Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.
T.S. Eliot
From the poem "Ash Wednesday"
Photo ©Laine Quinn
Boat on a pond in Wellfleet.
St. Augustine Harbor
looking east, with the sun low in the west
lighting up the sky,
after an afternoon storm.
(True Colors!)
©LaineQuinn 2015 St. Augustine, Florida
It's that time of year -
in a very odd year _
when emotions are raw and memories haunt you.
Riding waves of feelings,
not knowing where they come from,
or why,
or how long,
you hang on.
Storms come and they go,
and you hang on.
You hang on.
And they go.
Life is still life -
imperfectly perfect.
Stay safe,
and patient
and perfect.
©2020 Laine Quinn
(Sea gull wondering if it is safe to join the others...)
*"If social distancing needs to be extended long term,
scientists recommend forming an inner circle of uninfected friends and family
that you can rely on
to maintain social bonds..."
Some others call this a pod -
forming a pod of trusted friends and family.
But when can we do that?
When is it safe -
when the very best thing we can do is to isolate?
Listen to your heart...
when it feels okay,
then wait another week!
If it still feels okay,
take small steps.
Go slowly.
Be sure.
Trust your feelings.
*Quoted from a CNN article by Ryan Prior.
© 2020 Laine Quinn St. Augustine inlet with the Schooner, Freedom and a gaggle of gulls. Or should I say a pod?
I'm going to learn to fish!
Not like the patient and swift Egret, or the people who go out to sea,
no matter the weather.
No, more like the folks standing on the shore patiently casting and reeling in.
But, I never could stomach putting a live worm on a hook
or removing the hook from a struggling fish,
and the thought of killing a living thing - sure a mosquito- but a beautiful fish?
No, better that I plant some winter greens and then harvest from the earth in my own backyard.
Yes, that sounds more probable.
Yes.
Fishers, at the inlet. © Laine Quinn 2019
Good-bye 2019!
Let the beauty that you love
be what you do.
Rumi
A Beautiful sunny holiday.
Lots of families out to enjoy the beach,
playing, fishing, reading in the sun.
An overheard conversation about Hurricane Harvey -
on people's minds -
and another Hurricane barrelling toward the islands.
But life must go on, if we are to make sense of any of it.
Compassion and worry are alive, but so are joy and happiness.
Enjoy the moments!
Labor Day, Porpoise Point, St. Augustine, Florida, 2017
Rain to the left of me,
Rain to the right,
here I am,
stuck in the middle
with a view!
More from the Crescent Beach storm, 7.10.2017. That's the shrimp boat on the horizon!
In between the sky and the sea.
Rain clouds closing in from the south and the north.
Whenever a boat takes to the water,
there is a story to tell.
Storms, sea creatures,
and the one that got away.
There is always a story!
Crescent Beach, storms brushing by and a shrimp boat minding it's own business. 7.10.2017.
It was a great dream for a couple of hours...
The world's smallest yacht!
Grateful for the usual suspects...
dear friends, family, cats, dogs,
blue skies and the moon and stars,
but especially for my time spent in nature.
Time that pulls me out of my head
and back to this beautiful complex world.
I am grateful for that.
Lights reflecting on the bay by the Bridge of Lions
remind me of sitting on the end of a pier, a long time ago,
and hearing the water lapping gently on the shore,
while being hypnotized by the rippling reflections of the lights from across the way.
One of my very favorite things!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Our Moon was closest to us last night...
could you feel it?
She climbed out of the clouds and was beautiful for the rest of the night.
The tides were crazy high
and the cats were just crazy!
Lots of folks out to see the "Super Moon."
Full Moon over the Harbor in St. Augustine, November 14th, 2016.
Even though our art show is closed,
the good news is that
I have been accepted into the Butterfield Garage Art Gallery!
So...
You can see a smaller selection of my photographs anytime!
Pat Arenas is already a member and her work is always on display.
That being said, here are the promised photos of the show.
Thanks to all for your love and support,
friends and family,
far and near.
We love you!
On a cloudy afternoon,
sometimes,
all you have to do is turn a corner
for something wonderful and cheering to come your way.
The sun pops out and illuminates the clouds over the harbor.
A little bit of a rainbow on the way to the beach and then this sunset -
It's hard to be miserable under these circumstances.
St. Augustine Harbor and Beach.
Green on the right going out to sea.
Moon in the sky.
Restless ocean claiming the land.
Godspeed to all travelers returning home.
