Norman B Leventhal Park

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Boston, pictures, postaday2015

   
   
I was in Boston yesterday at the Norman B Leventhal Park people watching, it’s one of life’s cheapest pleasures. Who is this Norman B Leventhal? I asked Google and got my answer. He was a very civic minded business leader who did a lot to influence the look and feel of Boston’s skyline, not to mention what happened underneath the city. His park is situated at Post Office Square, right in the heart of Boston’s Financial District. I enjoy sitting in this park while I wait, sipping coffee and watching people eat lunch, gather in groups talking and wondering where people are off to, what they do for work.  It’s fun for me.

If you look real hard at the picture up above, you can see me in the reflection taking the picture. I did it on purpose, curious to see how it turned out and I think it came out pretty well if you know what to look for of course. The rest of the pictures I took from various angles sitting from my seat but I did go towards the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway to take some pictures later on. I could spend days and days taking pictures of Boston, there is so much to document and communicate through pictures, it feels like I see something new each and every time I visit.

   
 

Some of my favorite photos

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pictures, postaday2015, stories

   
    
   
I was going through my pictures stored on both my iPad and iPhone and I pulled a few to put into a separate folder called “Maman’s favorites”.  These are the ones, either I took and ended up surprising myself with or my husband took or my cousin sent me. As I get more and more addicted to WordPress and writing, I find my addiction is crossing over to photography as well. I can no longer write something without looking to include a visual to roundout the story I have to share with everyone.

   
    
 
   
    
 

The super, blood, harvest, lunar eclipse moon

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lunar eclipse, postaday2015, Sept 27 2015

  
Here is my photo taken with my cellphone. LOL. It was 10:45 p.m towards the end of the lunar eclipse. In person, it was a little more dramatic, but with cellphones, at least mine, I don’t have the proper magnification capabilities, a way to create a sturdy surface while aiming up to the night sky and the capability for long exposure. These are some of the lessons my cousin Francoise gave me when we were doing night shots together, she had her professional equipment while I had my iPhone special. When we were taking pictures of the New York skyline, it was one thing, my cellphone did very well but with a lunar eclipse, the fact that the moon was in eclipse against a black sky, I needed so much more than what any iPhone has in its basic photo applications tool kit. 

My husband took much better pictures prior to the eclipse in the backyard. 

 
  
   
Astrophysicist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson had some fun with the lunar eclipse on twitter. He was poking fun over the brouhaha about the “supermoon” saying that it’s comparable to making the same big deal of a 16″ pizza against its regular 15″pizza and he didn’t end there. He made some comments about naming it the “blood moon” and women menstrual cycles and why they don’t make sense together, he also made reference to “harvest moon” designation and how agriculture present day has shifted so very far away from its roots and rhythms. Basically the only thing Neil DeGrasse Tyson was excited about was the lunar eclipse and how billions of people on this side of the hemisphere were able to see the same phenomena collectively, that was his point and it is a pretty great one. Assigning descriptives to make it something its not is the least exciting aspect of what happens fairly rarely in our cosmos, coming together in awe and respect to the relationship between moon, planet and sun is what this is really all about.

Old Town Alexandria Virginia

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Alexandria Virginia, Old Town, postaday2015

   
   
   
    
    
 
I loved, loved the architecture in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. You can tell that the residents have such pride in their township, the streets are swept, plant boxes everywhere and all the houses are in lovely condition. Tourists were everywhere, which I’m sure feeds the virtuous economic cycle; they come, spend their money in restaurants, museums, shops and guided historic tours which fuels the capabilities of upkeep which therein supplies tourists curiosity and so on and so forth.

We had the opportunity to eat at two wonderful French restaurants; La Bergerie and Le Refuge. My husband and I had a romantic tete a tete at La Bergerie; the service was professional, the food was delicious and the decor was perfect for a romantic dinner. Le Refuge was the next restaurant and I personally loved it because it reminded me of a typical French Bistro with comforting hearty food, family style portions of simple French classics such as Coq au Vin, escargots, and Sole a la Meuniere. Moreover we were joined by a wonderful couple and the conversation was organic with none of the awkwardness that sometimes creeps up when you don’t know each other, here it flowed freely and easily.  Great food and great conversation, dinner doesn’t get better than that!

Book of Mormon: brilliant and a must see

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Book of Mormons, postaday2015

   
 
   
 
My husband and I were lucky enough to have been invited to join some very lovely friends of ours to go see Book of Mormon on Broadway. It was without a doubt one of the most brilliant plays that either of us had seen in a long time. The guys behind South Park are geniuses, there is no other descriptive. I laughed and laughed; I couldn’t help but imagine Mitt Romney in the beginning of the play being sent off with a companion to fulfill his misssion and just imagining Mitt Romney in the funniest skits of the play added to the satiristic and ironic tone of the play. 

