Trip to Maine Part 2

The first night of our recent trip, we drove to the beautiful city of Portsmouth, N.H. staying at a restored 19th century hotel, Wentworth by the Sea.  As with all great hotels, it has substantial history.   In 1905, the Hotel Wentworth as it was then called, housed the delegations from Russia and Japan to conclude an end to the Russo-Japanese War known as the Treaty of Portsmouth.   Before and after that, it was a summer retreat for the well-to-do.

  

Advertisement Scribner's Magazine 1915

The hotel closed in 1982, fell into disrepair, was rescued from demolition in 1997, renovated and reopened in 2003. It is so lovely, even in Winter, you have a sense of what it must have been like in days gone by. It's also one of the grand old wooden ladies, i.e. wood structures, from the Gilded Age. There are three in New Hampshire, the Wentworth in New Castle, the Mt. Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods and the Mountain View Grand in Whitefield.

 1906 post card of the Hotel Wentworth

We had a lovely room with a view of the lagoon.  The hotel sits on a spit of land, up on a hill, with a view of the ocean to one side and an inlet lagoon on the other.   There is a marina on the bay side, still tying up boats after more than a hundred years.  The golf course too is vintage, opened in 1897 and enlarged by Donald Ross in 1921.                                                                                 

                                                                           Wentworth by the Sea 2010

After the Wentworth, we made our way up the Maine coast into Camden.  One of the first sites we stopped for was a beautiful point out on the water, overlooking Penobscot Bay.

 

On a point between Camden and Rockland overlooking Penobscot Bay

Trip to Maine Part I

My husband and I took a trip to the coast of Maine last week. It was Winter Break in Massachusetts and we wanted to get out of here because the White Mountains are filled with wall-to-wall skiiers, snowboarders and tourists. Normally, a trip to Maine in February is probably not a great choice but we discovered we could stay in some very nice places at reasonable rates and receive perks in the way of gourmet meals, spa treatments, etc.  We went on a photography excursion almost every day and I'll post them as he completes his work.

These are three versions of one image, Camden Harbor:

 

 

Theme Thursday Bottle

Some time last year, my husband and I rented "Bottle Shock", a movie we'd never heard of. It has some very fine actors, Alan Rickman, Bill Pullman, Dennis Farina. It's about a subject I love: wine...and not just any wine, California wine. It's the true story of how California wine was introduced as a serious contender to French wine in a 1976 blind taste test held in Paris. The results of this event were, heretofore unthinkable and forever changed the fortunes of California vintners. Worth the watch. Here's the trailer.

American Sunday

American Sunday 22 by Cole Scott

 My husband is working on a photographic journal of our church.  This is one of my favorite captures.

U.S.Olympic Medal Count Days 1 & 2...And Gold for Canada!

First Olympic Gold Medal Goes to U.S.  

It's a party four years in the making for 23-year-old Hannah Kearney from New Hampshire, who slashed through the rain and down the moguls Saturday night -- a remarkable run that gave America its first gold medal of these Olympics and denied Jenn Heil the honor of becoming the first Canadian to win gold on home turf.  espn.go.com





 

 Bahrke Wins Bronze in Freestyle Skiing

Her bronze will join the silver medal she won at Salt Lake City in 2002, not to mention two world championship medals and an overall World Cup title.

"To come back to my third Olympic Games and bring home my second Olympic medal is just, like, I can't really fathom it," Bahrke said. "Hannah talks about when it will sink in. For me, having the Olympic silver medal from '02 hasn't really sunk in. I look at it and I'm like, holy smokes, that's mine, that's so cool! And now I have another one to put next to it."

Bahrke, 29, has said she will finish the World Cup season and retire from competitive skiing. Her performance Saturday and throughout this season suggests she's leaving with plenty left.

"I'm going to be really sad to let it go, but what a way to let it go,"   usatoday.com

U.S. Wins First Ever Medal in Nordic Combined

Jump off a hill in the morning, do some cross-country skiing in the afternoon. That's what goes into the Nordic combined, a sport that's been part of the Winter Olympics since 1924.  And on Sunday, an American finally won a medal.

