These cotton looms are in Lowell, MA. There are more than 100 per floor and four floors. When we were there the ranger set a few, I think 7 or 8 to run and you could not hear anything else. No wonder so many of the operators became deaf during their working years. The dust, the noise, the danger of all that machinery, and many of the people who worked 6 long days still thought it was a better choice than farming.
Lowell National Historic Park
We celebrate our 48th year of marriage today. The years include two fine sons, two wonderful daughters-in-law, spectacular & amazing grandchildren and a lot of vital friends who all have contributed so much to our lives. We have lived in 8 homes in four states, driven 28 cars (not counting the 18 various cars I owned while dating her!), visited 48 states multiple times and plan for more. We found comfort and strength in faith for each day and for financial and health challenges, served together in three different churches and worked together often in the same room we would call the office. She is strong in every facet of the word, compassionate, diligent, beautiful and a wonderful companion every day. We embark this month on a trek for nearly five months living in 90 square feet and looking forward to each of those days. How blessed am I.
The log structure reconstruction is a rifle tower that the Patriot troops built to fire into the Star Fort held by the Loyalists in Ninety Six, SC. I had never heard about these being used before the visit to this park. It makes sense but is was a difficult thing to build with-in easy firing distance of the fort. The second photo is one of those neat things you find occasionally like the road Washington marched to Yorktown - a least a portion of it, is found is some woods behind a shopping center in Williamsburg. This road was the one the Patriot Army marched on to arrive at the battlefield.
Ninety Six National Historic Site
You are looking at the Bee Hive as it rises along side Ocean Drive in Acadia National Park. The shot is taken from Great Head and across Sand Beach. The second shot is my friend Laura on one of the ladders you climb to get to the top of the Bee Hive. A lot of fun.
Acadia National Park
This small waterfall is found in Tennessee along the Natchez Trace Parkway. This was in the same small valley that Fall Hollow Waterfall is found. I expect it was flowing more the spring day we were there than it would by summer. Very pretty short walk in the area.
Natchez Trace National Parkway
“The earth trembled, and the heavens poured down rain before you, the God of Sinai, before God, the God of Israel.
You sent abundant rain, O God, to refresh the weary land.” Psalm 68: 8,9 NLT
Here is a closer view of the Pawtucket Gatehouse in Lowell. (see post from April 29th) Opposite the structure is a lake acts as a reservoir for the canal. Imagine the work and planning that went into this in the late 1700’s.
Lowell National Historic Park
This is from the Western area with an active saloon.
This is a most unusual place to buy anything, jelly included. Located far down the Blue Hill peninsula in Maine, in the woods and off the road is Nervous Nellie Jellies. It is pretty good but a bit expensive. It is a local product and hand made but that is not the most unusual thing about the place. One of the owners is an artist with a very different type of art scattered throughout the woods surrounding NNJ’s tiny facility. Here is a church he built for “Nellieville” that I doubt is used as a church. It is one of multiple structures and “people” you will meet walking around. One very interesting fact on the church is that the wood - cut with a circular saw and air dried, was cut in 2013 from a mill that begin operating in 1794 when the ships were made of wood and belonged all this time to the same family. I will show a few more photos from the intriguing place.
Walking along the boardwalk that leads from the Wild Gardens you find yourself in an interesting landscape where the birch trees that grew after the fire are now dying as the more mature hardwoods dominate the forest. The neat grasses that fill the ground are thick and grow rather large.
Acadia National Park
We hiked in the dark to Witch Hole Pond in Acadia and had a nearly perfect morning with lots of great shots. This one is a few moments before dawn.
Acadia National Park
This canal was built in the late 1700’s and helped fuel the industrial revolution in the US. Lowell, Massachusetts, is a bustling city not too far from Boston. Across parts of the city is Lowell National Historic Park where you can tour old factories and lodgings and much more as the factory began to replace the farm as the center of working life. The mills were dirty and dangerous and the hours long. But pay was consistent and good - and you could advance with hard work and ingenuity. This section of town, like most of Lowell is a mixture of old, older and new- or at least repurposed buildings. There are restaurants and shops and, yes, still some factories and lots of high tech companies. The structure, Pawtucket Gatehouse, at the top of the photo was the water management control building for the great Northern Canal and provided power for scores of water driven mills and hundreds of machines. It, too, is over 200 years old.
I didn’t not even know there was a National Blueberry Pie Day. I almost missed it and that would be so sad. You will notice that I had no difficulty finding a photo (actually several) of real Maine Wild Blueberry Pie. (Anyone else think this person has a bit too many photos of pie when we have only seen two of his grandkids?) Anyway, the two shots are of different pies. The slice is from West Street Cafe in Bar Harbor and was the choice in the category “Best Pie to Order with Dinner.” The whole pie is from Morning Glory Bakery about a block away. It won “Best Wild Blueberry Pie on the Island,” a most prestigious award selected by an expert panel of Picky Pie People who tried more than anyone should to determine the overall winner. Their’s was an heroic effort with total disregard for calories and vast quantities of caffeine.
Heavenly.
“And people should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of their labor, for these are gifts from God.”
Ecclesiastes 3:13 NLT
Me not him. This is a big alligator. I was on a slight bank and he was 18 feet away or so. To get closer I would need to get off the bank. No thanks. He appears docile but they can move quickly and I cannot. Anyway I tried to get him better in focus and was unable (or unwilling to stand there any longer) so this is the best shot of six of them. .
Small boat off shore near Blue Hill, Maine.
This is the front of the Coke Mural building I posted a few days ago. The restaurant is Side Street just a few blocks from the NC Governor’s Mansion. Nice older neighborhood that is now an historic district in Raleigh. Got to try the food here.
Loved this mural on a restaurant but the options to shoot it were very limited and then there were the cars. I will go back on morning - early - and have space to shoot and no cars. Really neat representing, as stated in a monster at the top left of center, the jazz greats of NC.
… of the house at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. Nice walk on a nice day would not have been too pleasant during the heat and humidity of Charleston’s summer. The second photo is of an overgrown house, I am guessing from the 1930’s or so, near the main house. There is a short trail around the property but it is not well marked and even though you are only walking about a mile it was still confusing. Not sure that the house in the woods was even on the trail.
Charles Pinckney National Historic Site
Which is not surprising if you have seen my myriad of flower photos over the years. I rarely know what they are, but whatever it is this one is pretty neat. I will call it a pineapple flower. Yeah, that sounds accurate.
Added at 7:27 on Monday: Dennis Mook tells me I need the “Garden Answers Plant ID” app where you submit a plant photo and you get the likely name back, in this case “Mountain Knapweed.” Dennis, my go to guy for photography now branching out to the world of biology. Although I still think Pineapple Flower is a great name.
…just before dawn the world changes from bleak to light, a new reality emerges, an indomitable truth triumphs and nothing will ever be the same. One Sunday changes everything.
“But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.
The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead!” Luke 24: 1-6a NLT
All we can see are the approaching storms about to engulf us, inevitably surround and pummel us.
