Smörgåsbord

First a bride.




Julie took these photographs yesterday and promised the bride I would put them up. This couple managed to dodge the rain that finally arrived offering small relief to brown yards and sunflowers that are so close to opening.

This week reversed the adage - it went from hottest, to hotter, to hot. There were some tough nights for sleeping, even here where there is always some sort of breeze. Early in the day Monday a thermometer in the kitchen read 122 degrees outside. The bulb sits just outside the kitchen window and the sun pushed it toward melting. Getting a hose out across the parking lot to all the islands was a priority and I had help from several neighbors. These gardens continue to prosper and the perennials that have been mixed in look like they will make it. The second year will see very hardy plants along with the potential to split some down and get greater yearly coverage. Five of six new rose bushes have shown terrific growth. The sixth still has a chance if I pare off some old growth. The sunflowers along the runway are getting very close to bloom. If I can keep them watered the fall brides will have the back drop I was shooting for when those seeds went in the ground.















Sunday afteroon I was in a kayak 125 yards off shore looking back to the beach. Haley was out there with me chatting up boaters at anchor. As I looked back to the beach I saw a young man running onto the beach from the parking lot. My first instinct was that there was trouble of some sort and I began scanning the beach for what it might be. There are falls on the jetty all the time and there is always the risk of someone diving unaware of the shallows. I then noticed the young man looking up and taking pictures.

It was the flyover arranged by the Legion Post to commemorate the Fourth of July. Amazing, astounding, thrilling, moving, and more than a little frustrating as I routinely bring a camera with me when we go out to paddle. I had left it ashore knowing that the battery needed to be recharged. I was in the perfect position to capture these four fighters as they passed over the Tower. All I could do was join the boaters and the beach goers and offer my applause.

The good news is that the young man I saw running was part of a photographic team that was covering the event for the Ledger. There are photographs and some readers will have seen them this week in the paper. The Legion Post will be offering this image for sale shortly. It will be a must have as who knows when such an opportunity will be afforded again.

In the middle of the week I worked on an ongoing project for the Society. Julie and I began an inventory of the artifacts here at the Lighthouse. The shot included here is a detail from the Bates Family bible.


A catalog is being created for a number of reasons and we get to play our part. The next stop is the GAR Hall and then it is onto the Little Red School House. I will be bringing some of those photographs back to a later posting so check back. There is one image from the School House that I have been dying to post here. It is a shot of the Light from first cliff that predates the building of the small jetty.

On Thursday I had a chance to fufill two wishes, one of some guests and one of my own. My aunt let me know that there was a group of visitors from Kansas who had a tremendous interest in Lighthouses and asked if I could take them through. I met the group and found that tremendous was an understatement. The day before they had taken a cruise out of Newport where they saw ten Lights in two hours. We had a great visit and one of the girls had her yearbook photo taken here. All day long I had lines from the Wizard of Oz going through my head; "We're not in Kansas in anymore..."

Later that afternoon I go to go to the top of Lawson Tower and help wind the clock. Haley came with me and these are her pictures that follow. Trustees Steve Litchfield and Tucker Paterson have been part of the team that winds the clock for several years now and they offered an opportunity I have wanted since I saw the Peter Whitfield production on Lawson Tower three summers ago. I had only been inside Lawson Tower once before, when the late Paul Miles took me up and showed me some of the elements that make it unique. The Society has done a tremendous job creating and developing a landscape project that includes a plaque describing Mr. Miles contributions to maintaining Lawson Tower. There is even a Lawson Rose in the mix. That plaque will be unveiled on July 18th at noon prior to the Society opening the Historic sites generally for the first time this year.