Atop the Empire State Building

Bryant Park, looking north from the Empire State Building NYC June 2013

The WordPress Photo Challenge for the week is “atop.” To see more ‘takes’ on the theme, click on the link.

These pictures were taken from the observation deck of the Empire State Building in mid-June, 2013.

Looking northwest at the fantastic detail in some of the older Manhattan buildings.

Looking down and west from the Empire State Building NYC June 2013

Looking further west from the Empire State Building NYC June 2013

The Flatiron Building, looking southwest from the Empire State Building NYC June 2013

Some other photos from the top of the Empire State Building were used to show the bridges of Manhattan here.

 

 

Wish (copy cat!)

Kyoto Day 2 – The Philosopher’s Walk

WordPress posts a photo challenge every week in which we bloggers are encouraged to post a photo (or four) which fit(s) a theme.

This week’s theme was Wish and was illustrated by Shinto ema.  Wordpress’s Jen H. wrote, “Visitors to Shinto shrines can purchase small wooden plaques called ema, upon which they can share their hopes and dreams. Then, they hang them amongst other ema from people who have come before them, in the hopes that spirits will grant their wish… The ema were covered in myriad languages and sentiments; they were fascinating….”

Ueno Park Tokyo

Tokyo November 3, 2012

I was reminded of our trip to Japan in 2012 and am posting four photos from that trip which illustrate Shinto ways of meditation, or prayer, or wishing, if you will. If that makes me a copy cat, so be it.

I wish I could go back.

Ueno Park Tokyo

My entry in WordPress’s weekly photo challenge on the subject of Wish

Transfogrify, transmogrify

The word smog is in the middle of transmogrify and fog could be considered as clean smog. And fog sure does change the landscape.

On Friday, as we drove from PEI to Halifax, we ran into lots of fog, including this, on the Tantramar Marsh along the border between the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and between the towns of Sackville, NB, and Amherst, NS. It has been several years since we drove that way to Halifax and the windmills were new to me.

Windmills on the Tantramar Marsh

Taken with an iPhone 6 through the window of a moving car (I was not driving!) and edited in Apple Photos and a ‘Process’ filter added.

This week the theme of the weekly WordPress photo challenge is transmogrify. Transform. Morph. Change. Participants will show something already transformed, on the cusp of transformation, or that you wish you could transform. For more entries look here.

Local 343

Local 343, 98 Water Street, Charlottetown,PEI

A very recent addition to PEI’s wide range of excellent restaurants is Local 343 led by Chef Emily Wells. The name comes from the original phone number for the building, back when phone numbers were either local, or long distance. The seating area is upstairs, the kitchen is on the ground floor. The wait staff get LOTS of exercise.

Local 343, 98 Water Street, Charlottetown,PEI

Heritage sign on the face of the building.

 

They have a sense of humour too!

Sign says: Texting is a good way to talk to people without having to buy them a drink.

As is often the case on PEI, the business does not have its own website, but you can find it on Facebook.  I highly recommend it for lunch or dinner.

This week’s WordPress photo challenge is Local.  And you can find other entries with that theme at the link.

The Quest for Food

One of our primary needs as living organisms is to find food.  For some it is simpler than for others.

Plants need sunlight and water and the bees and wasps (among others) harvest the pollen.

UBC Botanic Garden – May 2016 – Gaultheria

Ravens hop on a ferry hoping a human will leave part of their lunch.

Ferry which leaves from Shelter Bay on BC Route 23 (from Revelstoke to Nakusp)

Cows get fed at the trough; and the smaller ones have to wait.

Cows at Orwell Corner Historic Village, Orwell, Prince Edward Island

And some of us get tired of cooking and head for a favourite restaurant. Or are in transit and have to stop somewhere; this was a great somewhere on our recent trip from PEI to Shawnee on Delaware Pennsylvania.

Fish Tacos at Moulton’s Market, Amherst, New Hampshire

In response to Cheri’s challenge to post photos on the theme of Quest.  You can see her challenge and the many responses at the link.

First three photos taken with a Pentax K-3 and the last with an iPhone 6.

iPhriday – 50th reunion

Last weekend I was at my 50th Cormier High School reunion in Edmundston, New Brunswick. The English class at Cormier had only 21 graduates, 2 of whom are, sadly, deceased.  Of the remaining 19, 14 of us were in attendance at some point during the weekend. Yeah us! Here are a couple pictures I took on Saturday afternoon with my iPhone.

Marg, Bernard, Pam, Patti, Jackie

Pat, Grant, Janice

This group photo of 11 of us, including me, was taken at the same time, but I didn’t take it. And it wasn’t taken with a phone.

Grade 12 A plus 50 years. Photo by Mr. IDWE: Mike, Jackie, Ellen, Patti, Marg, Janice, Pam, Pat, Grant, ME!, Bernard.

