Hi, All – It’s Monday night, Sept. 30th, and I’m writing this message for the next time we hit a WiFi connection. Right now it’s around 8:30 PM, September 30th, and we’ll be spending the night parked at the bottom of the East Point Lighthouse on the very eastern tip of Prince Edward Island. Because of Bob’s curiosity and internet explorations, tomorrow we’re heading off to a place we’d never heard of – Isles de la Madeleine, a string of islands about 100 from this lighthouse in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Tomorrow afternoon, after driving about a half hour from this lighthouse, we’ll catch the ferry for a five-hour trip to reach the main island of the Madeleine archipelago. If you want to look it up, it’s midway between the Gaspe Peninsula, ... read more

Hi, All -- It's cold and rainy today, a perfect day for catching up on emails, reading a good book, and sending out another blog. Yesterday was nice, a fair amount of sun and briskish winds. We met for lunch with my past photo teacher and mentor, Lydia Goetz, who lives in Southwest Harbor. This is the third year in a row we've been able to have lunch with Lydia, always a good experience. This time we missed her partner, George De Wolfe, also an excellent photographer. I've taken a couple of classes from him too. Their little village of Southwest Harbor is surrounded by Acadia Nat'l Park as is Northeast Harbor which we visited later. The Park is interspersed throughout with private land. The Park's history, which is quite interesting, explains how all this came ... read more

Hi, All – Three nights ago Judy (Bob’s sister), Bob and I attended the “Blue Marsh: Landscape Lost” exhibit at Penn State’s Freyberger Gallery. The Blue Marsh Dam and Recreational Project was carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers and completed in 1979. The intent was to curb some area flooding and to provide a nice recreational area including the newly created Blue Marsh Lake. First estimated to cost $11,000,000, the final cost was around $62,000,000. Sadly, the greatest cost by far was the heartrending damage to the lives and livelihoods of a great number of families whose homes and businesses ended up under the lake water. More than fifty historic sites were in the area which was flooded; a few were moved, the rest were destroyed. A total of sixty-four farm families and dozens ... read more

On our last day, Sandy and I wandered the French Quarter and did the usual stuff -- chicory coffee and beignets at Café du Monde, wandering around Jackson Square, visiting the St. Louis Cathedral, listening to musicians along the river, getting our tarot card readings . . . Sandy works in downtown New Orleans, teaching photography to junior high kids attending the Trinity Episcopal Church's private school and also serving as the Church's photographer. And this was my 6th or 7th trip. So we were able to home in pretty quickly on some good photo opportunities. It was a lovely day and the French Quarter was in full bloom. Next and last blog -- plantations and other stuff. Take care. Paula... read more

Hi, Friends -- These photos (plus more to come) were taken last week when I visited a friend of mine, Sandy Courvoisier, a photographer, for a glorious week of shooting photos all over the New Orleans area where she lives. This was our third week-long photo trip -- one was a week around Blowing Rock, NC, and last year we spent a week on Anna Maria Island, FL. As you will see over a few blogs, we visited cemeteries, an alpaca farm, plantations, and, of course, downtown New Orleans. This first blog has photos taken in three cemeteries -- Metairie, Lafayette, and St. Louis No. 1. (I think that's right, but I'll check with Sandy later). I'm enchanted by crypts, especially the very old ones with ferns and other plants poking out their cracks. In a ... read more