Vilano Beach, St. Augustine, nearly full moon.
Marley's Cafe,
situated on a teeny tiny island in Essex Connecticut,
with nary a Jamaican in sight,
but great atmosphere,
food
and service!
You have to take a little ferry across the little waterway and back again! New England in Autumn.
A good day indeed.
Finback Whale and Humpbacks off Cape Cod on the Dolphin Fleet out of Provincetown.
Thank You!
On our way back to the dock,
leaving the Humpback whales to their stomping grounds,
and the humans to forage on land.
Whale watching on Cape Cod with the Dolphin Fleet.
This I miss the most!
More photos tomorrow!
The Bridge of Lions,
with El Galeon in the background and a beautiful storm gathering
on the second day of the 450th celebration.
September 5th, 2015. St. Augustine Florida.
This is the kind of day that makes you wish that you had a little boat
and could wander along the marshes,
spying on blue herons, and green herons and egrets,
maybe run into Ratty and Mole from The Wind In The Willows,
having tea in one of the coves,
taking time for simple pleasures,
as clouds drift by.
The view from Vaill Point, last August, St. Augustine.
Reprinted from Laine's Blog, August 2014, with her kind permission!
St. Augustine's Lighthouse
dwarfed by the rolling clouds
of a summer's evening.
Not exactly a Haiku, but close! St. Augustine, Matanzas River and lighthouse.
The Schooner.
The setting sun.
The incoming tide.
A day ends.
Night begins.
St. Augustine inlet, the Schooner Freedom sailing in.
Friends, paddling along together through life's currents.
It's a calm evening and mild in between the storms and troubles.
There's peace and quiet and a kind of welcome ordinariness,
a rightness about things.
All's well.
Reprinted from Laine'sBlog, June 2012.
Fellow passengers on the cruise to the Bahamas...
Bahamians?
Perhaps...
But nice enough to put the phone down (him) and let me take their photo.
That was back in January, 2015.
The schooner Freedom, that is.
(We do enjoy a great deal of freedom in America,
and vigilance will ensure those freedoms don't shrink.)
America, the beacon of Democracy, needs to humble herself to reclaim that title.
Waiting for the bridge to open and close again,
admiring the landscaping
in the land of flowers.
Oh, the flowers are closer on the other side?
Of course!
Bridge = water = boats = openings and closings = waiting = breathing = equals getting out the phone = click = click.
Then off again to wherever it is we are going.
St. Augustine, Bridge of Lions.
When Galaxies collide there is so much space out there that
it is rare that any celestial bodies actually come into contact with each other.
Same thing here in this photo.
From the deck of El Galeon, a replica of a 16th century Spanish supply ship,
one could see a blimp.
Perhaps better said that centuries collide!
Shooting photos with a phone in the sun, it is sometimes difficult to tell what one (me!) is actually getting in the shot. Happily the blimp is here with a spar from the visiting Ship, El Galeon, docked at the Marina in St. Augustine, Florida.
Prepare to anchor!
These good samaritan pups and their two Lady Companions are bringers of joy to anyone whoever put on a sailor hat or loved a dog and are lucky enough to have a close encounter with them!
On a lucky rainy Sunday on St. George Street in St. Augustine, Florida.
Ok, I never quite understood how pilots got onto the big ships.
Now, I do!
These are the men and women
who board a ship outside local harbors to guide them safely through unfamiliar waters.
Where that man is stepping off the pilot boat, there is a door that he slips into.
I thought they had to climb long rope ladders to the upper decks!
It's still dangerous work, but not as dangerous as I once thought!
Pilot boat and pilot in Freeport, The Bahamas, looking down from the 6th deck. There were 4 more above me.
To Breakfast?
First reaction was to shoo them away which turned out to be ridiculous.
So I pulled out my camera and joined in the fun!
(Anyone who went to St. Anthony of Padua Church in Baltimore,
might recognize the Holy Ghost in this shot!)
They cleaned all the plates on that table and off they went
for more adventures.
It was our day to explore Nassau.,
after breakfast.
Sea Gulls on the Lido Deck, Carnival Cruise.
Back to the ship for our second night at sea,
on our way to Nassau.
No worries, there's lots to do on board.
Dancing, gambling, drinking, eating, sauna, swimming...
Not enough time for it all.
And always a new friend in our room at the end of the day...
Can you guess what this next shot is?
(Hint, it's not ice!)
The ship was the Fascination, of the Carnival Cruise Line. Small by some people's standards, huge by others!