Johnny Spillane snagged the silver and Todd Lodwick narrowly missed joining him on the podium, finishing fourth. Spillane nearly got the gold, finishing a mere four-tenths of a second behind Jason Lamy Chappuis, who was born in Missoula, Mont., but has always raced for France.  by Jamie Aron AP Sports

The bronze medal went to Italian Alessandro Pittin.   associatedcontent.com

Apolo Ohno Wins 6th Olympic Career Medal
 

 VANCOUVER, B.C. – South Korea, the powerful short-track speed skating nation, was charging 1-2-3 toward the finish in the men's 1500 meters Saturday night with U.S. legend Apolo Anton Ohno running fourth.

That's when an ending straight out of a Hollywood screening room spliced into the action. The second two Koreans tangled skates and careened into the wall on the last turn. Ohno glided to a record-setting silver medal and American J.R. Celski – a 19-year-old who grew up idolizing Ohno – won the bronze.

Ohno's second-place finish behind Korea's Lee Jung-Su gave the 27-year-old Seattle native six medals over three Winter Olympics, the most ever won by an American man.  from The Oregonian    oregonlive.com

Despite Recent Leg Injury, 19 Year Old Wins Bronze in Speed Skating

Back in September at the Olympic Trials, Celski crashed, leaving him with a huge gash in his leg that went all the way to the bone after the tip of his skate got lodged in his leg. The road to recovery has not been an easy one for Celski, but was undoubtedly worth it after fulfilling a lifelong dream of winning an Olympic medal.  by Marissa Poulson   Scottsdale TV Examiner 

VANCOUVER, B.C. — The day after J. R. Celski secured the bronze medal in short track speedskating’s 1,500-meter race, he met with reporters at the media center here and admitted that five months ago, when he removed his left skate from his right knee at U.S. Nationals, he wondered if he would die.

Celski said he came one inch from cutting a major artery in his leg, the result of which, well, he did not want to think about. He cried that night but never lost consciousness, as blood pooled on the ice.  by Greg Bishop nytimes.com




Canada's First Gold

Alexandre Bilodeau is Canada's golden boy.
The 22-year-old Montreal native made history Sunday night, winning the men's moguls to become the first-ever Canadian athlete to earn a gold medal in an Olympic Games on home soil.
After finishing 11th in Turin four years ago, Bilodeau bounced defending Olympic champion Dale Begg-Smith — a Canadian ex-patriate who competes for Australia — to strike gold Sunday and send waves of relief across Canada.
No Canadian won a gold in either of the previous Olympics held here, 1976 in Montreal and 1988 in Calgary.
Bilodeau's gold was Canada's second of the day Sunday and third overall in the Vancouver 2010 Games.  torontosun.com



US Takes Bronze in Men's Freestyle

USOC February 14, 2010

Bryon Wilson (Park City, Utah) won the bronze medal in the men’s moguls competition on Cypress Mountain Sunday evening as Alexandre Bilodeau made history, becoming the first Canadian to win Olympic gold on the homeland’s soil.

Bilodeau posted a score of 26.75 to edge Australia’s Dale Begg-Smith by 0.17. Wilson was a half-point behind Begg-Smith with a 26.08, powered by the highest air score (5.46) among the 20 finalists.  skiing.teamusa.org
 

Cupcakes, Valentines and Commerce

I'm hoping to sign a new client and I'm very excited.  Why?  Look at the product!

 

I went in to get a cupcake.  We started talking.   I was in sweats, headed to the gym.  They sold me a lemon curd topped lemon cake cupcake.  I started eating.  I gave them my card.  I sell local television advertising.  They thought it was funny I was eating a cupcake before  hitting the gym.  Next thing you know, we are talking air time and visuals for their brand new business.  

I ordered their Valentine's Day special:

I'm going to surprise my husband, son & MIL with these.

They make cakes too.  This is a little dog on a John Deere tractor.  

 

And a very cool spider cake.

I wonder who will end up spending the most money with whom?

Theme Thursday Mirror

Disclaimer:  I totally lifted this from my 12/30/09 post on my other blog Women of a Certain Age.  No sense reinventing the wheel. 

Every Christmas, Santa fills my stocking with delightful small items; but this year he blew it.  This year, he  included something I viewed with intuitive alarm:  a small, round extreme magnification make up mirror.  Now, I don't know about you, but when you are a women of a certain age, you do not want to view yourself in the extreme.  You may need an average magnifying mirror in order to better see your face without squinting while you apply makeup.  Extreme is another matter. The number of times this thing enlarged my eye was so unexpected and abrupt, I dropped it in dismay.

