Mark’s Notes On The Go

Say Cheese in Avebury!

I finally had a tourist cheesey goodness moment in Avebury.  It was my second trip to the lesser known stone circle in Wiltshire. Four years prior on my first visit to London, I took a day trip out that included a morning stop at Avebury.  It’s a bit of a contrats to Stonehenge.  A much larger circle and surrounding ditch and mound still evident.  It lacks the horizontal stone lentils of Stonehenge, but if memory serves it is an older site.  There’s also a village plop in the middle of it that has in fact harvested some of the stone for its buildings and over the years removed some of the stones due to their pagan past.  All told, if you are in Wiltshire, it’s a must stop on your itinerary.

Reaching Back - Avebury Stone circle and Earth Works

Avebury Standing Stones In the Sun

Avebury - An Eternity of Sunlit Days

I just have to add to that last one that the British continually joke about their lack of sunny weather, but in some weird way it makes days like this one so special.  Bright blue sky filled with puffed white clouds and a green carpet on the ground - what more could one ask for?

There are also many more photos from the Roman Baths, Bath Abbey, the city of Bath, and the wee village of Lacock to check out in my England September 2008 album.  You can pick up where I left off with my last blog right here.

And to see you off, one bit of photoshoppery from the village of Lacock.

Selective Color Image from the Village of Lacock, England

The end of the year always seems to accelerate.  I ran to the store this afternoon in shorts.  I was one of, oh, two people in shorts.  I wasn’t that cold but I did feel like I was holding onto a passing season.  The leaves are hitting the ground and the chill in the air isn’t a passing morning thing anymore.  It won’t be long until I’m complaining and wondering how far away spring may be.  I look forward to Costa Rica and Nicaragua in the midst of winter to bring me back a bit.

I spent the weekend cleaning up some old family photos.  I got a new and better scanner, which includes some adapters to hold film.  So, I’ve scanned in some more old photos and worked on the tears and nicks, etc.  I also tested out the film scanner with mixed results.  The negatives I chose were of photos I’d never seen before.  So, that was cool, but they were also not cared for so well and were probably more damaged than a lot of the photos I’ve restored.  Still worth it.  It’s a delicate line working on those old photos.  One of my great, great grandfather from near the turn of the century was badly damaged.  I cleaned it up for hours, and I finally hit a point that I had gotten the people as repaired as possible.  The background was still a bit worse for the wear but continuing would make the photo look way less vintage for lack of a better word.  As many old photos as I have, I’ll be a near expert when I finish this.

I’ve also had time to work on a few more photos from England.

The full album

or

jump to where I last posted an update

And here are a few of my favorites:

Newquay Beach - Surfing Zen

Dark Tor - Glastonbury

Dusk - Bath Abbey

Okay, for weeks, I’ve been hating how dark it was in the morning.  The late sunrise made it seem even harder to rise and shine.  Okay, I never shine, but I do rise.  Now the sun is going down too early.  There is no winning is there?

Where to begin on updates?  Hmmm…  I don’t know that I’ll start at the beginning as such, but I’ll start with the biggest news.  And by that, I mean big to me and probably no one else.  My annual new years holiday is now officially planned.  I will ring in 2009 in Nicaragua.  Defeaning silence?  Okay, let’s just say warmth and sun in Central America?  Is that more appealing?  I’ll be honest.  I hadn’t really heard anything about Nicaragua in years and years.  It was stowed away in some dark corner of my mind as being a place of much conflict.  That’s apparently mostly sorted.  There appears to be some lingering issues over control of the northeast corner of the country from what I can sus reading the US State Department’s travel warnings.  And if I compare it to Egypt’s travel warnings, it would look like I visited a war zone for my last New Years getaway.  Just to put things in perspective. And no, my trip will not take me near said corner of the country.

I am actually visiting two countries, so I shaved a little off the trip by just stating where I’d be to see in 2009.  The trip actually starts and ends in San Jose, Costa Rica.    I fly out to arrive on day 1 (not unlike my Intrepid trip last year, a day to meet and organize) on Dec 28th.  I fly back on Jan 11th.  The rest of the time will be spent in comparative warmth and sun.  And I know friends who live up north are reading this and shaking their head as I live in comparative warmth and sun for them.  Sorry, I’m just a big baby when it comes to my sunshine!

This weekend, in far less interesting fashion, I went up to the tippy top of the state to check out the fall foliage.  I don’t think I got any killer photos honestly.  I am very challenged by forests and mountains, still.  None the less, I had an awesome time if just for the zen moments and the riot of colors.  The trees were really putting on a show this year.  I drove up Saturday, getting a later start than intended.  I really only stopped by Anna Ruby Falls and did nothing else worth mentioning until checking into a hotel in Clayton, GA.  If I had realized just how close to North Carolina I really was, I might have gone that little bit further.

But if I had, I would have missed out starting my Sunday on the top of Black Rock Mountain, just north of Clayton.  The aerial view of the surrounding mountains and valleys were incredible.  The park ranger told me that this was the best color he’d seen in about 15 years.  Color enhanced even more by the warm morning sun.

After, I popped back northward and crossed the line into North Carolina.  This was actually the second time in as many days.  I had border crossed the evening before hoping for some nice sunset photos.  You can tell I am by nature a low lander.  I was flummoxed quickly by the fact the sun didn’t really set so much as the mountains blocked it.  Twilight came suddenly and I only got a few shots in, more of them covered in long shadows than anything.  I’m not sure I could quickly adapt to life in the shadow of mountains and I know I don’t want to live *on* one.  Nice flat yard please.

