfield headed east and counterpart POED was moving with work at Graniteville before going west. Throw in regular AYPO building in Ayer and it was an unusual busy morning to the point that you actually had to make a choice what you wanted to focus on!
After getting some nice morning shots of tied down 22K and a few MBTA trains a friend in Ayer said POED was going west first before the two eastbound freights and he recommended this spot that I'd never shot at before. Here is a big POED manifest hustling west on Main 1 through the interlocking at CPF Derby (MP 42.8/322.8) behind three C40-8s. The spring buds are just beginning to offer some color to the scene as a harbinger for tbr vast changes this railroad will see in the ensuing months.
Leominster, Massachusetts
Friday April 15, 2022
From seemingly out of nowhere, four female Blue-winged Teals came barreling toward me as I knelt on the bank of a shallow pond at Brazoria National Wildlife Refuge trying to shoot swallows in flight. Either they didn't notice me or were just happy to see a barrel pointing toward them that wasn't a shotgun because they didn't veer away until they were nearly on top of me. And luckily I had warmed up on the swallows so was almost able to stay with them, catching three in one frame.
Clouds, seemingly emanating from this massive geological feature, give the appearance of mystic powers. Cathedral Valley, Capitol Reef National Park, Utah.
Seemingly oblivious to the three thousand tonnes of train bearing down on him, a farm worker saunters across the rail lines of the Jitong railway.
The exhaust from double-headed QJ locos fills the sky as they attack the initial gradient out of Jingpeng heading for the pass of the same name. Steam finished on the Jitong Line in late 2005.
Jitong Line, Nei Mongol, China. October 2004. © David Hill