Birthday week for Mom and Collin. And, hanging the new original John Platt painting 'The Thrill of it All'. Wow, Quite a week.

A few more from the sub-zero ocean pics last week. 

Wifey lived on the green line for a semester, and then North End. I loved the street scene in both neighborhoods. Party times were fun to go out and walk around in. Those Boston college kids did it up real nice.

Lovely morning on the water. It was around 50F yesterday, 5F this morning. Such a change is tough on everyone. Lots of ice and frozen mud. Life goes on of course. Fishing in these conditions has got to be a challenge especially.

Yes, yes. You're right. Post 'em anyway. OK! First and last are from Hanoi, middle four from Morocco. Great people in both countries. So welcoming. So kind. Doing their best for themselves, their kids, their communities. Just heartwarming.

This was going to be a gallery of travel b&w images. So far, so good.

But, if there's one 'lesson' I've learned recently it's that viewers don't appreciate disjointed collections of images...they like to see cohesive portfolios based on a common theme. 

In fact, I recently submitted to an informal online contest. More of a 'submit what you like and I [the blog owner] will post what I feel worthy' situation, as I understood it. The rules were simple: B&W, up to 3 images. Got it.

Come to find out after that the site owner felt that actually submitting three images was indicative of a desperation to 'win' [whatever that meant in this case]. Huh? In fact, those who submitted only one image were deemed somehow more worthy.

Anyway, upon reflection and after recent experiences, I decided the images I'd chosen for this post didn't really tell a story. So, here's one image. Taken in Bangkok. Love travel photography. More later.

Nothing worse than feeling house-bound when you live is such a beautiful area. I guess the term is 'cabin fever', and with recent temperatures we sure are feeling it here. This is a new house to us, so husbanding it through minus F temps has been a learning process...When to use the wood stove, for instance, and the effect that has on pipes at the far end of the house, etc.

We did put in extra cord wood just before the cold snap [thanks to local woodman Ted!], and that has provided peace of mind. We also called up the propane company last Thursday to ensure we were still a customer [ha!].

The kind gal there offered to send the truck that day, a week early by her reckoning. The driver reported we would never have made it another week. So crisis averted, lesson learned, and happily we drift into a week of warmer weather. Whew.