I took the Appalachian Parkway across the southern edge of North Carolina.  Saw more staggering views from various overlooks, and took one old mountain road down into a valley.  It was fun in a way, but more of a driving experience than a see the sights experience.  The curves were coming too fast to do anything but focus on driving!

And this is where I go into a side rant.  Most of the North Carolina stretch was fairly empty, when I dipped southwards again towards home, I ended up on more winding “scenic highways” packed with other Atlantans.  All wanted to go faster and wear their brakes out in every turn.  I’d rather not wear my breaks to nothing.  Face facts, you’re not going to get there much faster by screaming down the few straightaways only to jam on brakes into every curve.  And more importantly, I’m thinking you came into the mountains to see the sights, so please, slow down and see them.  Sheesh!

There’s much irony that I’m planning a trip that’s now less than 2 months away and I’ve yet to go through all the photos from England. There are a few more England photos up, though.  Starting here should get you to the newer ones since last posting.  And here are some of my favorites from the new crop.

Lanyon Quoit - Standing Stones

The Trail To Lands End - Cornwall

Minack Theater - Cornwall - In The Spotlight

Newquay Surfer - Heading Out

Current Mood:  chipper

Picture this, I had to go to Chicago on a business trip this past week.  There wasn’t a lot of advance notice, but it was not the first time, so I sailed through the trip arrangements and off I went.

Arrived Monday afternoon for an all day meeting Tuesday.  Tuesday flew by, quite busy, and I hopped back in the rental car and drove to O’hare.   Checked in the car and got to the terminal, rushed to the Delta Kiosk, and swiped my credit card.  I half paid attention when it said it had problems finding the reservation and it asked for the city destination for help finding it.  Punched in “ATL” and waited.  Again, it said it couldn’t find it and asked if I had the flight number.  I pulled out my itinerary and then punched in the flight number.

Seconds later, it popped up with, not a valid flight number for O’Hare.  Hrmm…  Must have typoed it.  I looked back at the itinerary and suddenly the words “MIDWAY” jumped out at me…  I have never had such a sick sinking feeling in my life.  I was at the wrong airport!  At slightly over two hours, on a rainy Tuesday, and I was at the wrong airport.  I rushed to the ticket counter to see if there was anyway to get on a flight out of O’Hare.  Nope, all full the rest of the night.  They thought I had a shot at getting to Midway and sent me to a shuttle service that would supposedly get me to Midway in 20 minutes.

The shuttle driver was not so optimistic.  Rain and bad traffic, he figured it would be well over two hours…  He shared the news with me that I apparently could have taken a couple of connecting trains after we had been on the bus half an hour… hmm…  not so helpful there bud.

Sure enough, we arrived at the airport within minutes of my 7pm flight leaving the gate.  And, of course, it was the last flight of the night.  I got on a 6am flight instead and went to find a hotel room.  I ended up at a hotel a few minutes from the airport and did some work over a McD’s meal while half listening to the presidential debates.

Not a lot of sleep was had before I had to get up to go to the airport again.  I got home late morning.

I can laugh a bit about it now so I feel more open to sharing this insane story.  Still have some angst about our travel booking system, though.  I never search on cities.  I searched on the airport code, ORD, so now I know that our daft system will still deliver you flight options at other airports.  Good to know…  I’ve learned to look a little closer at the results our booking system delivers.

Current Mood:  aggravated

I’ve been back in the states for over a week now.  There are days it feels like I never left in the first place.   There are always a little bit of the blues whena trip ends.  That’s how you know I had a good time.

There’s not much to say about the trip back other than I completely wrenched some muscles in my back.  I have no idea what my bag weighed going out, but I looked a the weight at the check-in at Gatwick airport and when I converted from kg to lbs, it was around 43lbs!  I believe a small child stowed away in my bag somewhere.  With compliments to my pack, when it was on my back I didn’t feel it, but everytime I hefted it up there, I did.  It felt heavier to me and I still don’t know how.  I swear I did NOT bring much back beyond the odd fridge magnet and assorted very trivial and tiny souvenirs.  I brought back freaking carved rocks from Mexico that didn’t weigh me down as much.  I’m sticking to the story that a small child (or midget) made their way to the states unbenowest to me. It took nearly the week since for my back to sort itself.

Oh, I was frisked more than once and had my carry on luggage searched at Gatwick.  I have never gotten through Gatwick without being singled out for a frisking.  On the happy column (not the frisking), the plane had a lot of empty seats.  Bad for Delta, great for me.  The row of 5 seats I was on had three people.  I got to stretch out and read and read (9 hours of reading with maybe a half hour nap).

Anyway, quite settled back in here and I’ve had just a little time to edit some photos. This trip’s gallery is here:  England September 2008 Travel Photos

A few of my favs so far:

London Underground Sign and Big Ben

Churchill Statue And Big Ben

Stonehenge Beneath Moody Sky

Fyi - all of the above are available as prints.

Last update for the moment is that this weekend I’ll be in Montezuma for the annual Beaver Creek Festival.  I’ll have a vendor booth again this year but did not have time to enter the art contest.  The vendor booth was a lot of fun last year.  I’d been to the festival many years before and you run into a few people,but if you sit in one spot the whole day, it feels like you see everyone you’ve known.  Hope to see some of you there!

I’m also participating in the Oakhurst Arts & Music Festival on October 11th.  The Atlanta Photography Group is sponsoring a tent and I am taking part and will have work available there. Looking forward to attending!