A rose is a rose is a rose.

I asked my friend, Molly, on Facebook today what she thinks of when she sees a long rose arbor tunnel. She said, "It's different for everyone, but for me it's like a gateway to another place. It brings me back to folklore and fairy tales. Time slows down, your senses sharpen, and your guard falls. But the rose itself tends to be classic and aged, resilient and delicate."

How many people have passed through these arbors in Hartford's Elizabeth Park over the years? How many have stopped in the tunnel to forget the world around them and just smell the roses? Many arbors are older than the people that have passed through them. In fact, Molly remembered one near her home that was almost a century old and, "It always reminded me of my impermanence in the world when I think how many people passed through it before me that are now gone."

I guess some people are like roses. They are resilient and stay with us year after year, yet they are delicate and we need to be careful how we treat them, how we care for them and nurture them. But there are a lot of thorns along the way, so handle with care. Yes, roses also need to be pruned, but if done correctly, they grow stronger and more vibrant. They become an integral part of the arbor of our life.

What does the rose arbor tunnel mean to you?

Just stripes

Always carry a camera because sometimes just stripes can catch your attention. It doesn't matter where you go or what you're doing, when you see something like this, just shoot it. If you go home to get your camera or perhaps a better camera, you'll miss the shot. New York photographer and friend, Jay Maisel says, "The best camera to use is the one you have with you."

Life only happens once, so capture every image you can as it happens because you'll never see it the same way again.

Umbrella protocol

Not everyone that goes to a baseball game on a cloudy day takes an umbrella, but if it rains, those that did disappear into their own sub-surface rooftop community attached by overlapping layers of ribbed canopies. While we may instantly empathize with the red shirted fan without the umbrella, perhaps he really had one but was defeated by an unspoken umbrella code of ethics.

Think about it. Do you strategically put the edges of your umbrella under that of the other two people to give them better coverage or do you hold your umbrella above everyone else's? The highest umbrella may offer the best coverage from the rain but the runoff goes to the lower umbrellas and right back onto us. I learned real fast not to tip it down or back as no one appreciates it in their lap or down their neck.

For me, the protocol was to avoid the wrath of an already disgruntled baseball fanatic and retreat to a covered concession stand for a hotdog and wait out the rain.

What about you?

Bean there . . . done that.

There's nothing like a really fresh cup of coffee in the morning. But it's so hard to find any flavor of decaf coffee beans other than hazelnut in Connecticut. We asked a sales rep from the coffee company named for a tree laden colored mountain once why hazelnut was the only decaf flavor that most places carried. She responded that based on their surveys, it was the most popular. Now, that makes sense if it's the only one available.

So off we went  to Google and found an old favorite in Pennsylvania, Fasig's Coffee. They have more than thirty different types of regular coffee, eight types of decaf, and more flavors of decaf and regular than Baskin Robbins does ice cream. In fact, they offer 45 flavors from amaretto nut to white Russian.

Lois was like a kid in an online candy store. She went nuts (not just amaretto nuts either), called the company and ordered chocolate raspberry, French vanilla custard, highlander grog, and rainforest caramel crunch. As she finished the order, I heard her suddenly gasp as they told her none of her flavors were available. When she asked how long she would have to wait, they said they would roast each flavor the next morning and ship the beans in the afternoon. In typical American fashion, we of course want everything shipped immediately, but when it comes to roasting flavored coffee just the way we like it, we can wait until tomorrow.

The best part of the whole process was that it cost less, including shipping, than the major upscale branded coffees that either have no flavor options or savor their own flavor survey.

Oh, I almost forgot, tomorrow morning's flavor is cinnamon sticky bun. She ordered that one, too, but it's our breakfast in a mug. Make mine a venti!

Gotta' have it!

Do you know anyone who suffers, or rather makes you suffer, from the "gotta have its?" For example, which lady bought the first hat, only to have her three "gotta have it" friends do the same. We all know, Mrs. Jones was first and everyone else wanted to keep up with her, that is until they all wore it to the same function, and suddenly it was like two teens showing up at the prom in identical dresses. Yikes!

Guys, we're just as guilty, often to the point that we have to not only meet, but upstage the Joneses in our life. It's the car, house, lawn tractor, grill, cordless drill, chainsaw, computer, cell phone and oh yeah, how many megapixels is your camera? (Yes, some questions do get too personal.) Some are more ridiculous than others, but only our wives can determine what's really important, aside from my camera's megapixels, of course.

