A Day at the Beach...

Let's kick off the return of Chatter ::don't look at how long since the last post, don't look, don't look...::—now that I have the time, an updated computer, a very good Internet connection, and an ever-increasing frustration with the limitations of social media apps—with a summer-themed post in mid-October. (Ah, well, I actually wrote this in February. ::eye roll::)

I have also, finally, gotten my hands on the box of old family photos. ::big grin::

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So, let's begin...

On August of 1925, at Cape May, New Jersey.

The Baugh-Larson Family

The boy on the right is my maternal grandfather—my brother's dead-ringer of a doppelgänger, as it turns out—and the boy on the left is his older brother (great uncle). Luckily someone had dated the pile of beach vacation photos that was passed down through the generations; unluckily, and despite knowing better, no one ever took the time to record who those other people were while there was still someone alive who could identify them…

Not wanting to get overly-upset with now-unanswerable questions about just who all of those young ladies were, I started wondering if it would be possible to identify the location where the photo was taken, something beyond "Cape May". I shot off a message to a local amateur historian asking if they knew anything about Shields Atlantic Baths. (Were they the same Shields of Peter Shields Inn fame?) They responded that they'd keep an eye on old postcards to see if anything turned up.

Ok, that sounded like a good place to start... Gotta love Google: A search for "Shields Atlantic Baths" got me nowhere, but a search for old postcards from Cape May struck pay dirt. Images of old postcards and photos led me to blog posts about old Cape May and then, by sheer dumb luck, I found the one-in-a-million postcard (on a blog in a "Then and Now" type article) that could give me a starting point from which to—without ever leaving my comfy chair—pinpoint by way of Google Earth Street View almost exactly where our family photo was taken in August of 1925...

The Seven Sisters, aka Atlantic Terrace. Images from CapeMay.com

The windows and roof eaves match, as does the point of view from the street (near enough).

The building in the background on the left in my photo is, with little doubt in my mind, the first in line of the Seven Sisters, aka Atlantic Terrace. Cruising down the street digitally in Google Earth put me in almost the same spot as the bench—more or less the corner of Jackson and Beach. Which would make sense, as that is only two blocks over and about three blocks down from where the train station used to be at Washington and Ocean.

Image from Google Earth Street View, present day. Nearly 100 years later and it is still a little row of tourist shops! Missing some of the grand old homes, however. (And the laundry line full of wash hanging out to dry.)

Southernmost New Jersey, 1931. (I knew South Cape May existed once-upon-a-time, but not to that extent! What hadn't been washed away by repeated storms was purposefully removed; the area was then used as cattle pasturage for awhile and is now protected land held by The Nature Conservancy.)

Train station at Washington and Ocean, star is the Seven Sisters;

probable bench location at Jackson and Beach.

My mother’s father’s family used to come in by train from out near Pittsburgh (can you imagine?!); the maternal paternal great-grands had a house on one of the lagoons in Avalon, my grandparents built farther down Seven Mile Island the year before I was born, and my great uncle ended up with a summer house in Ocean City. Which means we started out Shoobies (for shoe box lunches brought in by day-trippers), became local shoobies (property owners), and I turned full-on local when I purchased a year-round property in the county. I actually missed being a native—born, if not bred—by a mere two days; mom wasn't sure if the hospital had a maternity ward at the time but she did have a guaranteed spot at the Navy hospital in Philadelphia. And I was back down to the shore at a mere two weeks old. 

Surprisingly to us, a little digging into our ancestry by my brother turned up an Avalon connection on our father's side as well! We come from generations of salty hair and sandy toes...

More tropical color...

Peach yum-yum!

(Hibiscus are edible, and my cats sometimes think they are grazers...)

Finding color in another crazy winter...

The forsythia bushes were acting oddly this fall: They were blooming here and there throughout November and into December. (So was the ornamental holly, for that matter, and the silver maple buds looked full to bursting. A friend in Ohio also noted late-fall blooming forsythia. What the—?!) I decided to bring in a few branches of the forsythia, recalling from a college horticulture class that they are quite hardy and figuring the flowers would open in the warm house since I could see petals in the buds.

Mid January and I had flowers. Love the way the winter light shines in my windows…

I lost my largest, oldest potted hibiscus bush this summer but as I usually end up buying/rescuing a new one every year I still have four or five. They thrive outside during our hot, humid summers (when I remember to water them) but throw right royal tantrums when I bring them in for the winter… Ah, durance vile! The dry, stagnant indoor air and my even more lax watering cause them to drop all their leaves. In spite of this—or perhaps because of it, maybe they think they’re dying?—they reluctantly send out new leaves, and the one even manages to pull off full-blown flowers.

Couldn’t resist shooting just the bottle. There is just something about glass that makes my heart hum…

Bit of Color for a Dreary Day...

Time to catch up with a big backlog of photos and get this blog up and running again!

As it is a typical gray, cold, wet, miserable "winter" (still a few weeks off the solstice astronomically speaking, I know, but close enough) day here in Southernmost New Jersey, I feel a splash of color is in order. (Already, you ask? Aye and oi--'tis going to be a long, slow, grueling slog to get even half way out of the dark this year, I fear...)

So. Violets, as seen through my Lensbaby lenses this past May.

