Hello y’all and welcome to my second stint as guest ‘blogger here on the Yarnpath. For those that are curious, Robbyn and her father got down to Florida just fine and are currently on their way to an unexpected stop in Bermuda—apparently the ship needed to take on some supplies. From there they’ll be heading across the Atlantic to Funchal, Madeira.

What I had planned to post for today got somewhat mucked up since it decided to snow about a foot or so yesterday. No biggie, on to plan B :). I occasionally like to fancy myself a photographer so I’m going to post some of my favorite photos and talk a little about each of them. It’s kind of like being trapped at a friend’s house whilst they show you 200 pictures of their vacation and you try not to fall asleep, only I promise it’ll be something less than 200 pictures…

This is a picture of Mazey, a resident of the Southwick’s Zoo. She was born 7/19/03 and when I took this picture she was only a couple of months old. It’s kind of amazing how fast giraffes grow, and I was very lucky to get such a nice shot of her.

This picture was also taken at the Southwick’s Zoo. This guy is a Patagonian Cavy, also called a Patagonian Mara (Dolichotis patagonum). They come from Argentina and are kind of strange creatures. This one was obviously as interested in me as I was in him.

I took these next two pictures at Riverwalk Park in Methuen, MA. It’s a little out-of-the-way park that you’d easily never see if you didn’t know it was there. As the name would suggest, there’s a small river there and a walkway that follows the river south towards Lawrence for a little ways. A very pretty place, when I was there it was covered in snow and ice and the only creatures around were a family of geese and a whole lot of crows.

Anyway, sometimes in photography it’s all about shape and texture. These ice formations were in a little shaded cul-de-sac formed by some larger ice formations. I can only guess at how these strange ice Lilly pads formed, I only saw them in this one place and there were hundreds of them with sizes ranging from an inch to six inches across. In a strange kind of way I thought them rather lovely.

Plants with these red berries were all over the banks of the river. I’ve no idea what they are, but the contrast between them and the snow was quite striking.

This is a picture of the Merrimack River… More like the Merrimack ice cube when this picture was taken. As you can see, it’s rather a large river, at least by my standards. The Merrimack bisects this city, in fact it’s just a few blocks from here (though this picture was taken on the other side of the river), getting across one of the bridges during drive time can be loads of fun. Especially since about half the bridges are currently either shut down or only partially open because they’re doing repairs. On the side of the river where this picture was taken they have a park where they sometimes give concerts and a walkway that follows the river down for a mile or so. A very nice place to go, especially in the summer as the river usually ensures that it’s a little cooler there and that there’s a breeze.

This duck really struck me, for some reason. There were lots of birds on the river, mostly seagulls but also some pigeons and geese. This guy just seemed, I don’t know, lonely I guess, and I can’t imagine his feet were very warm.

I took this picture whilst standing on the rocks at Long Sands Beach in York, Maine. If you look way off in the distance there you can see Nubble Lighthouse.

And this is Nubble Lighthouse. It sits on an island just a hundred meters or so from a point in York, Maine.

This is Saint Peters By The Sea on route 1A between York and Ogunquit, Maine. According to the plaque by the door it was erected in memory of George M. Conarroe of Philadelphia, Penna. by his wife in 1897. ItҒs kind of a small church, sits on top of a hill not much more than a stones throw from the Atlantic. ItҒs a very pretty church, in an odd kinda gothic sorta of way, very calm and old feeling. All in all a fitting memorial, I think, for someone I presume was religious and died over a hundred years ago. When I was there no one was around, which was a pity. I would have loved to have gone inside to get some shots of the gorgeous stained windows and perhaps have learned a little more about the churchs history. Perhaps another time.

This is, of course, the bell of Saint Peter’s By The Sea. I just really liked this shot, in the full-sized shot you can really see the wear and weathering on the bell and the way the rope is arranged to ring it. I wonder if the bell is as old as the church itself? I suspect it is.

And, last but not least, this is a shot I took at Perkin’s Cove, in Ogunquit, Maine. Up ahead a little you can see the footbridge is up, past that and around the bend is the Atlantic. Behind is the cove itself where a couple of dozen fishing and sailboats anchor. It’s a lovely little area, there are restaurants and shops all up and down the cove, but in the Summer it turns into standing room only. A very nice place to visit, but best to do so in Fall or Spring if you can manage it. Or winter if, like me, you don’t mind the cold.

Anyway, that’s it for the boring photos, my apologies to anyone who’s already seen these on my site. For anyone who’s interested in seeing larger versions of these or other shots from these various series, I have a photo gallery here, just click on the thumbnails to see more photos and larger versions.

I’ll be posting a tutorial Robbyn wrote before she left on Friday and I’ll be back again next Wednesday for another ANFSCD entry. Until then, I hope y’all are having a great week!

Myria