Happy New Year from Crisfield

I wish everyone a prosperous, happy, and peaceful New Year.

Auld Lang Syne

 Robert Burns 

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
We twa hae run aboot the braes
And pou'd the gowans fine;
we've wander'd mony a weary foot
Sin' auld lang syne
We two hae paidled i' the burn,
Frae mornin' sun till dine;
But seas between us braid hae roar'd
Sin' auld lang syne
And here's a hand, my trusty friend,
And gie's a hand o' thine;
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot
and days of auld lang syne?
For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne. 

Winter Wonderland - on the road...

“The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event.”

I took these photos on Christmas Day, on our way to our son's house. It was our first snowfall of the season. Some photos were taken nearby; some  up the road a piece, as we used to say in Georgia. Photos are filtered and all taken from a moving car. A really fast moving car.

Here is the church, here is the rail-maker...

“Without craftsmanship, inspiration is a mere reed shaken in the wind” ~ Johannes Brahms

I captured Tim McDorman painting these newly made rails on the St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Crisfiled. McDorman has been working with iron for 40 years. McDorman did not install these; he made them. It is nice to know that we still have quality craftsman in our town. Unlike many areas, we actually still have a lot of them in Crisfield.

Sometimes the light is just right

Everywhere is something which could be beautiful. You must only to see and to know what and how to take off, to crop from the infinity. Abstract, fine art, nature, landscape and portrait photography. ~ Florin Constantinescu

I walked into the bathroom the other day and could not resist the lighting.

Seagulls in Crisfield...

"People's destinies are so different. Some people drag along, unnoticed and boring—they're all alike, and they're all unhappy. Then there are others, like for instance you—you're one in a million. You're happy—" Quote from The Seagull by Anton Chekhov


I hope this finds you all happy.

Seagulls always make for a good photo. I took these photos at the beach near the Crisfield American Legion Post.

 

Wishing Everyone A Wonderful Day!

Thanks to the scheduler, I can wish you a Merry Christmas from Crisfield from Bel Air. Makes me feel like a Time Lord.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day. And I hope Santa filled your stockings with all things bright and shiny.

Food, Love, and Bikes for Christmas

All around the country, people have been giving of their time, energy, and money to make sure others have a brighter Christmas. The Crisfield and the Delmarva area are no different. From our police to our Red Cross bell ringers, to our organizations and individuals, people everywhere have been working as hard as Santa's elves.

Below are two photos that I hope thanks everyone everywhere for all their work and concern for those less fortunate.

The men are members of Men of Progress, a youth mentoring group.They provided Christmas food bags for many families around the area. The woman is Rev. Bess McAllister of the St. Paul Church. The church assisted in finding families in need, and let the MOP use their facilities. Because of the efforts of the MOP, a lot of people will be able to enjoy a Christmas meal.

Albert, that Love bag you are holding says it all.

Kudos to these two students from Salisbury Christian School who started Bikes for Christmas. Yesterday, two tractor trailer trucks pulled into Crisfield loaded with bikes for area kids. Shown are founders of this wonderful program Ben Katzaman, left, and Hunter Fooks. The two have provided bikes for children all around the Delmarva area. Oh, and to get a lot of these bikes, students from around the area agreed to give up their Christmas gifts to help those less fortunate. Doesn' t that warm your heart?

Thanks also to Village Youth Center in Crisfield. I have said it more than once and I will say it again, "It takes a village..." Kudos to everyone.

Oh, and Ben, I am going to have to watch you. You're getting too good with that camera.

I really wish I had had time to photograph and show you all the good work being done in the area. I can only squeeze in what my free time allows.

Merry Christmas! I can't say that enough, either.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve and a magical Christmas morning. And I hope Santa fills your stockings with love and happiness. I thought I would wind down the holiday season with the most famous piece ever written about Santa Claus. No, this girl is not named Virginia. I chose her because she is so cute and quite a believer in Santa, just as I am.

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

~

"VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood."

~

From Wikipedia: Francis Pharcellus Church wrote the unsigned editorial. Church had been a war correspondent during the American Civil War. Although the paper ran the editorial in the seventh place on the editorial page, below even an editorial on the newly invented "chainless bicycle," its message was very moving to many people who read it. More than a century later it remains the most reprinted editorial ever to run in any newspaper in the English language.

Virginia O’Hanlon, who eventually became an educator, received a steady stream of mail about her letter throughout her life. She would include a copy of the editorial in her replies. In an interview later in life, she credited the editorial with shaping the direction of her life quite positively.

Virginia died on May 13, 1971 in a nursing home in Valatie, New York. She is buried at the Chatham Rural Cemetery in Chatham, New York. But her spirit and the spirit of Christmas still live on.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas

"At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year." ~ Thomas Tusser 

Merry Christmas from our neighbor. You do a great job, Timmy. Thanks.

Christmas Decorations

Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva is Novim Godom!

I sneak in a few personal (and cat) posts from time to time. Since Christmas is about family, I will be bringing you some more Bel Air photos  on Christmas Day. Son, make sure the snow plow man clears your driveway before we arrive.

Since I have been busy and we are going to Bel Air for Christmas, we decided not to drag out the 500 pound tree this year. We put up a small tree and decorated it with some of our authentic hand-made Russian ornaments, brought over from Russia. Yes. I am of Russian heritage.

