Unbecoming Levity

Sunny Orb

Abacquer — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 17:21:59 -0500

I was digging through my photolibrary and came across a handful of old pictures that I would like to include here in Contemplative. This is one of them.

This is a picture I took on July 13, 2001 with my first digital camera, an old Konica Q-M100V. This is a view out my office window when I worked out of Burlington, MA.

The bottle used to contain "gourmet cocoa" and the orb is made of lucite and was a gift from a friend. I love this picture.

Icy Tree

Abacquer — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 17:30:08 -0500

This photo was taken in Fitchburg on February 2, 2002. We had just had an ice storm the day before, and I loved the way this tree looked with the sun behind it.

This picture was taken from the parking lot of the Twin City Animal Hospital in Fitchburg.

Water Girl

Abacquer — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 19:47:07 -0500

When Pat and I celebrated our 11'th wedding anniversary with a weekend on Cape Cod, we found this lovely beachside restaurant where you could get the tastiest steak and eggs for breakfast. Outside was a little garden complete with fountain.

I thought it was beautiful.

This picture was snapped on August 16, 2002.

Lynnea's Glass Tokens Design

Abacquer — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 17:28:18 -0500

Neya made this design out of a pile of glass tokens I used to use when I played the Magic: the Gathering collectible card game.

This picture was taken on January 2, 2003.

Icy Cattails

Abacquer — Sun, 28 Mar 2004 00:09:58 -0500

Just liked the look of these brown cattails poking up through the ice in the former red maple swamp.

Weird Forest Growth

Abacquer — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 17:35:25 -0500

James and I found this strange fungus (?) growing on the side of a log when we went geocaching in the Oakland Forest and Meadow Trail in Middletown, Rhode Island on October 2, 2004.

Freakish looking thing, innit? And beautiful.

Sunlit Ferns

Abacquer — Sat, 09 Oct 2004 23:16:15 -0400

This is my favorite picture of the day I think. The sun shining through these ferns with the long shadows of the tree trunks was lovely.

Lynnea Was Here

Abacquer — Mon, 22 Nov 2004 09:27:59 -0500

Found this when I went out to the car to go to work this morning.

Neya's Clay Saturn

Abacquer — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 08:18:29 -0500

At first she said it was Jupiter, then I asked her if she didn't mean Saturn. She said "Yeah, the one with the big ring around it."

Patty's Pyramid of Fancy Feasts

Abacquer — Tue, 04 Jan 2005 08:22:50 -0500

Each morning and evening after washing out the catfood cans, Patty has taken to stacking them on the bathroom windowsill, as you can see we've missed a couple recycle days due to the December rush. This is 36 cans, or 18 days worth.

I'm reminded of ancient Egypt with its reverence of cats, and its pyramids.

Next recycle day is a week away... 14 more cans...

Oh My Darlin'

Abacquer — Thu, 06 Jan 2005 20:27:39 -0500

Don't these clementines look delicious? I saw the oh-so-domestic looking basket of them sitting on a counter in our kitchen and I couldn't resist snapping a picture of them.

Snowcapped Skylight

Abacquer — Fri, 21 Jan 2005 00:02:08 -0500

My friend James would probably call this a "mental picture". My cube at the Burlington office has a skylight over it. This is what I saw when I looked up from my chair.

Branches Closeup

Abacquer — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 09:27:29 -0500

Tough day to be a tree!

Runoff

Abacquer — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 09:27:29 -0500

I spotted this gutter pipe dripping water through the ice at the supermarket near my office. Thought it looked pretty cool.

Runoff with Flash

Abacquer — Sat, 05 Feb 2005 09:27:30 -0500

I just love how the water droplets seem frozen in air in this shot, and check out the ripples!

Face in the Snow

Abacquer — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 11:01:23 -0500

Saw this guy peeking out at me when I went out to the barn a couple days back. This cement dog was a gift from my parents a few years ago. Each year I tell myself I am going to paint him, but I never seem toget around to it.

Icense Plate

Abacquer — Sat, 12 Feb 2005 01:01:57 -0500

Found this laying on the ground outside the main entrance to my office today around lunchtime. Obviously some truck had parked there with a license plate encrusted with snow and ice. Then (probably when the driver was inside) the icy snow covering the plate fell off, struck the ground and broken into the slabs you see here. I thought it was cool that I could still read the plate number. It reminded me of fractured stone slabs with ancient writing on them. Cool!

