(totally) civilized ku # 2575-79 / ku # 1251-52 ~ Eden, Nirvana, Paradise, Shangri-La, Elysian Fields ...

Rist Camp porch ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Rist Camp porch ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
View from Rist Camp Porch # 1 ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
View from Rist Camp Porch # 2 ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
On the Rist Camp fireplace mantle # 1 ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
On the Rist Camp fireplace mantle # 2 ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Poised on a Rist Camp cabinet ~ Newcomb, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen.... pick one if you must but, as far as I'm concerned, any one name / title describes where I'm staying for better part of the next 5 weeks. And, IMO,this place makes the South Jersey Shore seem like Hades, the Infernal Region, Gehenna, Hell, the Abyss (pick one).....

FYI, these pictures are iPad processed and subject to change. I'll be returning home for a day on Wednesday and will redux these then. In any event, I'm pretty certain you get the picture.

diptych # 40 ~ bookends

Late day rain / early morning light ~ Stone Harbor, NJ / Northway - Exit 30 - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOne of the best things about going to the South Jersey Shore is leaving the South Jersey Shore.

In both cases, going to and leaving from, my drive has always been during the dark of the night. By so doing, I avoid the slow moving parking lots called the Jersey Turnpike and/or the Garden State Parkway. At night I can make the trip in six-and-a-half hours, whereas by day, the same trip can take 8-9 hours or, worse case, even more time.

In any event, on my drive home, I generally time it to hit the southern border of the Adirondack PARK just as the sun is starting to lighten the sky. Before I reach my exit on the Northway, I get to witness a nice sunrise and the drive from the Northway to my home is undertaken in warm early morning light - it's a wonderful welcome back home respite after the long drive.

This year, on the evening of my departure from the shore, I was treated to an early evening rain with the sun masked by haze (mist + humid air) which basked the landscape with a warm pleasant glow. If the light show, as nice as it was, was an attempt by the weather gods to entice me to return to the shore, it didn't work. Or, it could have just been a goodbye and good riddance token to show their appreciation of my self-imposed exile from the South Jersey Shore.

On the other hand, as I approached my exit on the Northway (you can just make out the exit sign in the picture) the morning light show made me think and feel liked I had returned to the Promised Land.

diptych # 39 ~ 30 yards apart / reckoning truthfully

Evening light / morning light ~ Taylor Pond - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen

The doubt that the work celebrates is not the same as the angry alienation of the fashionable rejectionist; neither is it the passivity of the man who counts all evils to be equal, or who calls a flawed good no better than an evil because it is imperfect. It is, rather, the active refusal to render the world beautiful just because we desperately want it to be that way, combined with the refusal to render it ugly just because we distrust our longing for beauty. It is at all times reckoning each against the other, and it is authentically hopeful for as long as the doubter can persuade himself that he is reckoning truthfully, of which he must of course persuade himself anew, every moment his eyes are open. ~ Leo Rubinfien

My blog entries have been somewhat few and far between and short on writing due to the fact that summer is flying by. It's been filled with travel, getaways, and work for clients and my pictures + words project amongst other things. And, from here on out, it doesn't get any less busy - next week is the Jersey-Shore-from-hell week and, the week after we return, it's off to Rist Camp - a beautiful rustic Adirondack camp - for 4 weeks. During those 4 weeks, I also am taking Hugo to Rochester for a 5 day hockey camp.

The Rist Camp is only 40 miles from home as the crow flies but 80 miles as the car drives. I will be stopping home from time to time during those 4 weeks, so I will be posting now and again - maybe more, depending upon internet access at the camp.

That written, my thanks go out to those who have stuck with me, blog wise, during this lean period. Hang in there and your patience will be rewarded after the summer is over.

BTW, hope you are enjoying your summer and having as much fun as I am.

ku # 1250 ~ 1 thing I saw over the past week (more to come) / idyll with still life

Idyll with still life ~ Taylor Pond Wild Forest, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenA 4 mile paddle to the end of Taylor Pond - 8 miles from our house - brings one to a rather idyllic section of wild forest where a primitive campsite can be found where upon one can idle away, say, 3 nights and 4 days within earshot of laughing loons, hooting owls, screeching eagles, water-slapping beaver, and croaking frogs (to name just a few melodious delights). So the wife and I + some family and a friend made the paddle, set our motors on idle, and set about idling away.

civilized ku 2547-51 / ku # 1249 ~ some things I saw over the past week

Hugo's penalty shot ~ US Military Academy / West Point, NY • click to embiggen
Porch thru screen ~ Phoenica, NY - in the Catskill Mountains • click to embiggen
Dining thru screen ~ Phoenica, NY - in the Catskill Mountains • click to embiggen
View from our porch ~ The Haus / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
On the deck ~ High Peaks Resort / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
On the roof ~ High Peaks Resort / Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggen
Large and small tree with shade and wild growth ~ Plattsburg, NY • click to embiggenWent to West Point last week to watch Hugo's final game at hockey camp and then went to Phoenica with Cindy to present our picture + words project to a gallery where we were immediately offered the opportunity to exhibit 5 pieces in a group show with an opening this Saturday. Upon my return home, the wife and I went to Lake Placid for 4 days/3 nights where we had my birthday dinner and she attended a conference. After that little trip, I went to Plattsburg to run a few errands and I saw a tree and then I made a picture of it.

More about the exhibit in tomorrow's entry.

civilized ku # 2540-46 / ku # 1248 ~ what I saw on the 4th of July (Independence Day)

American Bald Eagle ~ Fern Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Boat parade ~ Fern Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Boat parade ~ Fern Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
4th of July cake ~ Fern Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Waiting ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Waiting ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Waiting ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenNo more waiting - fireworks ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenLate yesterday afternoon, the rain stopped, the sun came out, an American Bald Eagle landed close by in a tree, boats festooned with 4th of July paraphernalia paraded by, the wife baked a 4th of July flag cake, went to Lake Placid and passed time with a beer while waiting for fireworks, and then climbed in our canoe and paddled out to position ourselves at a spot on the water where the fireworks would explode over our heads. After which the fireworks exploded over our heads.

rain # 67-69 ~ more of the same

Moisture covered window ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flood stage river ~ East Branch Au Sable River / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Flood stage river ~ East Branch Au Sable River / Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenRain just keeps on coming - roads closed / washed out, mainline trains stopped dead in their tracks (pun) with 300 passengers transferred to buses, evacuations, and lakes and rivers well past flood stage. And guess what? - more rain is on the way for the next 3 days.

And, during those short intervals when the rain stops and the sun peeks out, it is so humid it feels like a rain forest - windows fog up, porcelain toilet tanks sweat like a 350lb person sitting in sauna, and heaven help you if you boil a small pot of water for rice - BTW, speaking of toilets, thanks to the rain that's where my golf game is currently located.

Enough already. Anyone out there know the dance steps for an anti-rain dance?

rain # 65 ~ rain and more rain

The Rocks ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOver the past month or more, to say that it has been raining is like saying that the sun comes up in the east. I, like many of my local friends and neighbors, have nearly forgotten the experience of a day without rain.