most viewed

I have to admit that I'm something of a flickr stats addict. For those of you who are unfamiliar with flickr, I can go in and see how many times my photos have been viewed, who's left comments or who calls one of my photos a favorite.

Some of the most viewed photos are of Hannah and Nick, and I also have high stats on the ones I post in groups and in contests. But the two surprise frontrunners are photos that people find through internet searches -- and here they are:

I found this Old Quaker bottle in the bottle dump near Hathaway's Pond in Barnstable. I suspect that most people stumble across this photo because they've found a bottle, too, and may be searching to see if it has any value. Not a very good photo, but....

And the runner up is Joe's Twin Villa, the infamous hot spot in the village of Osterville -- a sort of historic hangout amidst the mansions along the southside of Cape Cod. Joe's is mentioned in this entry on Osterville in the Urban Dictionary.

You never know how you will connect with people -- sometimes through the smallest common thread. So, meet me at Joe's and we'll toast to life with a shot of Old Quaker! Cheers!

memorial day

I got the opportunity to go back out to the old bottle dump near Hathaway's Pond in Barnstable to do some bottle digging with Gordon Starr. We got some fun bottles, mostly from the 1940s/50s, I think. The woods were filled with lady slippers, and the pine trees had just released their pollen all over everything -- there's a slick of yellow pollen on every surface outdoors and indoors. I guess it's a good idea to take a few days off from housecleaning, because tomorrow it will just be covered with pollen again. Yeah. That sounds like a good excuse.

From here on out I'm going to try posting most of my photos on flickr so that all of you with slow internet can read the blog without getting hung up on slow-loading photos. I'll post a few here, and then give you a link to the rest. And there will always be a link in the menu on the right.

So here's what I did on Memorial Day:

More photos here

pass me a bottle

On a hike near Hathaway's Pond we came across a wonderful old bottle and metal dump, with literally hundreds of half-buried unbroken bottles probably dating from mid-20th century. My favorite is the bottle that broke with the perfect oval to display the moss growing inside.

We were also treated to the sight of a hawk in a tree just a few yards away from where we stood near Little Hathaway's Pond. Lots of wildlife out and about -- also saw a heron, and buffleheads, and countless other water birds enjoying the early spring temperatures.

Thanks to Red Bansfield of the Barnstable Land Trust for inviting me along on these walks, and of course to pal Gordon Starr for his amazing knowledge of the woods.