All of our ornaments, even when we display our big tree, are the sturdy Russian wooden ornaments that cats can't destroy. I usually decorate the tree with red or gold lights and use contrasting red or gold ribbons. But since we will be away and had no time for entertaining this year, I scrapped my traditional tree. I will be happy I did when it comes time to put Christmas away.

 

The Header reads Merry Christmas - in Russian, of course.

And here is one of five reasons why we can't have fragile bling-blings on on trees. He looks so innocent.

Skipper wishes all cats, especially Gray, a  Meowy Christmas.

Crisfield Volunteer Fire Department and The Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Department

I took this photo last week when the Crisfield and Princess Anne Volunteer Fire Departments were doing what they do best when not fighting fires - helping each other out. All of our fire departments do that.

This was a moving moment, and a personal one, so I will not go into the details.

Princess Anne is the one on the left.

 

The road is long
With many a winding turn
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows when
But I'm strong
Strong enough to carry him
He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

So on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We'll get there
For I know
He would not encumber me

If I'm laden at all
I'm laden with sadness
That everyone's heart
Isn't filled with the gladness
Of love for one another.

It's a long, long road
From which there is no return
While we're on the way to there
Why not share
And the load
Doesn't weigh me down at all
He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

He's my brother
He ain't heavy, he's my brother.

Bel Air, Md. Snow - Yes Another Post...

Because the weather is so much better in Crisfield. On Saturday, I posted our tiny little snow storm. On Friday, our son, who lives in Bel Air, sent us a photo of his snow. If you go back and read the post you will see that I posted the photo for all the Bel Air/Harford County people who just love Crisfield. I am amazed, when shooting assignments for the newspaper, how many Bel Air people I meet.

I received a few more photos this morning and thought I would post them. I filtered the Bel Air photos.

So would you rather be in Bel Air?

Or would you rather be in Crisfield? I took these photos today.

“Nature has no mercy at all. Nature says, "I'm going to snow. If you have on a bikini and no snowshoes, that's tough. I am going to snow anyway.” ~ Maya Angelou

Santa at Crisfield City Hall

"They err who thinks Santa Claus comes down through the chimney; he really enters through the heart." ~ Mrs. Paul M. Ell

Yes, Santa gets around. I captured him in front of the Crisfield City Hall last week. Sorry I am little late. I misplaced Santa. Ho, ho, ho!

Santa visits the Crisfield Police Department...

"It is the personal thoughtfulness, the warm human awareness, the reaching out of the self to one's fellow man that makes giving worthy of the Christmas spirit." ~ Isabel Currier
 Santa recently visited the Crisfield Police Department where children were given a last chance to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas.

 Thanks to everyone at the Crisfield Police Department and to the American Legion Riders Post 16. "It takes a village..."

Snow in Bel Air, Maryland

Many of you know we spend a lot of time at our son's house in Bel Air, MD. Our son just sent us this photo and I wanted to share it with all you Bel Air, Maryland residents who spend so much time in Crisfield, and those of you who have vacation homes here.

I have met so many wonderful Bel Air people when covering assignments for the newspaper, and I thought you might like to know we only got a scattering of snow. And it is warmer here. Now don't you wish you were in Crisfield now?

When our son shot this photo of his home this afternoon, he said about eight inches had fallen; another six had fallen after he shot the photo.  Brrr.

And we, in Crisfield, are happy to be here. Sometimes the bay keeps the bad weather away. Hey, that rhymed.

Another good thing about Crisfield is that we don't have any "Wheel Roads". For all you people who have not had the privalage of driving on Wheel Road in Hardford County, you are not missing anything.

Don't get me wrong. Going to Bel Air in Harford County is like going to Disney Land for us. But it sure is nice to come home. No traffic. No noise. Just  good old-fashioned small town flavor. I guess that's what draws so many people from Bel Air and other surrounding cities.

Snow in Crisfield

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,
stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons.
It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.
And he puzzled and puzzled 'till his puzzler was sore.
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before.
What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store.
What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.~ Dr. Seuss

We got a small amount of snow last night, just enough to show the Grinch the magic of Christmas. Sometimes the bay saves us from brutal weather. A lot of places were hammered.Photos from the around the entire area should be posted on the newspaper site sometimes today.

 

Thanks to a neighbor for letting me photograph part of his door decoration earlier in the week. I just knew I would be able to fit this in somewhere.

Miss Claus

"Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone." ~ Charles Schulz

Miss Claus stopped off at the Seton Center in Princess Anne to help out as they distributed 600 bags of  food, 600 bags of personal items, and over 350 bags of toys to area families.

Christmas Lights Around Crisfield

"At Christmas, all roads lead home." ~ Marjorie Holmes 

 

Erin and Addison admire some of the Christmas lights along their road in Crisfield.

 

Tommy, we always love your seasonal decorations.

 

 Wish I had had more time to take you around Crisfield but the weather has not cooperated. We have had rain, wind (you can't shoot lights in the wind), and even fog each time I had planned a shoot. I shot all these on the run with my wide-angle lens (set at around 15 with a high ASA). No time for tripod setup. Well, I did try a tripod setup one evening but it was so wet my tripod was sinking into the ground. I normally shoot Christmas lights with my 70-200 on a tripod or at least use my 24-70 on a tripod. I love my ultra- wide-angle; always handy when on the run.

All my Christmas lights so far have been "point, hold breath, cross fingers, and shoot" shots. All you photographers know what I am talking about. If we have a nice evening, and time allows, I will bring you some better photos. But don't count on it. A storm is headed our way and my gosh, it's almost Christmas.