Tiger, tiger, burning bright

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

--William Blake--

(tiger photographed at the Exotic Feline Rescue Center in Indiana;

artwork created for Art Creations Friday and Photo Friday)

Brown is a colour too

This is just so funny. In my last post, I rambled on about colour -- and I even said, in no uncertain terms, that I don't live in a sepia world. So, what's the theme over at Photo Friday today? Brown. Aargh!

But to be fair, brown is a colour. Wood is brown, chocolate and coffee -- two of my favourite things -- are brown, tree bark can be brown, I even own a brown sweater. So I had a look at my recent photographs and this one (which I took during the outing I described in my last post) caught my eye. The brown "tree" you see in the centre is a light fixture; pretty cool, eh? A smaller version would look great in my living room.

You'll notice the guy on the left; I don't know if he's taking a picture of the young fellow taking a photograph, or is perhaps focused on something else. I like to think he's photographing the young fellow using the DSLR (I was impressed he's using a manual focus). And the young guy with the white baseball cap? I swear he's posing with a knife in his right hand. I didn't notice it at the time -- I was just amusing myself taking pictures of people taking pictures -- but I've zoomed in on my hi-res original, and it sure looks like a knife to me.

Life in the big smoke................

Spotted while on Caroline Street in Key West

There's a woman goin' crazy on Caroline
Street
Stoppin' every man that she does meet
Sayin' if you'll be gentle if
you'll be sweet
I'll show you my place on Caroline Street

Nothing like a little Jimmy Buffet on a Saturday afternoon, eh? Thank Photo Friday for the inspiration!

Old fashioned? Yes and no.

The theme at Photo Friday this week is "old-fashioned", but the term old-fashioned is so subjective. For example, the music of the 1970s and 1980s is now considered old by so many, yet the 1970s will forever remain "my decade" and its music will always be number-one for me. It's not old-fashioned at all -- to me. To those who weren't even born until the 1980s, I completely understand the retro flavour that 70's and 80's music has for them. It's still appealing, but it's old-fashioned. In the 1970s, that's how I felt about music from the 1950s.

As I searched for an image to fit this theme, I remembered the above photo. It looks old, but it isn't at all. Back in August 2005, I was in Lancaster PA. Wandering around, I turned the corner and saw what you see in the photo. Well, in colour, that is. At the time I was delighted to have discovered this beautiful old building; I am now saddened to discover via Google that the old Watt & Shand department store in Lancaster in the photo is being turned into a convention centre. Blah to that!

Anyway. The old-fashioned mood of the photo is, I believe, enhanced by my digital manipulations. The look I was after was one that would make you think you were seeing a much older photo -- so, I went with black-and-white. I was (and am) very happy with the results.

I was on a road-trip that August with a girlfriend and we spent a day and night in the Lancaster County area of Pennsylvania. What a beautiful part of the U.S.A. -- I would love to go back and spend more time there. Only I'm now a little leery that recent "progress" may have stripped away some of the area's charm. Hmmmmmmm.

We are in a Disney mood

Cathy over at Noble Pig asked me about our upcoming cruise -- and I'm happy to share the excitement! We are cruising on the Disney Magic and will be stopping twice at Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay, and we'll also be stopping in both Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I am quite stoked as I've never been to either Mexico or the Cayman Islands. I am very lucky and I know it -- this is my third Disney cruise. My third cruise ever, actually. I've only done Disney. My first was in 2006 when a girlfriend in the travel biz scored an amazing deal on an 11-night Southern Caribbean Disney cruise for the two of us. We could fit three in our room on the Disney Wonder but can you believe that we couldn't find a third person to come with us? The price was amazing but the catch was we had only three weeks to plan! I had never before planned something so major with such little preparation time. The first night onboard I knew this was the type of vacation perfect for the captain and me. I put a deposit down on a cruise for the two of us almost immediately -- they give you a discount while you're still onboard so it's very tempting to book another cruise. So we celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary last year, his first cruise ever, on the Magic. It was an interesting cruise in many ways, partly because we got stuck with some of the effects of Hurricane Noel. Can you say rockin' and rollin'!

And this year we'll be doing it again, this time with my MIL as well as my SIL and her hubby. Well, not the hurricane part. We hope. My MIL was on an Alaskan cruise last spring, but it's a first for the other two. It's going to be a blast! We are all very excited.

