Happy Halloween

Found this guy sitting in an antique care at the recent Antique Auto show at Mystic Seaport.  He seemed to be getting into the Halloween spirit  a little early.  I thought it would be an appropriate post for today

Mystic Seaport

There must be a story here

I like old, abandoned buildings, ruins, and the like.  All throughout New England there are examples of old mills and factories which have all seen much better days.  In some cases these buildings have been preserved or "repurposed" into retail shops, condominiums or other uses.  Some just sit and decay.  I don't know anything about this structure, other than it sits a little outside the "Old Mystic" area of Stonington, CT along Rte 234.  The property appears to be well maintained.  It doesn't appear that there was a disaster here like a fire.  Perhaps it was just left unfinished.  I just don't know, but I found the building fascinating.

Rte 234, Stonington, CT

Rte 234, Stonington, CT

Rte 234, Stonington, CT

Clyde's Cider Mill

Old Mystic, CT

Visited Clyde's Cider Mill yesterday.  This is a very seasonal business, but extremely popular at this time of the year.  The mill operates from Labor Day until Christmas and features a steam powered cider press which is pretty impressive to watch.  They sell good sweet cider, and a number of varieties of hard cider, along with specialty foods, baked goods, and of course, cider donuts.  We were able to go on a Friday.  When the weather is nice on weekends, this place is really hopping and it's hard to find a place to park nearby.  It's a perfect place to spend an autumn afternoon.  The mill itself was closed today for cleaning, so I couldn't get any pictures of the press in operation.  I was able to get some pics of the machinery through an open door.

Old Mystic, CT

Old Mystic, CT

Old Mystic, CT

Harbor Hill Marina, Niantic, CT

Winter seems to coming early to Connecticut.  Snow is in the forecast for tonight with more coming on Saturday, especially in the inland areas of the state.  The weather nearer the coast is little more mild, and I'm hoping that we only get rain.  At most, some parts of the state might get up to 2" of snow.  I really don't like winter, so my thoughts turned to finding some pictures of the summer here in Niantic.  

Niantic, CT

Lighthouses of Eastern Connecticut

There's something nostalgic about lighthouses.  This past summer Michele and I were fortunate to take a cruise sponsored by Project Oceanology, out of UConn Avery Point around the eastern part of Long Island Sound.  We were told that on a clear day, we might be able to see 7 lighthouses on our 2-hour cruise.  I don't think we saw all 7, but here are a few we were able to see up close.

Ledge Light, New London

Morgan Point, Mystic Harbor

Latimer Reef, Fisher Island Sound, NY

Places to stay

We don't often get to take long vacations, so my wife and I plan weekend trips to places we'd like to see here in New England.  I've already shown some pictures taken during a recent weekend trip to Freeport, ME.  Earlier this year, we took trips to Chatham, MA (Cape Cod) and Portsmouth, NH.   On these weekend trips we enjoy staying at local bed and breakfasts.  So far, we have not had a bad experience at any of B&B's we've found.  If you find yourself  in any of these towns, I would heartily recommend the following B&B's.

Applewood  Inn, Freeport ,  ME

We've stayed here three times.  It's close to LLBean, and breakfast is great.  

Governor's House, Portsmouth, NH

This was once the home of New Hampshire Governor Charles Dale.  It's within walking distance to downtown Portsmouth and it's many fine restaurants.

Cranberry Inn, Chatham, MA on Cape Cod

Next time we visit Chatham, we will stay here again.  Very close to the center of Chatham, as well as some very nice Cape Cod beaches.  Too bad we were here in March.  We avoided the summer crowds, but many seasonal businesses were closed. 

Gone Fishin'

I can see myself doing more of this in the coming years.  It's really too bad that despite my best efforts, I never really acquired a taste for fish or else I might be doing a lot more fishing.  I can't think of a better way to spend an early morning than sitting either in a boat or along side the water fishing.  I don't know if I'd be a good fisherman or not, but in either case, the fish would be safe.

Norwich, CT

Life is Good.....

My sentiments, exactly!

Portland , ME

I read somewhere about blogging that it's best to blog frequently.  I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post here, but I'm hoping to be able to make a number of posts each week.  This shot was taken in Portland, Maine a couple of weekends ago.  The sign caught my attention as we walked around downtown Portland.  The city seems to be thriving with many boutiques, restaurants and art galleries in the downtown district.  Portland is also a port of call for the Royal Caribbean Cruise ship "Jewel of the Sea", which happened to be docked nearby.

