Photo Page Extra 3

More older shots -- all from late in 2001. Again, no theme, except that provided by the general place, time, and photographer.

	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 11/12/01 It is assuring to know that under the leadership of the modern captains of such industry as we now have left, and of the architectural vision of those who design our modern buildings, we no longer have to endure whatever debilitating effects lurked in past designs, that we thought had grace and grandeur. No longer are we distracted by intricacy of texture and finely wrought detail. We are a serious and busy people, and the hive is a good enough model for us, it seems.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 11/8/01 Look at the shameful waste of time and money in which our forebears indulged. One could probably build half a strip mall for the cost of a few turrets like this. My wallet bleeds at the thought. One might almost suspect people in former times had some sort of respect for the community and of the people in it, as well as a soul, to build like this. Time must be a mighty furnace to burn away all that.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 11/12/01 One day I wandered around the local cemetery. I was all alone, not counting the many who are there permanently, and not counting the animals who find the general environment to be a good one in all respects. The sun was warming, and everything felt to be even more specifically what it was than normal. The heart beating in me, and the breaths I took, seemed more like a gift than usual too. As I slowly passed this tree, it flared up in its somber dark as you see here.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 11/12/01 Well, I have as much melodrama in me as the next person, so I paid extra attention to the dark denizens of the cemetery -- the crows. They took on a larger aspect and their demeanor was portentous. Here is a shot of one flying from, I suspect, a favorite perch. As a passing comment, I'll mention a surprise I found in reading a recent article on crows. Science, silly as any profession, has ignored the study of the crow in favor of "sexier" animals, usually in Africa or South America. So, here is a highly intelligent, social, and articulate animal in our backyard -- one closer to us in world view than all but a handful or two of species, and we ignore it. What in the world are all those PhDs doing? Probably only 10 percent of our "experts" ever look at the real world and produce real knowledge.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 12/21/01 Back to one of my favorite themes, here is a drake furiously engaging in a favored activity -- the word dabbling doesn't seem to do it justice...



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 12/14/01 There are times when very simple elements of form, color, and texture combine to make a meaningful and satisfying image. I delight in them when I see them, and it says something good about us all that we can take them in through our personal force fields for the pleasure of showcasing these abstract elements of our minds. That said, I add that it surprises me when I see glossy expensive books of photos that have only works of this kind as if nothing else is quite art.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 9/5/01 I have seen a lot of Victorian homes, and photographed a few, and this one really stood out. Lucky children that are raised in such a home -- lots of room for the imagination.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 12/16/01 Here, in one view of an iron furnace, you have an image of early Industrial Revolution. Much human sweat, the crashing of felled trees for charcoal, the creaking of wheels of the wagons carrying limestone and iron ore, the braying of mules and lowing of oxen, the rush of water in dug channels, the wheezing of great bellows, the smelting heat in the massive furnace, the long waiting -- all combined to produce rather ugly "pigs" of iron. Then came the transport of the heavy pigs to a forge where the impurities of the iron would literally be beaten out. It is difficult for us to fully appreciate what our ancestors accomplished. Everything was so hard. People then must have sometimes wondered if the natural world were not conspiring against human undertaking. The weather, the mud, the distances, disease, lack of information, fluttering markets, the sheer weight of nearly anything that would pay -- all stubbornly resisting to man's will.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 12/16/01 This goes with the image above. At the time of the American Revolution and for a couple of generations after, the open fireplace warmed the house and cooked the food. In fact, you can go back a couple of thousand years and find that most people in Europe used an approximately similar arrangement. One of the many changes to come out of the Industrial Revolution was the closed furnace and closed stove, which were better by every way of measuring, except one. Of a cool evening, when the open fire behaved itself -- didn't spit or smoke -- what a pleasure the family must have had as they gathered close round the fire talking, or reading aloud, or playing music, or dreaming into the flickering flames.



	Posted 5/3/03 Taken 12/16/01 This was doubtless the most complex machine in the home in times gone by. While it is probably true that we are more time-harried than our ancestors, time did fascinate them. Big clocks like this one usually tracked the movements of the sun and moon too, and people strongly associated the change of seasons with the keeping of time. The heavens were a great clock that had cycles within cycles within cycles, and the days and hours of people were one with the changes of the natural world. They must have felt a lot more a part of the greater universe than we do. The Age of Anxiety is our invention, along with the atomic clock. We can scan nanoseconds, but we do not enjoy our time more.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 10/12/01 Okay, back to the ducks. The stomach of a duck has a curiosity of its own and it will put the duck into some strange situations. Here the duck is padding about on a level part of a waterfall, the water is moving fast, but the all-purpose feet of the duck stick fast as the foam hurries by and it even flows well up the duck's bill.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 10/19/01 This was just too good to pass by. The sun was warm for October and these hens snugged down to their basic egg shape and went to sleep. Hobbits may have learned how to live from observing ducks, though ducks wouldn't stop with just two breakfasts. If they find themselves somewhere, and there is no pressing business, and the chow situation has been recently satisfied, they will, like as not, tuck down and go to sleep. Mallards are convinced that most people do not actively wish to eat them, and will not bother them, unless taken with a fit of insanity, such as that which afflicts human young. Therefore people are accepted as part of a more or less acceptable environment. Still, you will be observed by at least one open eye, just in case.



	Posted 4/27/03 Taken 9/14/01 Ducks know food comes in many forms and that the wise duck will not be overly finicky. And it is a good thing that humans are becoming aware that a world safe for ducks and other wildlife, will be safer for them too. Our interests are common, what a surprise!



	Posted 5/3/03 Taken 10/12/01 This dog is not abandoned, he knows it, but he is not happy. His mistress has gone into a store and will be back, but the waiting seems very long. The dog has been a companion of man for many thousands of years. We have reshuffled its deck of genes into many shapes and temperments. Through all our growing pains in developing a successful human domain on Earth, the dog has been with us, and the human environment wouldn't be quite what it is without the dog. There is a growing trend of laws and regulations that separate us from our old friends and that is a clear sign of degeneration. We should do away with them.



	Posted 5/3/03 Taken 10/14/01 Now the cat, on the other hand, has been with us a long time for a different reason. The cat, I think, knows the reason, but has never found any reason to tell us... Perhaps it is the very dry feline sense of humor being satisfied.