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From Boston to Gilligan’s Island here are some photos of skylines taken in the past few years.  Click on the photos to expand the view.  Music is also available.

Last Friday I wrote a silly post and started feeling so good about life I decided to go out and take some photos. I took along my largest telephoto lens and headed for the butterfly exhibit at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. This we have photographed before but not with this lens. I was hoping to get some shots of the smaller but equally beautiful creatures as they flew above the bushes far over our heads. You can judge how this experiment turned out for yourself.

I hope you will let me know because it’s difficult to be objective when you’re the one making the effort to photograph these flighty little beauties. They hardly ever stand still. Their lives are so short! Maybe that’s why they seem to be in a hurry.

Dedicated to Robin Easton who made it home in one piece (hopefully) from her week long adventure in the wild.  Click on the music first and then the photo for the slide show.

The Tops/ Reach Out

Play – Reach Out, I’ll Be There

Botanical Garden July 09

Would you still pull me back up the hill on the sled? Sure I would! Oh the joys of Facebook. My sister, Linda, lives up in New Hampshire and I commented on a recent photo of her standing in the snow.

It has been snowing up there in New England while it has been raining down here in Virginia. And I said something about wanting to be up there with her in the White Mountain regions. But it’s so far away!

So when I read her comment it took me back more than fifty years to the small hill in front of our little house where all the neighborhood children used to sled in winter. I tried to come up with a memory of pulling her up the hill but it’s gone.

All that remains is the sound of boots on crushed snow and ice and the steam that used to emerge from us as we ran around full of excitement in anticipation of the next rush down the hill.

I am standing there looking up at the sky as a jet leaves a vapor trail through the atmosphere. Soon it will be dark and before then I must go inside and stay there until tomorrow.

Ice has found its way between my gloves and the sleeves of my jacket. It lands close to the unprotected pulse and tears at the skin. My feet and face are numb but it really doesn’t matter. Because this is living and it is so much greater than anything else in my young life.

I am alive.

In a moment I reach the top of the hill and push off down the slope as mailboxes flash past and someone jumps out of the way. The metal runners hiss as they rip through the packed snow and for a moment I achieve speeds that are probably faster than the airplane overhead.

Probably.

And then it is over and the sled has run up a short pile of snow at the end of a shoveled driveway. I fall backward for a moment and once again look up at the sky.

It is darker now and quieter too. I would love to stay here for awhile and watch the light slowly drift off into the starlit night. Would it be so bad to simply forget all the things I must do before it is time to sleep?

And stay here. Become a part of the landscape. Drift into the silent night.

Perhaps at some point I could get up and walk away from the hill and all the little houses with their solitary lamps and windows full of shadows and mystery. I could find a field with a pond of sparkling ice and a moon that casts a glow upon it. And then I could gather some sticks and build a fire while waiting for someone to come.

She will come. I know she will not leave me here. Dressed in a gown of sylvan twilight she will emerge from the darkness and smile as she touches my outstretched hand. And then we will rise above the trees and the hills. . .

Moving with increasing speed.

Until a distant star envelopes us in light and the warmth of her love brings us Home again.

Andrea Bocelli

Play- What Child Is This

They say that this is a good time to be investing in real estate. It’s a buyer’s market and there are lots of properties out there looking for someone to love them. Obviously. And it’s good to see Elin Woods doing her share to keep the economy going as she reportedly purchased a house down the street from the one with the battered fire hydrant.

And she also bought a home back home in Sweden too because her parents want her to take the kids and return to them. Remove yourself from the hot clime of Florida our beloved daughter! Leave your hot (but unfortunately) insane husband to his philandering ways.

I don’t know if any of this is true. I just hear things on television like everyone else and shake my head. There are some things that I’m very tired of seeing and hearing on the tube. Especially at dinnertime. The commercials for Viagra and the rest all happen during the dinner hour when some people sit around with trays while they watch the television.

Bad idea. I’m so tired of hearing about the four hour problem while I’m eating pasta or chewing on a piece of lettuce. I could be more explicit but this is a family blog.

I’m tired of the ads for car repairs too. Get your car repaired for free! They fail to mention that you have to send them an unspecified amount of money every month even if your car doesn’t need repair. It’s like those repair policies you can purchase every time you buy electronic equipment.

This is going to break! You better buy some insurance! Well maybe I should look for a better product then!

I’m not going to buy Tiger Woods products anymore. At least not until he gets his stuff straightened out.

He may need to see a professional and even take some medication along the way. But I doubt it will be the kind that causes the four hour problem. It may be the kind that stops people from destroying fire hydrants in the middle of the night. It may be the kind that helps someone who has many repressed emotions from suddenly exploding them in the atmosphere like a gas main with a major leak.

We live in a crazy world. There is precious little sanity coming our way from our media resources. It’s up to us to manufacture it on a daily basis and share it with each other. Which is why some folks blog. Oh those are the kind of blogs I like to read!!

Too bad I can’t read them while I’m eating dinner. Or maybe I can! It may be time to hook up the computer to the television set!

And cancel the cable!! Could this be a future trend? Will we shut of the flow of mindless material into our homes ? We don’t answer the telephone any more when strangers call and try to sell us stuff. Will we protect ourselves at long last from the television commercial too?

Eric Clapton/  The Best of Eric Clapton

Play- Knock On Wood (Album Version)