a little light reading

sungdog and moonbow

2009-10-31T19:44:00.008-05:00

I captured some interesting cloud phenomena this week -- so here's a little meteorological info you can use to wow your friends.

Here's a sundog, which is also called a mock sun. It's "a colored, luminous spot or halo appearing to the side of the sun." The luminous spot is caused by the refraction of light through ice crystals in the atmosphere.

And on Halloween eve we saw this night rainbow, also caused by refraction of light through ice crystals in clouds. I guess it's different than an official moonbow, which is produced by light reflected off the moon...if you want to get all technical about it.

my daughter the ghoul

2009-10-29T06:22:00.002-05:00

Hannah, still in makeup from her role as "the ghoul" in the Barnstable High School's Haunted House.

pembroke bees

2009-10-21T16:56:00.003-05:00

Mom sent me a copy of this nice article on the work done by her quilting group the Pembroke Bees, making quilts and other items for hospice patients and injured soldiers. And here she is, hard at work on a piece of red work. Good job, ladies!

honorable

2009-10-21T07:06:00.001-05:00

Thanks, all, for voting for my photo in the Boston Globe's September amateur photo contest. I came in 6th with an honorable mention! See the winners and the top 10 photos here:
http://www.boston.com/community/photos/raw/2009/10/the_september_jobs_contest_win.html

the haunted oak

2009-10-18T20:59:00.007-05:00

A snippet of a powerful poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, together with a

layered photo technique I've been experimenting with.

photo joy

2009-10-16T16:00:00.005-05:00

I've been entering the monthly photo contests on the Boston Globe's RAW amateur photo page for a few months, and this month I'm in the group of top 25 finalists -- yay! They have a theme every month, and September's theme was jobs. The first photo below is the one I entered in the contest, and the others are ones I took on the same theme. It's a challenge to ask strangers if you can take their picture and have it come out looking natural. Try it!

lucy speaks

2009-10-11T19:09:00.006-05:00

Me, chatting to the Lothrops at the Lothrop Bible rededication (see previous post).

lothrop connections

2009-10-11T08:45:00.009-05:00

The Sturgis Library got some press in the Cape Cod Times about our rededication of the Lothrop Bible in a ceremony yesterday that was attended by about 120 people -- inlucing many Lothrop (Lathrop, Lothropp, Lowthorpe) cousins, pictured above. Our library was built as John Lothrop's meetinghouse in 1644, which is how it gets its distinction as the oldest library building in the country.

This may not be of interest to most of you, except that I discovered in my research that we (the Loomis cousins, anyway) are, along with what seems like half the United States, descendants of a sort from John Lothrop. Our 5th great grandfather General Israel Putnam's second wife was John Lothrop's great-granddaughter.

This line goes -- for you all keeping score at home:

Rev. John Lothop
I
Samuel Lothrop
I
Samuel Lothrop 2nd
I
Deborah Lothrop Gardiner second wife of General Israel Putnam
I
Hannah Pope Putnam (Israel's daughter from first marriage) m John Winchester Dana
I
Israel Putnam Dana
I
Charles Smith Dana
I
Sarah Dana m Chester Loomis
I
Charles Loomis
I
Eliot Loomis
I
Lucy Loomis & siblings

Thus endeth the genealogical lesson for the day!

saturday nite

2009-10-04T18:26:00.012-05:00

While Hannah was attending the Harwich High School homecoming dance last night,

I was out taking night photos around Brewster, killing time while I was waiting to pick her up.

To see photos from that night, click here.

almost october

2009-09-29T22:25:00.007-05:00

A quiet Monday on the beach in Dennis.

I spent an hour or so wandering around the Antiques Center of Cape Cod -- lots of great outdoor sculpture, salvaged bits from old buildings, signs, and interesting odds and ends.
See more images here.

coastsweep 2009

2009-09-26T18:37:00.003-05:00

It was a perfect day to participate in Coastsweep 2009 -- I joined other Barnstable Land Trust members to help clean up several beaches in Cotuit. We picked up an amazing array of trash, from wrappers and bottles to rope and signs, and lots of bullets and balloon strings and plastic bags. My most horrifying find was a bag of fermenting bait worms -- even after a shower, I can still smell them. Yum!

To see more photos of the gorgeous day and other recent photos, here's a slideshow.

metamorphosis

2009-09-24T20:48:00.007-05:00

In the children's room at the library we have a monarch caterpillar transforming into a butterfly right before our eyes. I think the grownups are even more fascinated than the kids!

the lure of fall berries

2009-09-23T22:22:00.006-05:00

These little berries were shades of blue, purple and green against red and orange foliage -- striking!

These are my favorite -- like little bunches of candy, or Easter eggs

If I were a bird, I'd eat these, wouldn't you?

chauncey loomis article

2009-09-19T21:10:00.006-05:00

Author and cousin Chauncey Chester Loomis died back in March 2009, and here is a nice article on him from the September issue of Arctic, a publication of the Arctic Institute of North America. I never met Chauncey, but got a nice note from him when I compiled SDL's memoirs and letters.

