Pillsbury's Best (PG 120)

Surprise, surprise, I thought when I found the Pillsbury ad in York, Pa., last month that I had found an original. Wrong. Driving around Doylestown, Pa. last week this one caught my eye. It is located on a building on South Main Street in the Bucks County seat. I didn't have alot of time to run and look so I'd bet there is more in this historic downtown.

Downtown Bar Harbor, Friday Night

This is the main drag through Bar Harbor, Maine. This is the street with all the souvenir shops. This is the street to the docks where the fireworks were launched. The town park is off to my right, just beyond the fountain you can't see. Behind me will take you past the fairgrounds and on into the heart of Acadia. The moose? He sits on watch over town from atop Geddy's. Good food, local atmosphere. You can go anywhere some other time, but if you're in town hit this place. And then walk back up the street and get some blueberry soft serve ice cream. That's what I'm talkin' about.

LL Bean, LTL (Larger Than Life)

Larger Than Life, another great concept brought to us by the super geniuses at ohiobarns.com. If it's big it could be on this list. I just checked and to my surprise this pair of LL Bean's legendary boots aren't on the list. I'll take care of that tomorrow. But if you need big fish or large baseball bats or huge hula girls or gigantic roosters, check it out there. The boot, of course, is outside the big LL Bean store in Freeport, Maine. The Bean Boot stands 17' tall and was placed to commemorate LL Bean's 90th anniversary in 2002.

I have 4 or 5 Larger Than Life pictures in my files, maybe more. I'll post these on Monday's until I run out.

In the Beginning... Autumn

Found some time this afternoon to take a drive. Nowhere in particular and detoured twice. If we would have planned it I would have done a little hiking, but we weren't dress for it. The first picture shows what the north face of the South Mountains look like. The second, at the reservoir, shows the South Mountain facing south. I sure hope I can get out more this fall to catch the changing colors, I missed it last year.

Common Merganser

Just a quick post today. This is a Common Merganser. One of the few birds I saw in Maine last summer. This female was swimming along the shore line of Jordon Pond and wasn't too cooperative about the whole getting her picture taken thing.

Rescue Engine House, York, Pa.

This old school fire station is in York, Pa. And all I can find is an old postcard from pre-1925 that shows it to be the Rescue Engine House. Maybe some of our York friends can shine more light on this. Beautiful building, anyways.

Check out the postcard on ebay.

SkyWatch - Another Moonrise

I don't know if I like the moonrise better than the sunrise or not. Nah, probably the sunrise, it's more colorful. But a moonrise is so calming. It doesn't matter. This one isn't exactly taken from behind my house. It's taken in the field behind the field behind my house. I think.

Hey! Hit the SkyWatch icon on the righthand side over there and check out what bloggers around the world see when they look up.

Home Away From Home

Busted. OK, Kenny is right. These were taken in Eagle, Colorado last fall. This old cabin and out buildings sit along an Interstate 70 frontage road just east of the Eagle exit. I've seen it for years and always hoped to get around to getting some pictures of it. When we arrived in town and checked into the hotel everyone was chilling so I took the short drive over. It was mid-afternoon and, as you can tell, I was working with some serious harsh sun. The shade was really dark and the sun was washing out the dead grasses. The cabin though was great. You could see where several horseshoes once hung on the front door and the addition on the right side was slightly larger than a queen size bed. There was a box spring attached to three of the walls and no more than 3 feet between the bed and the front wall. There was also some old buckets and stuff lying around and what looked like a chicken coop. Could have just been an old line shack, maybe a hunting cabin.

Treasures

I am not going to enrich your day with the inner workings of the autumnal equinox but I will reiterate that I love fall. Winter can get long and spring is fine but summer is too hot. Fall is definitely my favorite. Hopefully I can get out a get some pictures of the changing colors this year. I was too busy last year to enjoy the changing colors. I left for Colorado before things really changed and returned after the peak. Of course by the time we got out west the aspen had long since quaked which left little color to be had. I found these pictures in a box years ago that I had picked up at an estate auction. I know 99.5% of the pictures I post are mine, but a few haven't been. There have been several taken by one of my kids or the other. I liked these from the time I first saw them and they remind me of Colorado. It's been crazy busy here but once I mow the yard tomorrow things slow down and I should have an opportunity to work some of my pictures.

Reflections

Man, I can't wait. Tomorrow is the first day of Fall. The Autumnal Equinox. I may spare you all and refer to the first day of spring and have you read the Vernal Equinox story backwards. Or maybe not.

A Rare Bird, Indeed

When I was a kid all you had to do was walk the fields around my house and you would see and flush ringneck after ringneck. Years later you saw less and less of them. If my Dad hadn't raised them for a while I'm sure my kids wouldn't know what they were. They've probably only seen one or two in the wild. It's a shame. Nothing said fall like the cackle of a ringneck pheasant, a cockbird. While small game hunting the sight of a German Short-Hair Pointer on point and the explosion from the brush that followed was more of a rush than actually bagging one. Does it make me old to say that I miss that and wish my kids could have experienced this?

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Today it's football pictures. American football. Just some random pictures from Ship's loss last night. I found that alot of my pictures came out better than they used to. One would think that I would eventually learn the camera, the end of this month will be two years that I've had it. And last Tuesday I took picture number 15,000 with it. Check out the first picture. The Blue Devils had the ball (notice it hasn't moved). Lesson here... when on the offensive line don't move until the ball is snapped or you will get thumped. Otherwise known as "Illegal Procedure".