So, let's have some fun with this. Give me some "gotta' have its" in the  comments. Just be careful, the "Joneses," or your spouse, can post a comment, too.

Wanna get away?

Remember that classic line in the Southwest airlines ad, "Wanna get away?" It always followed one of those "life's-most-embarrassing-moments" in its very entertaining ad campaign. Welcome to Laurel Ridge Narcissi Plantings, in Northfield, Connecticut, nearly fifty acres of serene rolling meadow filled with narcissi and daffodils.

Every year about mid-April, for more than seventy years, the fields light up with beautiful yellow and white blossoms. But this phenomena only lasts a few short weeks and then the blossoms are gone for another year. There are a few benches, stone stairways, rock walls to sit on and paths to hike. It's also a great place to just go and sit and take in the stunning beauty around you and just escape for a while. It's a great April respite, when you just "wanna get away."

Windows and walls.

So what's more important, the window or the wall? Walls are barriers that protect, divide and support. Windows are openings in the wall that let light in and sometimes reveal the mystery behind the wall. But, even at that, some windows are glazed with a transparent or translucent material that lets us see a little of what's inside but not allow us to reach in and touch it.

So it is when we bring someone into our lives with whom we can become transparent, I mean totally transparent. There are days when we might just be translucent or even opaque, but at least there is a window and not a wall. Maybe we have some glitter around our window, but nevertheless it is still a window. Maybe we put a wire mesh over our window, but it is still a window.

How big is the window in your wall? What do others see when they look inside? Do you let them even see inside? Think about it.

Diamond earrings anyone?

Diamonds may be a girl's best friend, but maybe not flea market "diamonds." Yup, another rare find at the flea market where, given enough sun, anything that glitters has got to be "real." Brushed aluminum looks like platinum, copper like gold, polyester like silk and when you buy that Gucci handbag, they all say, "Gotcha'."

As for us, we just keep shooting, unless of course someone threatens to shoot us. Then it's, "never mind," and off we go to the another table to find the next priceless gem of antiquity.

It seems whenever we show up at a flea market with a camera, we become the focus their attention in case they become the focus of our attention. Try it sometime.

Smile

Lois always cringes and pretends she doesn't know me when I photograph people on the street that I've never met before. I'm not sure why, but this image is actually her's. He asked, "Do you want to take my picture?"  She said, "Sure,"  then asked him to smile, and voila.

I'm not sure I would have done that here, but I wasn't there when she shot it, which is even more of a shocker. Even the glove is smiling, and it's a skull!! Maybe it was the chain and Master Lock around his neck that made him look secure. Perhaps it was the Orioles shirt that reminded her of her Maryland roots. But, what a smile. "Thank you, I think I'll go now."

Kudos to Lois!

Sometimes up, sometimes down . . .

I guess it's all a matter of where you are, at the bottom looking up or at the top looking down. At least you can only go in one direction, but is it up or down? We can't look back and change our past, we can only grab our "rail" and move ahead to change our future.

So, which way are you going?

Twists & turns

There's nothing like a few twists and turns to make our lives exciting. It seems like everything and everyone is going in a different direction. Since the advent of the Internet, we are bombarded by good news and bad news from all over the world on a minute by minute basis. Communications technology has advanced much more than Dick Tracy ever imagined, totally ignoring geographic, political or generational boundaries. Kids grow older, parents grow older, and even some of our friends that we haven't seen in a while grow older, everyone but us, of course.

When I look at my high school classmates and other kids that I grew up with, that is the few that have actually put their real faces on Facebook, I'm stunned at how much they have changed, but not me, of course. We like to think we are safely standing on our own platform watching people spin, spiral, loop and age their way through life, involving themselves in everything they can before time runs out. There are a lot of ups and downs along the way, a few grey hairs and many receding hairlines, but there is always another path, another loop, or another ride to try.

How's your ride going, today?

Future baseball great

Baseball is a serious sport, regardless of age, and while the glove gets proportionally smaller as players advance and the hat sits on the head rather than the ears, the look never changes. There is always an elbow band ready to absorb any career ending shock, but it's that side glance under the brim that stirs up fear in every batter. The stance before the final strike ball is thrown. Whiiissshhh the ball goes from pitcher to catcher faster than a speeding bullet and the game is over.