I have discovered that the iPhone is pretty good for duplicating old photos. This one was taken in first grade, and seven of the eight women (old ladies?) in the photo above are in the photo below.  The one who isn’t (in black in the front row)  joined our class before the end of the school year! People didn’t move around much back then!
See if you can match any of us from the photo above.

Grade one snowflakes, Edmundston NB, winter 1954-55. The dresses were made of paper by our mothers.

It is iPhriday- check for other iPhriday entries here.

Footnote: the school closed down shortly after we graduated and was torn down about 20 years ago.

Actaea formerly known as Cimicifuga

Bugbane at NB Botanical Garden

The very narrow flower spikes of bugbane – to use its common name – are very attractive in mass plantings.

At the New Brunswick Botanical Garden in Edmundston NB this past weekend I noticed two striking stands of them, but couldn’t find a label on either.

Bugbane at NB Botanical Garden

This link, from a UK newspaper, tells you more about them, why their name has changed and how to grow it.

To see more takes on the theme of Narrow – visit the WordPress Photo Challenge page for this week.

IPhriday visit with the Grands

Here’s a selection of photos taken with my iPhone 6 during the past week while my Pennsylvania grandchildren were visiting. The first three are from Canada Day, on July 1 – hence the red and white clothing.

Terrible two SKA sitting in the six.

AKA – almost six – in the 0 of 2016 on the Charlottetown waterfront.

We spent one morning at Belfast Mini-Mills where they build small mills for cleaning, carding, spinning and skeining fibres which they ship around the world.  They also have resident animals – which is why we took the children: goats, sheep, angora rabbits, giant German brown rabbits, silky chickens, and a friendly dog.

Two kids and Momma feeding another kid at Belfast Mini-Mills, PEI.

Four kids and our wonderful tour guide

On the way home from Mini-Mills we stopped in Eldon for lunch at the Chuckwagon Farm Market, restaurant and play area. They have a huge corn maze in the fall.

AKA masters the steam shovel in the sandbox at the Chuck Wagon’s playground.

On their last full day on PEI, I had help in the garden and we had a mini-birthday party after supper. Chocolate cupcakes without frosting were a hit!

HKA (4 1/2) helps Nana by picking up spent lilac blooms.

Happy late birthday to SKA and early birthday to AKA.

This is a day late for iPhriday, managed by Gray Days and Coffee, where you can see other posts from other participants’ cell phones.  It’s a day late because I couldn’t get the photos to load onto my iMac from my phone; turns out an accidental 300 shot photoburst was clogging up the connection.

Pure Ice

Ice at the edge of Bow Lake, Icefields Parkway, Alberta

In May we visited Alberta and British Columbia, traveling by car through the Rocky Mountains.  One day – that began with snow – as we travelled south on the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park we stopped at Bow Lake. The lake is fed by Bow Glacier which you can see in the saddle between the mountains

Bow Glacier and still-frozen Bow Lake

The ice at the edge of the lake was so clean – pure. I noticed that it didn’t look at all like the ice along the edge of our river at home, which usually contains specs of red from the soil erosion (from wind and water) that plagues our Island.

Ice at the edge of Bow Lake, Icefields Parkway, Alberta

Black and white photos shot with Hueless on an iPhone 6 and edited in Photos on an iMac. Colour photo taken with the iPhone back.

Posted for the WordPress Photo Challenge PURE.

Posted for iPhriday. Kudos to Gray Days and Coffee who started this iPhriday challenge.

iPhriday – Drumheller Alberta

Badlands – Drumheller near the Red Deer River.

In early May we flew to Calgary, Alberta, rented a car, and drove through parts of Alberta and British Columbia to Vancouver where we dropped off the car.  Our first stop was Drumheller;  the Red Deer River has created a stunning landscape through its valley. Drumheller is also the location of the Royal Tyrrell Museum. Our ‘tour guide’ in Drumheller was my second cousin who recently retired after 34 years at the Museum. One of the places he took us, downriver from the town, was the Star Mine Suspension Bridge on a calm sunny morning.

Red Deer River from Star Mine Suspension Bridge, Drumheller, Alberta

After we left Drumheller we drove most of the day but stopped for lunch in Red Deer where the town had organized a fund-raising barbecue for Fort McMurray (Alberta) which was experiencing a devastating fire causing all of its 88,000 residents to become disaster refugees.  (The fire started on May 1; this was May 6, and the fire was still out of control.) This article from MACLEAN’s Magazine, published May 12,  is long but has some stunning photos and graphics to show the extent of the disaster.  Residents were only able to return to Fort Mac starting about 10 days ago.

Fort McMurray fundraiser.

While I usually took pictures with my Pentax K5 or my Sony R100/3 I made a point of getting a couple of iPhone photos every day – so I could post to Facebook. I expect to post more photos of this trip soon!

iPhriday begun by Gray Days and Coffee blogger. See other posts here.