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Summer 2009

SEPTEMBER 12, 2009
Eagles Mere. July, 2009
One step outside this weekend drives the hard fact home.  Summer is fading fast.
For me, this summer started in Martha's Vineyard, back to accept my Hamilton King Award, back and forth to Eagles Mere, and ended with a brisk wind Labor Day weekend.  This routine is one we do each year with one middle diversion to mix it up.  This year we flew out west to Los Angeles and after a few days rented a car and drove up the coast through Big Sur, Monterey and ending up in San Francisco.  In between it all was Neda, Chuck Brown and other interesting things.
I worked super hard all week to preserve our weekends and was able to keep most of them free of work.  The majority of the summer was out in Eagles Mere.  Cassius got cooler out there.  He learned about horses and became a wee bit more independent.  I kept up the marathon training all summer and came through it in good health and ready for NYC.  How I can run and eat so well and NOT lose weight is amazing.  Elizabeth did her song and dance out at the SCBWI Children's Book Conference in LA and kept lovely all the rest of the summer.
Summer is a thing we all strive for.  For me, a guy who actually likes work, I also look forward to September.  I can be home, I don't have to drive 500 miles every weekend and maybe I just might paint another side of my house.

For now, I am going to indulge in a little visual review of my 2009 summer.
Summer hair in Martha's Vineyard.

Each year more of the cliff washes away.  A few inches to a few feet depending on the severity of the winter.

A view of Sunrise Camp from Stonewall Beach.

Shadow and light!

Cassius shows some attitude in Menemsha.

No water was too cold anywere this summer.  For Cash that is.

We chartered a boat and fished off the coast of Aquinnah one afternoon.  Bliss.

Sitting on the bed, I watched Luka sitting in a chair.  As Phish played, she slowly drifted off for a nap in complete sync with the music.  I laugh hard when I see this.  I had a hassle trying to post it here so it's at the bottom of the whole post.  Perhaps it's a great way to remember summer.

Cassius named our visitor "Snappy"
You are really in nature where we stay.

The rounded rocks of Squibnockett.

So, once Martha's Vineyard is over we drive out to Eagles Mere Pennsylvania.  It's a small lakeside Victorian cottage town.  It calls itself the town the time forgot.  Cassius spent all of July out there.  Lucky boy.

A view of the Endless Mountains and World's End Park.

Nell, Elizabeth and Allison...the sisters.

Must do a sand sculpture every year.  Every time I do little kids stop by and say I'm good.

Love that.

Nell, me and Elizabeth looking at the lake. 

At the top of a mountain is a rare find.  In old postcards you can see that visitors came to the area to see "Ticklish Rock."


We decided to find it this year and THERE IT WAS.  It's a huge rock that is balanced on a very thin column of rock.  It's on the edge of a cliff which makes it all the more dramatic.

They're fading fast.  The old barns of Pennsylvania.  Get out there and draw them! 

I drew this one in my sketchbook a while back.  The siloh seems to have become detached and looks like it's moving away from the farm.

Exhibit a: Miles of Corn and Cumulus
My favorite job while out there, photographing clouds.

So, after a bit of Summer we flew out to Los Angeles.  I try to forget the work I'm leaving behind but my roving eyes find it everywhere.

Here is a stellar cover in the airport.  Stauffer hits the target.

The pretty Nell was our tour guide while Elizabeth was at the conference.

Cassius still can zonk out in a restaurant.  Culver City.

Cassius likes the Taxali and the uncle Marc at a gallery show.

Time to leave LA for Big Sur.  Note, this is shot THROUGH the window.  Never left the car.




Leaving LA and driving up the coast was great.  We left at night and when we got to our first stop, Pismo Beach, it was like arriving in another world.  The pellicans talked loudly and the air was cool and moist.

This is a nice composition, no?

Cassius went wild out there.  Again, he got super cool.





Monterey was always a place I wanted to visit.  As a child and an adult I've loved tidal pools.  In them is a temporary world of life.  Monterey has some of the best and the findings are remarkable. 

In case anyone is curious, this was not all one long day.  Cassis wore his striped hoodie all summer.

Final California stop, San Francisco.  The wonderful Hunts put us up one night.  I think I have a bedroom now.

We did all the typical San Fran things.

Cassius looks weary from walking up Telegraph Hill.

Babes
Our final stop of Summer 09 was a week leading up to Labor Day weekend in Eagles Mere.  Cassius met horses, we went to Knoebels and watched the long shadows and falling temperatures turn summer into autumn.

The horse was named 'Ditto'






The parachute drop is fun to watch. Cassius loves it.
The lake at sunset, Labor Day Weekend
Sepia ink and water color. Summer is a time to contemplate your feet. A good day is one where you never put on shoes.
© 2024 Tim O'Brien