Chauncey, along with his brothers John and Stanley (also an author), were the children of Chauncey Loomis. Chauncey and his sister Sally Loomis Wilson (mother of Peggy and Alison), were the children of John Loomis and Abby Dana. John's brother Chester and Abby's sister Sara were our great-grandparents -- two brothers married two sisters. Complicated, no?

I've had a copy of his book on my bookshelf for too many years to count. I think it's time to read it in his honor.

second cousins

2009-09-04T14:32:00.004-05:00

Had a short but wonderful visit with the Holloways and Leonards at their vacation rental in Westport. A gorgeous evening, great food, and nonstop talk. But wait -- there's so much more to catch up on -- we have to visit again soon!

See more photos of the evening here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lucyloomis/tags/westport/

hurricane danny

2009-08-29T21:14:00.012-05:00

Cape Cod's been in the news a lot in the past few weeks. With the sad losses of Eunice and Teddy Kennedy, and the visit of President Obama and family, we've seen familiar scenes on the nightly news, and an increase in end-of-summer tourists and visitors. And there've been a couple of storms that looked threatening but in the end didn't amount to much. Today Hurricane Danny brought a whole lot of rain and wind, lots of flooding, and we even lost power for a couple of hours. A good excuse to light some candles and do a little reading.

A good day for ducks

Battered rain lily

Power out

The perfect book for a rainy Cape Cod day

And you know the drill. You can see more of my latest photos here.

morning glories

2009-08-29T10:44:00.005-05:00

I love my morning glories. Here they are in the morning, afternoon, and early evening.

halcyon farm photos

2009-08-25T18:44:00.007-05:00

For those of you who may not get regular updates from the Leonard branch of the family at Halcyon Farm New York, Fransje and Aunt June sent a link to some amazing photos of the farm/bed and breakfast, taken by their guest and photographer Walter Paul Berbirian. We're so often there at Thanksgiving time that we miss the summer lushness of house, gardens, and fields. Really spectacular - makes me want to drive out there and share a glass of iced tea on the porch. We miss them all, and are thrilled that we'll be seeing them next week when they come east for a visit. Can't wait!

xo

in the blink of an eye

2009-08-23T20:36:00.006-05:00

I have new-found respect for the patience of nature photographers. I took this photo standing in the hot sun at Taylor Bray Farm in Yarmouth. The swallows were flying at the speed of light in and out of the lower level of this old barn, and I thought it would be easy to capture a shot of them as they whizzed back and forth to feed their babies. After about 10 minutes and 30 or so shots I gave up, hot, tired, and disappointed. But when I got home and looked through the pictures, I realized I'd gotten one good photo after all.

Patience is a virtue. Have it if you can. I'm working on it.

upgrade

2009-08-19T20:26:00.011-05:00

What do you do when you're obsessed with taking photographs but frustrated with the limitations of your camera? Well, you feel guilty for a while (after all, you've only had your camera for 6 months).....and then you throw caution to the wind and upgrade. It helps to find a brand-new-in-box camera on craigslist for $100 less than in stores. Nothing like a bargain to assuage guilt. And nothing like a great new camera to make you know that you made the right choice. Here are some of my favorite new photos.

And here are my latest uploads to my flickr page.

Oh, and I also took photos for the Barnstable Village Civic Association at their Ice Cream Social last weekend. See those photos here.

i'm rich!

2009-08-17T16:37:00.007-05:00

Finally got the big refund check for canceling my Verizon phone service.

Where should we go to celebrate?

behind the scenes at the sturgis library

2009-08-15T08:49:00.005-05:00

I've been taking a series of photos of the "hidden Sturgis Library," partly for fun and partly to highlight our interesting building as we embark on a building preservation project. For those of you who haven't already heard it a zillion times, the Sturgis Library is the oldest library building in the country -- the original portion was built as a meetinghouse in 1644. You can see the photos here.

wait! that was going to be MY vanity plate!

2009-08-12T22:16:00.005-05:00

next time, put them in the hamper

2009-08-11T19:59:00.005-05:00

I found these in the parking lot at my dentist's office. Are these yours?

tree eats garage

2009-08-07T18:42:00.033-05:00

As recently as this morning, a beautiful juniper tree was growing behind the garage.

Did I say beautiful? Well, lets say it wore a deceptive facade of greenery, but the entire interior was brown and dead. But it was definitely still growing. In fact, it seemed to be trying to slowly consume the garage altogether. Could the rest of the house be far behind?

Today was a perfect clear blue Cape Cod day -- one of the first non-muggy days we've had in weeks. Perfect for taking down trees. Brud came by with his chainsaw and ended up taking down and chopping up four overgrown trees and shrubs in all. A mighty day's work, and much appreciated.

First, to roust Hannah out of bed -- here she is (recently turned brunette) with her dad

One final look at the beast

The murder weapon

The first cut is the deepest

Artful oil can

Timber!

Flying sawdust

Dismembered

The remains of the neighboring shrub (it has joined the juniper in the big forest in the sky)

Now I can fix the garage window that's been broken for 5 years!

Anyone need some juniper firewood? Free to the first taker. Don't all rush over at once!