The picture right above, the cast wearing hot pink vests is part of the skit called “Turning bad feelings Off” and it explains so much about the Mormon religion, that and the scary bad Hell dream are all you need to know. I have to tell you, if ever you have the occasion to see the play, jump at it, you will not regret it; laughter is the world’s best medicine after all.

My cousin’s talent

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black and white, postaday2015, Rouen

   
 
My cousin Francoise emailed me these pictures that she took while we were together in Normandy. I posted similar pictures in my post titled “A panoramic view of Rouen” I LOVE these shots, black and white is one my favorite ways of depicting subjects. We used black and white for our wedding pictures as  well as sepia. It gives such emotional depth to the subject, in these pictures I’m obviously not the subject, the entire city of Rouen is what matters and the feeling generated by the composition touched my soul.

The solitary fisherman

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bridges, fishermen, postaday2015

   
   
If you look hard, real hard, you’ll see the solitary fisherman taking his chances beneath the Woodrow Wilson Bridge that connects Maryland to Virginia. I took these pictures from the Virginia side as we were approaching Alexandria. I was taken by the fisherman’s bravery to fish the river’s waters amongst vessels much bigger than he. He looks so puny next to open expanse of water and the tremendous pillars that hold up the imposing bridge right above him.

My husband took several photos as well:

   

 He loves Ferris wheels. 

Views from a Ferris wheel

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ferris wheel, postaday2015

  
   
    
   
When my husband had me in line at the Ferris wheel, without thinking I blurted out “who was the maniac who thought this up?” My husband looked at me as if I had three heads and replied “Ferris obviously” I lost my mind, I think because I hate heights and my husband was taking me up on a Ferris wheel. This one had gondola cages so it wasn’t as bad as the last one I was on, open and old swaying in the open air making me sick to my stomach while my children laughed gleefully at my expense; in their defense, they were little, we were at the Blandford fair and they had begged me to take them up, I couldn’t say no. I survived the ordeal, this Ferris wheel ride wasn’t bad at all, I was busy taking pictures which helped a lot.

I did look up Mister Ferris, he was partially inspired with what Gustave Eiffel had done for the 1889 World Fair in Paris and he wanted to do something even more spectacular for the 1893 World Fair in Chicago. His Ferris wheel was a  hit, its thirty-six wooden cars held up to sixty riders each. The ride cost fifty cents and made $726,805.50 during the World’s Fair. Isn’t that incredible?!

National Harbor, Maryland

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Maryland, National Harbor, postaday2015

   
   
We are at National Harbor in Maryland, right on the Potomac River. It is so gorgeous here, being on the river’s edge, the weather is brilliant, not too hot, breezy with just enough clouds to make photos interesting, everyone out and about, enjoying whichever makes them happy.

The giant in the sand is Poseidon, the kids seem to love him, I find it a bit creepy, burying someone in the sand and he doesn’t seem too happy about it. But it makes for good pictures, the first one is my favorite of course, with the sun behind me, although the third one has striking cloud formations in the background.

   
 
  
I spent a few hours walking this way and that, on the lookout for different perspectives and something interesting to photograph. It’s a great way to work in my 10,000 steps a day goal.

Club Bigorneaux reunion!!!

   
 
Don’t we look happy? We were back together once more. We had such a lovely evening at Claudine and Marc’s house, they graciously opened their home and kitchen to us and we laughed and laughed while eating superb food prepared by Claudine with Marc always in the background making sure that glasses were never empty, plates replaced as appropriate and his wit, he is second to none when it comes to that witty repartee. He makes me laugh so easily with his rapid fire dry humor. 

Claudine opened the meal up with coquilles St Jacques, the scallops were served in their shell, simply dressed with their jus, it was eating scallops at their best; not overly sauced or hidden by an avalanche of breadcrumbs, simplicty at its core and the scallops were allowed to shine. The next course were shrimp in their shell roasted with Pastis and garlic and other things, it was absolutely delicious, we were taking our bread and dipping it into the casserole afterwards. YUMMY!

My cousin Francoise just sent me these pictures and I had to share them, I look so happy in the pictures.

   
    
 
This is back at the Abbeye at Fecamp, they had an interesting artistic exhibit and after the exhibit, we stopped by the cafe where you can have a taste of Benedictine if you like and even have a bite to eat if you choose. 

A fantastic day.