Ruby Tuesday - Playpen Plus

The past is alive. As Allegra is to graduate college in May, and is legal at age 21, she has grown up.

However, Mary's Ruby Tuesday gives us an opportunity to remember Allegra as being quite little. So our oldest is being showcased at nine months.

She can stand while hanging on the padded ruby railing of the playpen. That red strip of hair down the middle should qualify. If not constrained by a playpen, the walker with its read vinyl seat (easy to clean!). If I remember back to 1989, she got stuck in that corner as she hadn't learned how to put it in reverse. She may be big now, but she was little, once. Her parents have proof!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Concrete Removal

The views past offers an interesting take on the shadowy world, at least in my memories. The scanner has been a fine tool, allowing me to digitize the past.

For Tracy's Shadow Shot Sunday, I present the ongoing home modifications to accommodate the then new wheelchair. The date here is 31 October 1996, and the sidewalk in front of the house is being removed in order to dig and pour a concrete ramp for wheelchair egress.

It was a crisp and wonderful Autumn day, a fine day to chronicle the contractor at work.

The eaves and overhangs provide the shadows on top. In the middle, the backhoe shadow is more visible, its arm and bucket leaving a shadow.

The more interesting thing is how the power equipment just pulled up the old walkway in one piece. The shadow of the underside of this piece including the soil attached leaves lumps of clay that have the appearance of a mountain range.

With the concrete pulled up and flipped over, the workmen can now have fun breaking the massive piece into smaller pieces of rubble, easier to load into the waiting dump truck.

The gentleman at work leaves a shadow in motion. And like other contractors, the baseball cap is prominent in the subject and shadow alike. I think the excavating work is fun for those that like to flip levers and operate heavy equipment like this John Deere. The ramp concrete was poured two days later...See the photo artists and their shadowy subjects at Hey Harriet!

Looking at the Sky - Soundview

Looking at the Sky is so much fun. The beauty upstairs seems to have an effect on the surfaces below. The sun enlivens the dormant beach grasses, giving them a brightness of golden straw. The blue above adds a brilliant azure hue, the salt water of Long Island Sound changing from the normal brown.green on the surface to this brilliance. Patti and myself went went to Bradley Point in West Haven on a cold sunny day to chronicle the surf and sky. And savor the beauty outside for a mere 10-15 minutes, as the brilliance was beautiful but the cold air not so much. Follow the followers of the sky at Tisha's fun meme!

Sepia Scenes - Swingin' 60s

Sepia Scenes allows us the enhancing monochrome that brings alive the past. Old B&W seems a bit warmer in this tone.

So the scans today come from the past. I am guessing 1969 in East Hartford. Why would I pick that year as an educated guess? Those who admit of being of a certain age range would say it is the hair. These styles on the girls (L-R Michele, Vicki and Sue) anyhow seem to show that decade at its finest. Not for me or brother CP, our hair was merely unkempt and Dad - he was out of style in that decade and the 1970's - but back in by the 90's.

If not the hair then, how about the furniture? This lounge chair with its curvaceous profile meant 'modern' in those days. The kids liked it anyway, although any adult with an aching back hight might prefer to stand than have to climb up from the too close to the floor furniture. Not that I would even attempt this these days...

See more of the soothing sepia tone at Mary's fun meme!

Ruby Tuesday - Furling Flags

Ruby Tuesday is a fun meme where we search for ruby red. One recent Saturday, Patti and I went to the beach in West Haven, lulled by a sense of beauty in the sunny and blue sky. It looked way warmer than it really was. We aimed for the sky and Long Island Sound in the picture quest, but a ruby appeared. This is part of the Walk of Veterans on the beach walk. I think that these monuments are for awards for bravery, but I endeavor to find out. However, the red-white-blue flags are furling furiously in the cold sea breeze. See rubies of all descriptions at Mary's site!

Shadow Shot Sunday - Touchdown

Shadows are unique, they may faithfully replicate the subject or become a totally different take. So for this installment of Tracy's fun Shadow Shot Sunday, I present the latter. Or maybe not. This week's photos were recent scans from a fun trip to the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984. It was a great time, but after ten days of vacation/holiday there I had to go home and back to work :>(

The picture is at landing at Chicago on a United Airlines DC-10. And this flight, UA108, was great. I had a seat by the big door over the wing, lots of space and the smoothest ride ever upstairs. The look of sepia and blue would work wonderfully in two fun memes, Looking at the Sky and Sepia Scenes. But what of SSS? This is where a shadow exists, but of what? And where? The wing, no. 2 engine and tail are seen in the shadow before and beyond the wing. It does not jump at the viewer, but ought to show up after a bit of time. If not, the (stock) photo below of a United -10 shows the profile of the items more clearly. I hope...

What I didn't capture that trip was on the flight on the same plane to Hartford. It was at night and the plane flew far above a thunderstorm, and the lightning flashes well below the plane illuminated the sky. No danger, just a fantastic light show at night. See the shadowy world of the photographer at Brisbane's own Hey Harriet!

Looking at the Sky - Lookout!

For Looking at the Sky, we like to show the artistry from above. It is 1984 and I am at Lookout Mountain, the first of the Rockies range just above the hazy sky of metro Denver. Western showman Buffalo Bill is buried on this mount.

To access the summit, you drive on a fun, and smooth switchback state road with wonderfully wide lanes that climbs gradually upwards onto this rocky alp. The swirly sky is seen from the 7300 foot altitude. The rugged ground and scrub is offset by the even bigger clouds. I liked the Denver area when I visited, and the towering Rockies define the horizon to the West.

The artistry from above is endless, check out the variety at Tisha's fun site!

Sepia Scenes - Front Range Sepia

My 1984 trip to the L.A. Olympics began with a few days on the edge of the plains in Denver. I met my sister prior to our trip to LAX, our gateway to the Golden State. Not that the Mile High city was in the stratosphere, but I was used to maybe 250 feet above sea level so had to acclimate myself to the thinner air. What better way to vacation without exertion by driving and snapping the shutter on the Pentax (film) SLR?

Sepia Scenes therefore beckons with a look of stately grandeur. I am south of Denver along I-25, and being used to the hills of Connecticut, none higher than 2400 ft ASL, this unnamed mount is impressive. The golden plain seen in the original below is brilliant. So as to not detract from the majesty of the Rockies, I used an antique edit. The loud prairie grasses are toned down, allowing for a softer gradient from the land to the sky.

The variety of sepia can be found at Mary's monochrome meme!

Ruby Tuesday - Olympian Rubies

When we upgraded to Mac Snow Leopard, I inadvertently deleted the HP printer/scanner software. So the web search for software drivers was undertaken, and we are finally back to print and scan. So for Mary's Ruby Tuesday, I am showcasing just scanned small rubies from the 1984 Olympics in L.A.

These views are not huge, sort of slight. But a little or a lot of red works very well, and the Rose Bowl, Olympic artwork and the tiny flags on the equestrian hurdles. That was a fun trip all those years ago, even if I put 712 miles on my rental car in five days to check all the venues in the L.A. basin / Orange County area. Massive traffic the whole time, at any time of the day, on the 405 and Golden State freeways. And I was happy to have the event tickets, so many people at all venues were saying "Need Tickets"...

I am getting ready to digitize the past again, 1000+ last year, with at least that more to go...