The Year in Pictures

It has been a very good year!





Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!!

Dueling Sunsets

Today's contest is a simple one - guess which of these was taken by Julie and which was taken by your devoted Light Keeper.





Each is a view from the porch as you enter the Cottage. I have been assembling a set of shots to post that will sum up the year in pictures. Look for that on your next trip back.



Checking the statistics today I discover that we have visits from Australia, Canada, Dubai, and Istanbul, Turkey. We are up to 30 countries now.

Flying Santa update

Today's Globe has a story on Brian Tague, the keeper of the Flying Santa tradition. Take a look.

One Hand Washing ...

Last Sunday we welcomed the annual Scituate Arts Association House Tour from 1:00 to 4:00. A rough estimate would put the guests at 150 for the day. Great fun and high interest mixed together for terrific day.

For a peek at the Cottage and several other homes visit this link to the Scituate Mariner.



We had wonderful help from the Arts Association volunteers. Sharing this house with another non profit organization involved in the upkeep of a Scituate treasure like the Ellis House seemed like a natural when it was first proposed and the day flew by. Thanks to all.

A Prize

A guest photographer graces the blog today. This is what it means to do it right.

Patrick O'Connor, (as regular readers of this blog know) is a Naval officer originally from Cohasset. Pat has become a much anticipated correspondent from the great carrier USS Enterprise, sharing the stories of the great ship's operations. He has also shared a great number of photographs. It looks like that talent has been passed on to the next generation.

On New Year's Day 2010 Patrick's son Ryan took the photograph below. If there is a more perfect shot of the Lighthouse and Cottage at peace in the winter season, I have yet to see it.

Thank you Pat and thank you Ryan. Season's Greetings to all the men and women in the service of the United States. We owe you all more than we can say.

The Jolly Old Elf

Flying Santa picked a great day to visit!

The tradition goes back to the 1930's of pilots ferrying Santa Claus to isolated Light Keepers all over the United States. On our coast the late, great, Edward Rowe Snow played a part in keeping this tradition alive. The whole story can be found here.

The weather for a visit from Saint Nick was ideal. Dolly Bicknell, daughter of Edward Rowe Snow joined the Jolly Old Elf in keeping with her own family tradition. With a tremendous effort from the Scituate Highway Department the parking lot was freed from rock and sand. Scituate Police LT. John Rooney coordinated the placement of barriers for cars and pedestrians, with the Scituate Fire Department keeping a watchful eye in case of mishap. For the Cedar Point Association, Dave Ball and Betty Kincaid did their usual conscientious job. I had it easy; getting gifts and taking pictures is not heavy lifting.

We start with a video clip of the landing:

Below are the photographs Julie grabbed as people anticipated the arrival:












Once the helicopter was down and I had welcomed Santa to the Point I made a run for the Tower to get a wider view of the event.

Julie was up close for these shots.







When it was time to go Santa returned to the chopper and headed North across the marsh.



We eagerly await his return in two weeks!

I will be awarding Lighthouse T shirts to the first five people who correctly identify the singers of the song in the landing video - use the comment box for your replies. Good Luck.

100

A few pictures as the holiday season moves along:







This is post 100. 3 pictures is said to be worth three thousand words.