The same color scheme of blues and oranges I use in winter scenes! No color adjustment at all in this picture taken at Monterey, California this afternoon….

The photo was taken in the Galilee (Northern Israel) about 10 years ago. The gentleman was a Druse with a small sandwich shop in a nature preserve. He was taking a break. The competition is sponsored by Vermont Photo Space Gallery.

Willem Leenstra on board his Yacht, the “Fried Dough.”

Writing group met today at 11 and we just finished having a wonderful meal and reading, revising, and sharing our work.  Rosalind brought poems on late night thoughts and whirlwinds,  and Hub an essay on Palm trees.   He also served great bloody Marys which you can see he enjoyed as well.  Check out Rosalind’s incredible custard, Toby’s feet and snacks, the post prandial dinner table, and post prandial poem editing by Rosalind.  My apologies for not getting everyone in the photos.  Some didn’t come out too well.  Thanks Laura for your photographic efforts, Hub for hosting and great chicken, potatoes and steamed day lilies, Laura for wonderful no knead bread, Glenda for super appetizers, Rebecca for yummy blueberry, blue cheese and red lettuce salad, and Rosalind for the Custard and fresh fruit. Don’t you ALL wish you could have a writing group like this one.  Lots of help for aspiring writers like me.   If anyone doesn’t like their photo, let me know and I’ll photoshop off a few years!

\

Seeing the Thuringia in Hamburg on a cold, gray morning in 1871, Aron’s pulse rose. His collar was tight and he could feel the throbbing beat. The journey would be a life changing event, and he knew it. Passengers were lining up, following one another like fish in a swirling school.  A flock of birds overhead darted left, and then right, before dropping down like a single living thing, towards the water.  The odor of fresh horse droppings near the edge of the road and drifting smoke from a barrel of trash mixed together,  producing an acrid smell which irritated Aron’s nose. Oily patches shimmered in the water where the hull of Thuringia reflected an image of itself, upside down.  Bits of wood and debris floated on the water’s surface. Dozens of ships were at the docks, both small and large. The size of Thuringia made Aron feel hopeful, but also afraid.  He’d slept little the night before traveling from Rogasen to Hamburg, and had eaten no breakfast. His stomach felt empty, but he had no appetite.

Thirteen years later he would become an American citizen.