Keeper

I hate to trow soccer pictures at you twice in one week but here are some goalie pictures I shot this week. Regrettably both to no avail. Top series was taken at Tuesday's game and the bottom was a point the camera - fire away - damn I got lucky with that one - shot.

SkyWatch - CloudWatch

Welcome to another SkyWatch. This week it is the cloud game. I know you've all played this one before. Look at the top picture. At first I said 'dead dinosaur'. But on further investigation look at the legs on the left, the head on the right. That head is straight out of Whoville and those legs? You got it. That is the Grinch lying on his back with a sack of Christmas toys on his belly. Isn't this easy? Picture number two. No doubt about it. That is a bear sitting on his haunches looking away from you. This is too easy, play along.

Hey... that SkyWatch icon on the right sidebar? Hit it and see if anyone else is playing the cloud game this week.

Springdale Whiskey (PG 119)

Painted Gentleman 119. Springdale Whiskey. Half a block east of Paca Street on Baltimore Street. Baltimore, Maryland. We park up near here when we go to Orioles games. All I can find on this whiskey is it was possibly distilled in Baltimore by H. Rosenheim & Son.

Let the Sun Shine In

That sign straight ahead says do not enter. Of course I didn't.

An Insider's Look at the Parade

This past Saturday was the 82nd annual Cumberland County Firefighter's Association convention parade. Hosted by the Cumberland Valley Hose Co. No. 2 in Shippensburg it was held in conjunction with their 150th anniversary. I rode with the Vigilants in Engine 252. It was a drizzly day that looked like it might at least stop raining. But at 2 pm, parade time, the drizzles started again. There were quite a few people sitting out in the mist watching, it wasn't crowded though, not like the Halloween parade. It was a long parade (for Shippensburg) with apparatus from Cumberland, Franklin, York and Huntingdon Counties. Probably more if you count the many pieces of private antique apparatus (plus I missed some of it as it passed the station while I was still in the parade). Maybe later this week I'll share some from the sidelines of the parade route.

On a side note I spoke with fellow blogger Bradley, (see his link on the sidebar over there) he might post some from the parade also. And I finally met Cincy Bill in the flesh, he was at the parade, and I'm sure took lots of pictures. Now he just needs to start a blog and then you could see what he saw.

Red-Eyed Vireo

I found this Red-Eyed Vireo and many more just like him in at Dykeman's pond this morning. The way they were going through the trees and not sitting long I at first thought they were waxwings but I waited and finally caught some sitting still. The Audubon book calls these "one of the most abundant birds in eastern North America". Funny thing is I'm just now getting it's picture.

Soccer Time

I know I posted a bunch of football pictures last year and you will see some of them this year. Last nights game was rained out until this evening. What you will see is soccer pictures. As I found out on Thursday night some of these fields have terrible lighting to take action pictures. Daylight tournaments make for some better opportunities. And I promise there will be some football, American football, pictures, too.

Patriots Day 2009

September 11th 2009. Eight years after the fact and I hope we remember the lessens we quickly learned that clear morning in 2001. The Spanish philosoper and poet, George Santayana, once said, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Let us, at least today, remember. Remember the lessons learned. Remember those we lost on that day, including the 343 of New York's bravest. Those lost at the Pentagon. Those lost in the field in Shanksville, Pa. Those we have lost overseas preserving our freedoms. And those who continue to fight the fight. And remember to not forget.

SkyWatch, Sunrise and Deer

One morning last week while wasting a little time before I needed to be at work I hit a few potential hot spots for deer. Some paid off. This doe and fawn were in no hurry to hit the brush and I got to see the sun rise on a foggy morning. All is good.

As always click on the SkyWatch icon on my sidebar, right over there, and check out what bloggers around the world see when they look up. Let them know what you think.

Work Refreshed (PG 118)

I ran into this old Coke ad by pure luck (I was lost) but that didn't deter me from circling the block for a couple pictures. Located along New Castle Street (Rt 356/68) in Butler, Pa., at Third Street, it is painted on an old tavern, the Manhattan Bar. I've always been curious why they didn't just repaint the ads instead of making another one similar to the old one but just a little different. I've seen this with Mail Pouch barns before, too. There is some text above the ad, probably the name of the former business, but it's too faded and they've replaced too many bricks to really make out what it once said. Keep looking, you never know when or where you may find a new Painted Gentleman, I know I am.

Brooklyn Side

These are the pictures I took as my once trusty tripod lay shattered in pieces on the ground at my feet. It was at this point officially a bipod. I took these while walking from where we parked as we were walking to Brooklyn Bridge Park on the Brooklyn side of the East River. The lady who gave us directions to here told us that there was a pizza joint there that people would wait in line for hours to get in. Yeah, right. See the red and green lights on the lower left? What you can't really see is that there are 40 - 50 people waiting outside to get in. It was maybe 8:30 on a Friday night. I saw it and still am in awe. I've eaten some damn good pizza in my life but I don't think I'd wait more that half an hour to get into a pizza shop.

Morning Dew

This week I've had the opportunity to try a few things I've seen before and wondered... How'd they do that? Some semi-free mornings, a heavy dew and a bright sun seems to be all I needed. I drove by here yesterday closer to noon and it looked completely different.

All the Small Things

Some of the smaller critters I have on file. All taken in the past week or so. The hummingbird kept flying and landing but it was hard to find when it did land. The Swallowtail Butterfly is just one of many visiting my butterfly bush.