Lens-Artists Photo Challenge # 262 : Faces in a crowd…
New York City
Proposal in Times Square
Grand Central Station
Junior’s restaurant
Carnegie Hall
Category Archives: animals
The Cosmic Photo Challenge : Three views from one spot…
Oak Bluffs, Martha’s Vineyard fishing pier… views from front, side, rear.
Baby sheep and goats at the watering hole.
Sheep and goats.
Kids in a bucket.
A Photo a Week Challenge: From the Side…
Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Pets and Farm Animals…
A Photo a Week Challenge: Action in Series…
My choice for action series are photos of the Flying Horses Carousel in the town of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.
And they’re off…. whooosh
Home stretch…
The Flying Horses are the oldest platform carousel in the United States. It was made in 1876 by early American carousel manufacturer, Charles Dare. The Flying Horses Carousel was originally built for the Coney Island amusement park in Brooklyn. In 1884 after eight years there the Flying Horses Carousel moved to the town of Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard where it still remains in operation as one of only two surviving carousels fabricated by Dare. The carousel became a National Historic Landmark in 1986, the same year it was acquired by local conservation organization the Martha’s Vineyard Preservation Trust.
There are two ring dispenser arms situated next to the carousel that offer gold rings and the lucky rider who grabs the coveted brass ring gets a free ride. I flew on these beautiful horses every day when I was a little girl.
The last time I flew on the Flying Horses a few years ago my granddaughter Tiffany was with me. I thought it might be my last time ever to ride them (I think that every time anyway)… and as my horse came around to the arm shooting the rings out I could see that the next one, the one waiting for me was the GOLD ring. What a fantastic way to possibly end my Flying Horses ride…
But I missed it … my fingers slipped and I couldn’t grab it. But… right behind me was my granddaughter and she got it. She offered me the free ride but it meant more to me that she should have it. Perfect ending, if indeed it was.
A Photo a Week Challenge: Action in Series
Unexplained …
I repost this post often as it touches me deeply.
My daughter Deb is a twin. Sadly her sister Susan was only here for a few hours.
One of my favorite pictures of Debbie (age 3)
Katy (Katama) was Deb’s first Boykin Spaniel. She was the first dog to go on vacation with Deb and me, no big surprise that it was to MV. Katy left us after 20 months and we feel that she’s now with Susan. Here’s Deb with Katy at Sengekontacket Pond on Martha’s Vineyard.
Katy
Chappy (Chappaquiddick) was Deb’s next Boykin Spaniel. Here they are enjoying the window seat at the inn we were staying at in Oak Bluffs.
We took lots of pictures of Chappy’s first trip to the Vineyard, especially on the beach and in the water. He really enjoyed splashing about and barking at waves. These pictures show a little of his fun at the beach.
Chappy
And then there’s this picture…
Is this a double exposure, or is it Deb and Chappy with Susan and Katy ? You be the judge. Just let me say that my camera, not a digital one, had never, until that day, taken a double exposure and never did so afterwards.
Happy Halloween !!!
The Flying Horses of Martha’s Vineyard…
After arriving on the Vineyard each summer of my childhood one of the first orders of business was going to the Flying Horses the oldest carousel in the United States, they came to the Island in 1884 from Coney Island.
The Flying Horses are not a carousel, or a merry-go-round, they don’t go up and down just round and round. They are flying horses, like Pegasus, and fly to wherever you can imagine . They don’t actually have wings, but as you make the first circuit you feel like you’re about to fly out the open windows.
I flew on these beautiful horses every day when I was a little girl. The ticket taker was a young man who would never take my tickets ! We tried everything to get him to take them… we brought him candy and cookies and tried slipping the tickets in with them… nothing work. At the end of the summer I said I wanted to buy him a gift, so off my mom and I went to purchase what I thought was a novel idea .. a tie. I was 5 years old, what did I know about buying gifts for men… he, by the way was about 13 but in my eyes he was a grown up. We put the tie in the box with all of summer’s uncollected tickets. As he came around to NOT collect my ticket I handed him the box. He smiled. Ah ha, success… or so I thought. As we were leaving the Flying Horses he came over and thanked us for the tie and as we turned to leave he handed us the tickets. I won’t say who he is, just that he turned out to be an official in Oak Bluffs in later years… and someone I’ve never forgotten.
The picture below was taken during the autumn when the Flying Horses had closed for the season but it didn’t mean I didn’t get a picture of them though. I positioned my camera close to the window and clicked…I got the horses… I also got the reflection of the camera and the reflection of the building across the street. I think it’s pretty neat.
The last time I flew on the Flying Horses my granddaughter Tiffany was with me. I thought it might be my last time ever to ride them (I think that every time anyway)… and as my horse came around to the arm shooting the rings out I could see that the next one, the one waiting for me was the GOLD ring. What a fantastic way to possibly end my Flying Horses ride.
But I missed it … my fingers slipped and I couldn’t grab it. But… right behind me was my granddaughter and she got it 🙂 She offered me the free ride but it meant more to me that she should have it. Perfect ending, if indeed it was.
Rings of gold are good luck I’m told…
as for riding Flying Horses you’re never too old 🙂
Looking Back At April 2009 (Dog Sitting)…
April 2009…A friend of my daughter Deb’s asked us if we’d like to dog sit for their two Labs, Silas and Balou. So Deb, her dog Chappy and I set out for MV .No matter how many times I go to the Vineyard my heart skips a beat or two when I see the above sign and the rotary welcoming you to Cape Cod. This was our first time sailing on the then new ferry, Island Home. Seven miles and 45 minutes later we touched tire in Vineyard Haven. We were about to start an Island adventure like none before.