Above is a photo of the towel animal (a cobra) on our bed the last night of our cruise last fall, with one of our luggage tags hanging on it. Why Minnie Mouse? It's a code. When we disembarked, we went to the Minnie Mouse area to find our luggage. This towel animal is my contribution to Photo Friday this week, where the theme is spiral. Fitting, eh?

We see you in the midnight sky

Yes, that's a garden gnome. Yes, he has an axe. And yes, he's guarding a tombstone. I know. It's a tad, um, unusual.

The theme this week at Photo Friday is "religion" and while I am definitely not formally religious, I do have lots and lots of photos of churches, stone angels, grave sites, etc. All represent religion. And then I remembered this photo I took on the same day I found the swamp. In a tiny graveyard on a back road, I spied the gnome. The grass had grown up around him, so he had been at his post for quite some time. Why he is there is anyone's guess, but someone -- maybe a family member honouring the wishes of the deceased, or just a survivor who hears a different drummer -- was obviously not afraid to buck convention. And if you're at peace with your beliefs, whatever they might be, then more power to you. And if you need an afterlife guardian, don't forget your gnome.

The unexpected

When you wake up in the morning, you just never know what the day will bring. Take this photo, my submission to this week's Photo Friday challenge ("the great outdoors"). This was taken three years ago, June 2005, on the first photo expedition I took with my friend, Nancy. We've done many since then, the latest being just a week or so ago. That day back in '05, cameras in hand, we took a country drive and had a wonderful seafood lunch, all a birthday treat for me. It was the kind of day where, when you came to a crossroads, you just picked a direction on a whim and turned. And that's how we found the swamp, pictured above. Don't ever ask me to find it again; I couldn't. I have no idea exactly how we ended up on a narrow country road beside a magnificent swampy area.

I also had no idea when I woke up this morning that I'd be spending the afternoon sitting beside the captain as he lay in a hospital emergency room bed. A routine trip to the doctor this morning, an irregular heartbeat diagnosis, a trip to emergency at the doctor's orders. Turns out there was no irregular heartbeat, according to the hospital, and there was absolutely nothing wrong. Thank heavens.

I love the ocean

I finally checked out the Photo Friday challenge today -- nothing like being several days late! The topic is movement, which left me in quite a dilemma (note: also the challenge for Lensday, July 23rd). Birds-in-flight fits the topic, and I have several bird pictures. But water fits as well, and I just had to go down that route. I was born in Vancouver -- a city right on the Pacific Ocean. We currently live near Lake Ontario. And the condo that we rented back in February, and will return to both in October and next February, looks straight out onto the Atlantic Ocean. While he is Canadian, the captain grew up in Florida -- in Satellite Beach, just south of Cape Canaveral, where the condo is located. We both love water, especially oceans. I may be an air sign, a Gemini, but I have to be near the water. And so I went with one of my ocean pictures, this one taken at Sebastian Inlet, in Florida. I am SO looking forward to being back in Florida this fall!

My garden is thirsty

I have a parched, dry garden today. Taking into consideration the humidex, the all-news television channel I watch is claiming it's 42 degrees celsius this afternoon here in Toronto -- and according to my fahrenheit converter, that's 107F! Yikes! So it comes as no surprise to me that the Photo Friday topic, tools, makes me think of my suffering garden. I took the photograph of this ol' watering can back in September 2005 at Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, when my girlfriend Nancy and I went to Art & Soul. A watering can is one of my favourite garden tools as I hate using a hose. It always seems I get just as wet as the plants when I work with a garden hose.

The Minimalist Sandcastle

Over at Photo Friday the theme this week is "minimalism". Is this not the most minimalistic sandcastle you've seen? Simple, basic. Lowrise. Quite a courtyard, large and empty.

Walking the beach back in February on our first morning at the condo where we spent a blissful month, I spied this abandoned royal realm. Sandcastles are so often highly ornate creations and I just loved the simplicity of this one.

I found Photo Friday

Earlier this evening, I stumbled upon the Photo Friday site -- similar to Illustration Friday. Another challenge! And since today is Thursday, I still have time to submit my contribution to the May 9th topic: Professional. This is a photo I took last year; I just spiffied it up a bit and applied a filter to it.