Look Into My Eyes...

Abacquer — Fri, 18 Feb 2005 23:43:15 -0500

That's what my wife said when she returned from her eye exam. Apparently they put some sort of chemical in your eye sometimes that makes the pupil open very wide so that they can get a good image of the inside of your eye. Pretty freaky, huh?

I love Patty's beautiful caramel-colored eyes, but this is really funky looking.

Lynnea's Treasure

Abacquer — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 15:17:45 -0500

This is a tupperware tub of plastic jewels and beads that Neya uses to make necklaces. It was so colorful I couldn't resist snapping a pic of it. If anybody wants the high quality image for a desktop background, let me know.

Bucket of Icicles

Abacquer — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 15:19:22 -0500

Here's another treasure Neya collected the other day, a bucket of icicles from a shrub near our barn.

Algae and Other Plant Matter

Abacquer — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 16:46:41 -0500

On the right is some sort of plant matter that perhaps settled out of the soil into the water, you can see the structures in the plant tissue... cells maybe?

On the left are algae strands.

Bee Wing: Forward Edge

Abacquer — Sun, 06 Mar 2005 16:46:43 -0500

The hairs were thickest on the forward edge of the wing.

Red Light

Abacquer — Tue, 08 Mar 2005 02:12:15 -0500

I noticed this on my way out of my office in Littleton. This red light is mounted on the building wall over the emergency fire alarm.

This picture was taken at night without the flash on. I just love the texture of that wall. Something about this image is compelling to me.

Icy Fingers

Abacquer — Mon, 14 Mar 2005 02:01:14 -0500

I just love how this ice looks like a lens. Took this last week sometime.

It suggested fingers on a frozen hand to me. Hence the name.

Exit Sign

Abacquer — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 23:23:42 -0500

I love exit signs in dark places. They cast a freaky red glow over everything. Unfortunately holding the camera still for such a shot was a challenge I just wasn't up to. This was the best I could manage.

Mall Light

Abacquer — Thu, 24 Mar 2005 23:25:12 -0500

Here's a light fixture in the Burlington Mall. I just loved the way it looked. Looks like one of the bulbs is out.

Zones 1 and 2

Abacquer — Sat, 26 Mar 2005 07:56:46 -0500

These two valves were mounted on an exterior wall at Burlington mall. What the hell are they?

Are they like, built-in fire hydrants? Gas valves? Hot water valves? Zone 1 appears to be insulated, Zone 2 is not. Why? Is it just poor maintenance or is there really a difference between them?

This probably seems like a strange thing to post in contemplative, but I liked the image of two big red valves in a white brick wall.

I had taken a picture of a big valve like this on the previous day (on the other side of the mall) and it hadn't come out well and I had resolved to try again at that time. So when I was at the mall for lunch with my friend Jay and I spotted these, I just had to stop and try again...

Hang on, I want to get a picture of these valves.

Why?

Because I think they look interesting.

Oh.

I'm quite certain he thought I was nuts. Sorry Jay, I'm weird.

Sponge on Concrete

Abacquer — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 00:02:19 -0400

Yeah I know, it's just a sponge... but it's not often you are walking along one day and there's this sponge just laying on the pavement.

Besides I love the texture of this picture.

The sponge reminds me of the surface of an English muffin. And that makes me hungry. When's breakfast?

Gensym Building

Abacquer — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 00:08:49 -0400

Isn't this the coolest looking building? A lot of the buildings near where I work in Burlington, MA are architecturally interesting. This building is in Northwest Park.

Say It With Me...

Abacquer — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 17:34:18 -0400

It's the Philip J. Philbin Federal Building!

To get the most from the name, you have to leave out "office" and of course, say BUILDIN' instead of BUILDING.

This building stands in downtown Fitchburg, Massachusetts and houses our local post office.

When I spotted this edifice a month or so after moving to Fitchburg, and I immediately noticed how funny the name sounded. I told James about it and for several days thereafter one or the other of us would suddenly say "Philip J. Philbin Federal Buildin" and laugh.

Phil Philbin's Buildin' was constructed in 1973 and named after a Massachusetts democrat who served as the congressman of the third district from 1943 to 1971, and passed away in 1972.

The image at left is a satellite photo of Phil-Phil-Bil, can you see me waving?