Jewel  of  the Seas

Free

Freeport, ME

I wonder if it floats?  Can't beat the price.

Testing, Testing......

Ok, I've been spending a lot of time lately trying to figure out all the features of Blogger.  Some things are pretty intuitive, but I'm struggling with some simple things.  If this is a Google product, why do I have such a hard time finding my blog, or my dashboard from google.com.  There doesn't appear to be any simple way to log into my google account, and have this blog just one click away.  Yes, I know I can bookmark this page, but I just haven't gotten around to that yet.  Besides, I'm still trying to decide if I really like this interface, or if perhaps a better blogging option might better suit my needs.  I've settled on the design now, but I reserve the right to continue to tweak it.

Now for the test.  I want to develop a work flow that best prepares my photos for display here, and perhaps elsewhere on the web.  I use Apple's Aperture to organize my photos and one of Aperture's features is that it generates "previews", which are versions of the pictures that can be shared by those applications which can access a media browser.  These previews are used when one uses the insert image button to add a photo to a blog post.  I'm testing two versions of the same image here, one without any adjustments and the other with some adjustments made with Aperture.  I want to see which one displays better here.  Perhaps one can't tell the difference but I won't know until I try it.  The picture was taken at Wolfe's Neck Woods State Park, in Freeport ME.  Let me know what you think, and if you can tell which picture is straight out of the camera, and which had had the image adjusted.  I'd also be interested in hearing how others prepare their pictures for display.

Version 1

Version 2

Johnson Hall "Museum", Wells, ME

Do you ever travel the back roads of this country and find something a little out of the ordinary?  Last weekend, my wife and I decided to spend the weekend in Freeport, ME.  This weekend has turned into an annual event for us, and gets us started on our Christmas shopping.  We stay at a bed and breakfast, shop all the outlets and of course, LL Bean.  We also have a decent dinner or two.  All in all it's a very nice weekend.  This time, we decided to take our time coming home, so we drove Rt 1 all the way from Freeport down to Kittery, ME.  Along the way we happened across the Johnson Hall Museum, and I use the term "museum" lightly!  We saw this from the road and just had to stop.  After being reminded by Bill Johnson himself, that I was ignoring his sign asking for a $5.00 donation to walk his grounds, we apologized, and paid the five bucks.  Helluva deal!  I wish I could've spent some more time there.  He really has some pretty interesting stuff in his museum, and with everything there, Bill has a story to go along with it.   Here is just a small sampling of what can be found here.

Johnson Hall Museum,  Wells, ME

Johnson  Hall Museum,  Wells, ME

Johnson  Hall Museum, Wells, ME

1937 La Salle, Johnson Hall Museum, Wells, ME

"One man's junk, another man's treasure".  Never have truer words ever been spoken after seeing this museum.  Well worth the price of admission.  You can see more of my pictures here.

Freeport ME

They have some pretty big things in Freeport, ME.  Outside of the LL Bean Retail Store one can find this pretty big boot.

LL Bean, Freeport ME

Just a little south of Freeport, along Rt 1, you can find this pretty big Indian.  I'm not sure if the boot belongs to him or not.

Freeport, ME

These pictures are taken with a Nikon D90 and are straight out of the camera without any post processing.  In the coming weeks, I'll be going through a number of pictures I took during our annual trip to Freeport.  Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm somewhat new to  blogging and I'm still trying to find the best settings to use display my photos here.  This is a start.

1925 Mercedes Benz




Mystic Seaport, Mystic Ct.

 

One of my favorite weekends at Mystic Seaport is the their annual antique auto show.  This year they had over 100 antique autos.  Many Ford Model T's and Models A's were on display. This was one of my favorite cars of this year's show, a 1925 Mercedes Benz.

My First Post on this Blog

Welcome to my latest attempt at creating an online presence.  I must admit I'm a little late to the party when it comes to blogging.  This will truly be a work in progress until I get comfortable using this blogging format.  I might be changing this pretty often until I get the look and feel that I like.  I hope to post some random thoughts and also show off some of my photography here.  Thanks for looking and drop me a an email or comment if you like what you read and see here.