Shuttered.

I admit it: I have a thing for shutters. Especially exterior ones that really work. Lucky for me, living in an area that has seen European settlement for the past 300 years means there are a goodly number of extant shutters. Most are so layered in decades of paint I doubt they actually work anymore (given the increasing frequency of hurricanes, the home owners might want to look into that...) but they did at one time--they weren't just there for looks like most shutters are today.

I am particularly drawn to the "shutter dogs"--the hardware that holds the shutter open against the building. There are only so many colors and hinges that are used on shutters, but the shutter dogs seem to vary quite a lot.

These are from two buildings. The green-on-white are on the Cresse-Holmes house that houses the Cape May County Historical Museum's collection of artifacts. The green-on-yellow are the book bindery in Historic Cold Spring Village.

All photos taken with a Lensbaby Sweet 35 optic.

I'm dying here... (More spiders!)

The spiders in my yard this year are killing me. So many, so fantastic! I don't know if I'm spending more time looking or if the yard is now mature enough to support them. Probably both.

This one literally dropped out of a tree to the deck right in front of me. Oh, my...

And then I found another one.

I've spent too much time comparing the photos but although incredibly similar I believe they may be two individuals. No ID yet.

And then this handsome male (one of a few cases in the spider world where the boys are pretty spiffy themselves) appeared on the top of an iris leaf in the container pond. After snapping a few slightly blurry photos (I was leaning out the door trying to keep cats in and mosquitos out, twisting the leaf around because he was being particularly shy) I made sure he was over dry land so he didn't miss a jump and land in the water.

These are just the jumping spiders; the orb weavers are out in great variety as well. More to come! Apologies to all arachnophobes. (Don't worry, I only take photos of the beautiful ones; some spiders even make me go Eeewww...)

I am in LOVE...

How can you not love this face?

To continue with examples of the serendipitous way my life works, out of the blue the other day I decided to see if I could get the sliding screen door either back on its track or figure out a way to hinge it. (It's been lying on its side tucked away on the deck for years...) In the process of wrestling with the door (which I did manage to get back up, more or less) I happened to notice this little fellow.

Even if you don't like spiders, how can you not like jumping spiders?! Okay, so one friend is most likely now afraid of any photo I post on Facebook. She says it's the eyes. Fair point; jumpers typically have eight of them, with at least two huge ones front and center. As well as eyes in the back of their head; how cool is that?

But (probably because of all of those eyes) they look at you. They notice you. They react to you with seeming intelligence. There's a connection being made and it's marvelous.

The legs-up photo is because he she was trying to get away and I wanted his her attention, so I tapped the chair arm and disturbed him her a bit more than I had planned. Oops. (He went merrily on his way when I had clicked off a dozen or so shots.)

CORRECTION: Paraphidippus species -- Emerald Jumper. Always go with the obvious. *sigh* With over 400 species of jumping spiders north of Mexico, it isn't easy to say which is which... Doesn't help that the females look different from the males. The juveniles probably look different from adults. Spiders of the same species can be highly variable. And some spiders can even change their patterns and colors like a chameleon. I'm sticking to Pelegrina (the white marks on the abdomen seem to be rather characteristic of the genus) and will let the nice folks at BugGuide.net worry about which one. happy to be corrected.

Two days earlier I photographed the little one shown below on my front deck. I believe it too is a Pelegrina Paraphidippus; note the same white markings. Smaller and plainer = male. The line down the center of the abdomen really threw me until I realized it was not a true mark but merely the light reflecting off the spider.

Ten Minute Snapshot of My Life

Ten minute snapshot of my life... In snapshots.

How things work in my life: I went out to pick up some bamboo tips from where I'd tossed them last year because I finally figured out a use for them. Saw a wee snail in a patch of fantastic light, thought it would make a neat picture. Went for the camera, snail was cruising and had nearly managed to get out of sight by the time I made it back outside so I picked up the piece of bamboo it was on, scaring the snail. Snapped photo anyway:

While waiting for snail to re-emerge, out of the corner of my eye I noticed movement under the tree a couple feet away and looked more closely to discover it was a spreadwing damselfly... First for the yard, woohoo! Bad lighting but I took a documentary photo anyway:

The snail being stubborn, I was then sidetracked by the way the light was hitting the milkweed blossoms farther past the tree. (You can actually see the pink blur in the background of the above photo.) I walked around for better angle on damselfly and for photos of the milkweed. Scared the damselfly, took flower photos:

(Oh, snap! Much better than they appeared through the viewfinder, what with all the sweat running into my eyes. Did I mention it was broiling outside and only ten o'clock in the morning--?) Looked up from the flowers in time to notice the damselfly settling back down. Took poor photo but perfectly adequate for an ID: Slender Spreadwing. You can even see the diagnostic pale veins on the end of its wings.

Spooked damsel again. (Must learn not to wear white when creeping around my yard chasing small insects...) Went back to look for snail: Gone. Those things can really boogie when they want to.

New damselfly for the yard list and a flower photo I'm tickled over: Well worth the mosquito bites. And I now have an idea for creating a leaf litter tray for future snail photo sessions... :) And the reason I went for the bamboo sticks in the first place?

Typical way the "stream of consciousness" path of my life tends to go. Eh, I'll take it.