It's time for the high-five "good game" line up and then on to the next phase that they have all been waiting for - cookies, popsicles, Ritas, McDonalds, or around here, Rich's Ice Cream.  You know the drill, because the whole team arrives just before you do on any hot summer day.

City slickers

When I first began to turn street photography into an art form, I had to overcome my fear of photographing strangers so I would often photograph the evidence of people, or photograph them from the back when they weren't looking, as you saw on yesterday's blog. Obviously, I have overcome that fear, as my family and friends will concur.

I have learned that the consequences of sneaking up on someone and getting caught are far more grave than just plain saying, "You guys are just too cool to pass by. Do you mind if I crawl around on the sidewalk and take your picture?" Typically, the only ones that say no are older women who haven't checked their makeup since they got up that morning and street or flea market vendors selling genuine knockoff Rolex watches, or Gucci handbags, belts and scarves made yesterday in China.

Here I was attracted by the dignity of the gentleman's hands on top of his polished chrome collapsible walking stick between new size 13 sneakers. One sock was up and the other one down but not so far that his newly creased trousers still covered the tops. Obviously these old friends meet here often, yet not so obvious was the thrill of having their picture taken together, but I left them laughing together.

Three men and a . . . bench

It's not quite a movie, but they are just as entertaining. Three men on a Waterbury, CT, town green bench from the back doesn't say much other than, "I hope these guys don't catch me taking their picture," but it would still be boring until you start watching for the gesture.

New York photographer Jay Maisel describes "gesture" as one key element that so many photographers leave out of a picture. It's the element that ties people and objects together. I actually photographed these "benchkins" for about ten minutes, but nothing was really going on until the man on the left began telling a story. It was only then that the gestures began. I'm not sure the other two were really listening, which only made his gestures more pronounced.

I realize there are some gestures that shouldn't be photographed, especially when they are directed at me after I have been watching someone for while. Fortunately, I'm bigger than most of the street people that I photograph, and I have gotten over my shyness, as you will see in tomorrow's blog, provided I'm not afraid to post it.

Practicing what we preach

We are constantly preaching about taking your camera with you wherever you go. The daffodils were in full bloom yesterday on the Green in Waterbury, CT, and we had cameras with us. It was a great opportunity to put the new with the old as the steeple behind the daffodils is St. John's Episcopal, built in 1878. While this may be old in some areas, around here, it's probably average. In fact, it's the fourth church built on this site since it was St. James Church, "established from England in 1732 by the venerable society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts." Yes, it was originally founded by a group of missionaries from the Church of England and renamed St. John's Church in 1797.

We have come a long way from being a "foreign part" of England. Our lives have become so complex during the past nearly 300 years, but there are two things that haven't changed, the Gospel they brought to our soil and the simple beauty of the daffodil that emerges from the earth year after year.

Blue Devils or Bulldogs?

There's no doubt who's got the biggest bark, but who's got the biggest bite, a blue devil or a bulldog? Actually, I'm a basketball fan for about six less days than I am a baseball fan at the end of the season. My greatest shot is with a camera looking straight up hoping no one makes a shot in the opposite direction. But tonight, along with millions around the world, we'll be watching the NCAA Championship final as the Duke Blue Devils take on the Butler Bulldogs.

Anyone who has read our previous blogs, knows that we try and keep the devil off our court, so I guess we'll be pulling for the Bulldogs. I'll wake Lois up at the end, and let her know who wins.

He is risen . . . He is risen indeed!

Low in the grave He lay,

Jesus my Savior,

Waiting the coming day,

Jesus my Lord!

Up from the grave He arose,

With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,

He arose a Victor from the dark domain,

And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.

He arose! He arose!

Hallelujah! Christ arose!

Robert Lowry

Good Friday

And a good Friday it was as today is the day that many people all over the world focus on the cross of Jesus Christ and His death as punishment for the sins of the world. But there were two other crosses that day for two other criminals sentenced to die for their own sins. One of the criminals turned to Jesus and sought forgiveness at the last minute while the other remained silent.

Our only question today, is which cross do you identify with? The one that offers forgiveness, the one seeking forgiveness, or the one that remained silent?

Seasonally Challenged.

To all our seasonally challenged family, friends, and followers, have a wonderful April Fool's Day!