I look in the mirror every morning before and after makeup.  I am an optimist.  I generally feel I have very few lines or wrinkles or even age spots.  My skin is still on the oily side so I haven't the crepe paper texture so often associated with aging.  However, this mirror shows all my blemishes, crow's feet, enlarged pores and more.  It's like putting myself under a microscope and recoiling from what I now see.  Aarrggh! 

Don't get me wrong, I am trying very hard to age gracefully, sans face lifts, botox and whatever else people use to slow the process.  But, I still have my illusions and that mirror will shatter them if I keep it.  Can't break it as I'll have seven years of bad luck.

I think I'll wrap it and give it to one of my friends.

Photo from freeimages.com

Advertisers Are Watching YOU

Just saw an amazing story on GMA Saturday about advertising's brave new world. Once the stuff of science fiction, advertisers are finding plenty of alternatives to advertising in the Super Bowl and they'll know alot more about you, your interests, buying habits and more when they are done. 

Talk about Big Brother watching. This is scary stuff.
 

For more information, go here.

Theme Thursday Red

from Pigments Through the Ages:

Red is supposedly the first color percieved by Man. Brain-injured persons suffering from temporary color-blindness start to perceive red before they are able to discern any other colors. Neolithic hunter peoples considered red to be the most important color endowed with life-giving powers and thus placed red ochre into graves of their deceased. 

 

Vermilion

An orangish red pigment with excellent hiding power and good permanence. It's
a mercury sulfide mineral (cinnabar) used from antiquity through to the present though only scarcely due to its toxicity. Made artificially from the 8th century (vermilion), it was the principle red in painting until the manufacture of its synthetic equivalent, cadmium red.

Protective powers of the color red against evil influence were common belief. Objects, animals and trees were covered in red paint, warriors painted their axes and spear-catapults red to endow the weapons with magic powers. Some of the Australian aborigines abide by this custom up to the present times. Neolithic hunters and germanic warriors used to paint their weapons and even themselves in blood of slain animals. Roman gladiators drank blood of their dying adversaries to take over their strength. In other cultures, the newly born were bathed in blood of particularly strong and good looking animals.Red painted amulettes or red gems, such as ruby or garnet, were used as charms against the "evil eye". Wearing a red ruby was supposed to bring about invincibility. Red bed-clothes were customary in Germany up to the Middle Ages as protection against the "red illnesses", such as fever, rashes or even miscarriages.

 

Red lead

A dense, fine-textured red pigment with good hiding power but only fair stability. Red lead was one of the earliest pigments artificially prepared and is still in use today. It was a favourite of Byzantine and Persian illuminators and commonly used in European manuscripts and paintings.  The name "Red lead" comes from Minium comes from river Minius located in north west Spain.

Red rose is the symbol of love and fidelity. According to the Greek legend red roses arised from blood of Adonis who was killed by a wild boar on a hunt. In Greek mythology red rose was a symbol for the cycle of growth and decay, but also for love and affinity. Red rose is dedicated to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and daughter of Zeus and also to Roman goddess Venus. In Christianity the red rose is associated with the Cross and the bloodshed.

O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June
O my Luve's like the melodie
That’s sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry:

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve

And fare thee weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.

Robert Burns 1794

Madder Lake

It's a lake derived from the extract of the madder plant's root (rubia tintorum). It is one of the most stable natural pigments. It was in use by the ancient Egyptians for coloring textiles and then was continuously used until today. By the 13the century, madder was being cultivated on a fairly large scale in Europe, but there is not evidence of its use in medieval or Renaissance painting. Madder lake was most widely used in the 18th and 19th century, though never as extensively as the ruby-like lakes made from kermes, cochineal, brazilwood, and lac. Madder was formerly used in large quantities for dyeing textiles and is still the color for French military cloth.

Groundhog Day

An early American reference to Groundhog Day can be found in a diary entry, dated February 5, 1841, of Berks County, Pennsylvania storekeeper James Morris:

"Last Tuesday, the 2nd, was Candlemas day, the day on which, according to the Germans, the Groundhog peeps out of his winter quarters and if he sees his shadow he pops back for another six weeks nap, but if the day be cloudy he remains out, as the weather is to be moderate."  Wikipedia