Here is Deb surrounded by a happy, friendly threesome. Chappy on the left, Balou in the front and Silas being petted. We have never met nicer dogs, they are well behaved, sweet, gentle and loving, patient and fun. There wasn’t one moment that we didn’t enjoy being with them. Oh, okay, maybe when Balou was trying so hard to tell us things and we just were too slow on the uptake… but generally speaking (or woofing) things went very, very well.
Except for the weather. Two of the days we were there were wet… very, very wet. And when they said soaking rain they meant it.
This picture was taken from inside our dry car looking out at Edgartown Harbor. Wet, wet, wet. It was windy too. And wet.
But there were times of no rain and actuall brilliant sunshine and so off on our walks in the woods we would venture. The 4 leggeds were happy to be out and about sniffing, walking, and being together.
In all too short a time our dog sitting adventure came to an end and it was time to head home.
Chappy is waiting to say goodbye to his new friends. He had a great time with Silas and Balou.
The Island Home is waiting for us and all too soon we are setting tire in Woods Hole and back to reality.
This of course is my take on our dog sitting adventure but Chappy himself made a guest appearance on the blog and really, you should read his… CLICK HERE
Here’s a little bit of what Chappy eloquently had to say:
*’a friend of my mom’s invited us to dog sit… I didn’t actually notice anyone sitting like a dog (except my dog friends) but humans have weird jargon sometimes. I just go with the flow and don’t ask questions.
And….
Oak Bluffs is another of our favorite towns to walk around in. If you look really really close you can see mom and me standing outside the movie theatre on the corner. She’s taking photos and I’m trying to keep one eye on her and one eye on gram who wandered off to the other side of the information booth. Man, keeping them together would be so much easier if they were both leashed.
❤
Remembering Dog Sitting On MV…
Thinking about Chappy and how he liked to pop over to my blog to post from time to time. This was from our dog sitting adventure on MV in April 2009. Miss him.
Hi, it’s me Chappy, the granddog. I was here last year to guest post about my MV visit… click HERE to read that post.
Since I just did a fun post on my mom’s blogChappysmom I thought I’d bounce over here and help gram with one about MY adventure on MV a few weeks ago.
This was the first time staying in an actual house and it was so great. Julie, a friend of my mom’s invited us to dog sit… I didn’t actually notice anyone sitting like a dog (except my dog friends) but humans have weird jargon sometimes. I just go with the flow and don’t ask questions.
My new dog friends, Silas and Balou were great hosts and I really enjoyed having dog friends to hang out with. One of the best parts about hanging out with them were our walks in the woods.
I never…
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Chappy 2001…
It’s only been 4 months since we lost Chappy in April 2016 but today, Aug 25 of 2001 is fresh in our memories.
15 years ago today, Aug 25, 2001, Chappy came home to NJ to live with us.
It was a dark and stormy night… no wait, that’s another story. It was actually a beautiful sunny, white puffy cloud, mild August day when Deb (his mom), and I traveled to Kittanning, PA to pick him up. We had been there two weeks prior to look over the litter of new Boykin Spaniel puppies and to sort of reserve the one that would be coming home with us today. We thought it went well, Deb chose the future Chappy and the breeder put a red mark inside his ear… he has since been referred to by us as… yes, red ear.
In the two week interim preparations were made for Chappy’s arrival… bedding, toys, food & water dishes, toys, crate, pillows, toys… you get the picture.
So off Deb and I went on Friday, Aug 24th to drive the 6 hours to Kittanning, spend the night and then pick red ear, oops, Chappy up in the morning. Deb had spent the day at work being anxious to get the day over with and get on the road. Deb didn’t feel well that night, stress, the long drive, the anxiety of picking up Chappy, it all took a toll. Soon morning rolled around and after a quick breakfast off to the breeder’s we headed.
The puppies were awake and adorable, they were playing and yipping and being all sorts of cute.
Except one…. he was off to the side looking all unsure of everything… yes… it was indeed ‘red ear’…. oh dear.
The breeder told Deb she was not under any obligation to take him as he wasn’t sure this puppy was adoptable at the time. And that’s when I saw my daughter fall apart. We thought we had it all worked out and would walk in, pick up the future Chappy and leave, well it wasn’t going to be that easy.
In the meantime other folks were coming in to pick out puppies and to be honest it was quite annoying that they would pick one up… look at it… say yes or no and be off. How were they doing that… was there some kind of pup-telepathy that we didn’t have ?
As we stood there and mulled over the situation two of the puppies scampered over to us and pretty much wore themselves out vying to be Deb’s choice.
I knew pretty much right off the bat which one I would choose and I really tried to hide my choice from Deb and let her make her own decision. She says she could read on my face which one I liked best and I’m sure she could. She was so distraught that at one point I blurted out that she could bring both of them home !!!
And so the competition continued… Mr Personality vs Mr Adorable. Mr Personality was sleek and energetic and was quite lovable. Mr Adorable was fuzzier faced and a little smooshed nosed and also energetic and lovable.
Which one did Deb choose, or rather who chose her. Why it was Chappy of course, or formerly known as… Mr Adorable. By the way, he was my choice from the very beginning… just saying.
Chappy saying good-by to his parents Buddy & Tawny. He looks a lot like his mom and has her sweet personality.
With the traumatic morning behind us we headed on our 6 hour trip home. Chappy slept in Deb’s lap for most of the ride only awakening when big scary trucks rumbled past or when we stopped for food or gas. We also stopped at McDonald’s where he caused quite a commotion with his cuteness.
At long last we were home and settling in very nicely with family and toys.
I love this picture…
and this one 12 years later in 2013.
Thank you Chappy for being in our lives, we miss you and love you ❤
MV Obsession 